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You may recall a previous post (“Once was famous” – May 2nd 2011) in which I spoke about the tremendous variety of colour forms seen in Protea repens flowers. On this walk we saw a colour variety that I have never seen before. The bracts are white but the stamens & anthers are red. The contrast is extremely beautiful.

While descending the western side of the pass we saw this beautiful Lachenalia. The genus Lachenalia consists of bulbs that are endemic to Namibia and South Africa.

The highlight though, was finding this extremely fresh leopard track. In fact we followed the tracks for 2 km along the trail toward Krakadouw Cottages where Pierre Louw had lost a calf to this leopard just 3 days earlier. The Leopards of the Cederberg are much smaller than their counterparts further north and are extremely rare. Quinton Maartens has been doing some excellent research and conservation work with the leopards of the Western Cape and you can find out more about his work at www.capeleopard.org.za