Recently, as more people are becoming aware of the need, there has been an increase in the number of establishments that claim to be “Green” or environmentally conscious. This is fantastic and those that are making the effort deserve our support, but many others are making false claims, an example in this area would be for a an eco-lodge that is green due to being surrounded by a National Park, having a large(non- indigenous plant) garden as well as a nice view. To my mind this does not make for a green lodge as they are not really making an effort to be more environmentally aware and conscious.
So what are We doing that I can claim that we are an eco-lodge?
wind and solar power
To begin with, all our power is produced by us, we are completely off-grid and use a combined hybrid Wind Turbine-Solar combination to provide us with all our power needs. Our hot water is supplied using Solar geysers, although we do have gas geysers as a back up on days with insufficient sunlight. All our cleaning products are completely bio-degradable and are certified to break down within 6 days of being used. We supply all our own fire wood rather than driving to fetch it and by doing this we assist with the removal of non-indigenous trees. We encourage all our guests to assist us by re-cycling as well as separating of compost materials that we use in our tree planting and we are actively rehabilitating an old Pine plantation back into natural vegetation.
We also support a local nursery who supply us with all our trees that are planted here and all our Guests are given the choice as to whether or not they would like to plant trees to assist in reducing the amount of Carbon Dioxide produced by driving here. . The benefits to this is that we are able to ensure that all trees planted here are from this area as well as not having to have them delivered from further afield as well as creating more awareness about potential climate change.
All of this, I feel allows us to call ourselves green and, hopefully, to improve the area in the long term.
Another of the Winter highlights of the Garden is the annual migration of the Half-collared Kingfishers from the sub tropical Wild Coast to our more temperate area. These large, magnificent Kingfishers are usually found on quiet rivers with entangled, over hanging vegetation from which they plunge dive for their prey. They are much larger than the similar Malachite Kingfisher and are separated by the black, not red, beak as well as more white on the breast. This bird was one of my “bogey’s” for many years. I would travel to sites where it was “guaranteed”, but I never found it where it was supposed to be. I did eventually track it down and since then, the drought being broken, have seen it regularly.
Malachite Kingfisher
The various back water’s along the Garden Route are ideal habitat and I set out early last Saturday morning to canoe the Wolwe River in search of the Kingfishers in order to see if they where back yet. This river is the western tributary of Swartvlei estuary, named for the Brown Hyena that used to occur here, and large areas of mudflats are bisected by a narrow channel that threads between overhanging trees, ideal habitat.
Wolwe River Mudflats
Canoeing this backwater we did see this glorious bird, as well as Malachite, Giant and Pied Kingfishers. Other specials were African Black Duck, Glossy Ibis, African Fish Eagle and a true special of a White-backed Night Heron.This secretive bird is very difficult to see all along its range especially due to its nocturnal habits and the juvenile that we saw was tucked safely, sleeping in a collapsed tree. This is only the second time I have seen this bird and am planning a return to the spot soon to try and get a photograph.
Wolwe River
Orion is slowly sinking into the West and as Scorpio begins to rise you can feel that Winter has started to make its’ mark.
For me, one of the first signs of change is the high pitched call of the Malachite Sunbird. These magnificent birds are normally found much higher up, in the mountain ranges that parallel the coast. When the cold starts to be felt they descend onto the warmer coastal flats and target the Winter flowering succulents such as the Aloes and Pig’s Ear(Cotyledon orbiculta), another favourite is the bright orange Wild Dagga flowers that are filled with nectar.
A pair of Brown-backed Honeybird’s have also been seen a couple of times and it would be fantastic if these uncommon birds become resident at Reflections. While mentioning honey I should add that our 2 bee hives where both raided by a now resident Honey Badger. I am so excited that this incredible animal has graced us with its presence and hopefully it too will stay(although I will have to re-reinforce my hives).
Our pair of Fish Eagles have begun their mating so we will be watching carefully for further progress and the mating display flights of the pairs of African Marsh Harriers are being heard throughout the day. Grass-birds are being heard regularly in the mornings at the moment as well, and these are new birds for us since we removed the Pine trees. They like rank grass tufts and fynbos and for me they are indicative of our maturing eco-system and restored habitat.
The Brown-hooded Kingfisher trail is one of my favourite walking and birding trails in the area and it gives consistently good forest birds but I was very pleasantly surprised when walking there yesterday with sightings of both a Black Stork as well as a Black Harrier. Both of these are uncommon in this area and yet I saw them both flying together, another example of unpredictable nature.
We recently had the pleasure of hosting Roddy and Rachel Bray here at Reflections. They are busy with an amazing project that has had them travelling between Cape Town and Kenya recording audio guided experiences with local specialists. They have an incredibly diverse group of people involved: covering the big cats of the Masai Mara to the various colonial wars in Africa. I would encourage everyone with an interest in the continent to visit their site www.greatguides.org and read my feature here. I contributed with an audio recording for the Garden Route. It is a great way for those planning a visit to experience the area and for local residents to learn something new.
Click the player below to listen:
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We began a system a short while ago where we invited guests who have stayed with us at Reflections to assist with the planting of trees. The reason behind this was two-fold.The first was that it allows people to contribute towards improving the bio-diversity on the property and the second is that it will encourage people to be aware of the effect’s of the carbon di-oxide generated by travelling here.
We found an empowerment nursery in Sedgefield that grows the types of trees we needed and they agreed to supply us with our trees.The response so far has been amazing and we have just passed the 1000 tree planted. Our most recent donation was from previous guests who, when they arrived home, sent us an amount for 29 trees.
Tarchonanthus littoralis
When you consider that 1 tree fixes 2500kg carbon dioxide from 18 million cubic metres of air and supplies 1 person with clean air for 20 years, this is an easy way for everyone to help. Each tree in its lifetime will also provide shade, food and a habitat for countless smaller creatures.
Spring has, once again, been spectacular. Mass displays of pale yellow wild Iris’s, pink Daisies, yellow Bietou and golden Ursinia. One that I always wait for with great anticipation is the flowering of the Orchid’s. We get a couple of different species such as Disa, Satyrium and Bonatea.
Satyrium ligulatum
These complex flowers have developed some of natures most remarkable adaptions for pollination, including the mimicking of a female wasp’s pheromones that will cause a male wasp to attempt to mate with the flower. It then picks up pollen that is transported to another orchid.
Disa bracteata
One species even attaches its pollen to the tongue of Sun-bird’s.
Frost in the mornings glistening in the sun
Aloe flowers like tongues of flame lighting up the bush
Sunbirds dashing from one flower to the next like iridescent jewels
Woodsmoke in the evenings from bonfires
And spectacular sunrises that slowly banish the mist from the water
What a fantastic time of year along the Garden Route
The benefits of our rehabilitation are really starting to become apparent and one of the things we have noticed is an increase in insect diversity. When we began this project we saw few insects. We would see the big bumbling Carpenter Bees as they moved around the Keurboom trees, we would see Mosquitoes and we would see the odd Rain Spider.
Each year there has been an increase in diversity that includes plants and insects and I was reminded of this while on a walk a few days ago when I encountered a Garden Orb spider. These beautifully marked spiders should be common but this is the first one we have seen at Reflections. These spiders have always been a favourite of mine and is always a great subject for conversation on my walks.
Garden Orb female
The web they spin can be in excess of 6 feet across and has a beautiful golden sheen to it. It is one of the thickest and strongest of all spider webs. One of the more noticeable features is the zig-zagging white stabilimentum in the centre. This adds elasticity as well as possibly acting as a visual cue for birds so that they can avoid flying into it.
The female spider would have arrived first and the much smaller male would have arrived later after following a scent trail of pheromones. He avoids her by staying in corner out of here way and will only mate with her while she is occupied with feeding.
Garden Orb male
Mercury spider
The large Orb spiders often catch small flying insects that they don’t bother with but these are used by a smaller, parasitic spider that ” borrows” the web. It is called a Mercury spider because it looks just like a small silver dot of Mercury.
We have just had new pictures taken of the houses and the results are fantastic. I think they do far more justice to what we have. More photographs may be viewed on the Accommodation page.
House Interior
White Dune Freesia
For many people travelling up the South East coast of South Africa the name Garden Route” is a misnomer as there is no garden and the floral diversity does not compete with other parts of the country. In part this is correct as large areas of floral extravagance have been swallowed up in a wave of out competing alien vegetation, Hakea, Pine and Wattle.
Our property has been clear of Pine now for almost 2 years and the natural rehabilitation is ongoing and marvelous. Each season new highlights emerge and slowly we are seeing a recovering ecosystem.
There are at the moment 2 flowers that I find remarkable . One in particular has always been a favourite of mine as they seem to typify Spring and this is the Freesias. The one that occurs here is Freesia leichtlinii and is a white form. It is a beautiful, delicate low growing plant with a very strong sweet scent and is one of the Freesias used to create the popular hybrid that is now found world wide.
- Water Holly
- Ixia orientalis
Riversdale Bluebell
The other plant that is flowering is a shrub or bushy tree called the Blue kuni-bush or Rhus glauca. It has flowers that are completely different but no less noticeable, also because of their scent. The flower is a tiny yellow-green flower that is bunched en-masse on the end of the branchlets.
What strikes me with both these flowers is not what they look like, but what they smell like. All plants, being inanimate, must find ways to pollinate each other and have developed a number of fascinating strategies to do this. The most common technique though, is to recruit insects or birds to do the work for you. Birds, like mammals, have a poorly developed sense of smell but well developed eyesight, so that bird pollinated plants tend to be large, bright,often red and they don’t waste energy producing a scent. On the other extreme, insects have a phenomenal sense of smell and are less interested in colour or in the colour spectrum that is visible to us.
The two different plants mentioned, the Rhus and the Freesia are both pollinated by insects and so both have a strong scent, but the similarity stops here.The Freesia has a sweetly scented flower that attracts insects lured by the promise of sweet nectar and in the process pick up pollen and the Rhus has a very strong smell of yeast and fermentation and it uses this to attract flies for its pollination
