Plants all around…

Today has been a day of hard work and new things learnt, I spent the day seeing what the reforestation project is like that Edge of Africa have for volunteers, I was with an awesome guy, one of the Rastafarian’s there community is very close to the trail. The trail I am referring to is an area of fynbos and woodland surrounded by township areas, it provides a lovely natural environment. They have been working in the area to create a nice walk for people, however it is overgrown with tree’s which do not originate in south Africa, common to us pine tree’s and another type of eucalyptus called black wattle originating from Australia. Fynbos is such an amazing array of plant species hear in South Africa it is extremely important that this is not lost therefore the removal of the alien invasive which take so much of the moisture from the soil to which other plants cannot compete is extremely important for allowing fynbos to regenerate and take over the trail once again. It was very strange to be chopping down pine when normally I am helping to grow Scots pine and plant it, but it was great to help with such an important place. A lot more needs to be done to increase the community’s involvement with the trail, the more people they can get the sooner the trail will have few of these alien plants. The important thing is educating the school about and therefore children can pass it on to parents and then this may allow for an increased involvement of local people. It’s a long term project that requires a lot of work but it’s something I have really enjoyed for the day. I will also have a day there tomorrow. Tonight I have been planning the last part of this amazing adventure…my trip to Cape Town, which will involve a bus trip stopping of at 2 places before finally reaching Cape