Trying to explore the lower Cascades area (Thursday 17 October 2019)

On a previous visit to the lower Cascades area we had decided to explore the gorge further to see if we could find our way down to the confluence with the Umtamvuna River. As the day was likely to be hot, this seemed to be the right opportunity. Instead of heading to our normal parking area just inside the Western Heights, instead we took the usual route to Foster's Folly and headed down the firebreak along the fence towards the stream.

In this firebreak we saw Buchnera dura, Berkheya rhapontica, Crassula vaginata, Helichrysum griseum and H. spiralepis, and in an adjacent, unburned section there were several Watsonia inclinata. 

Buchnera dura

Berkheya rhapontica

Crassula vaginata

Helichrysum griseum

Helichrysum spiralepis

Watsonia inclinata

Before we reached the stream we also found Lotononis bachmanniana, Leobordea pulchra and both male and female plants of Leucadendron spissifolium subsp oribinum.

Leobordea pulchra

Leucadendron spissifolium subsp oribinum (m)

Leucadendron spissifolium subsp oribinum (f)

Lotononis bachmanniana

In the damp grassland on the stream banks we found Drosera natalensis, Utricularia prehensilis, Utricularia sandersonii, and Senecio glanduloso-lanosus. We crossed the stream before it entered the gorge and scrambled up over a hillock to avoid the barrier posed by the pool we had swum in previously. Then we made our way down the steep slope back into the gorge and proceeded along the stream bed. In the streambed and on the adjacent banks and cliffs we saw Struthiola pondoensis and Pterocelastrus echinatus and hanging precariously over the edge of the cliff was a a large tuber of a Petopentia natalensis, its flowering stalks hanging down to eye level.

Drosera natalensis

Senecio glanduloso-lanosus

The tuber of a Petopentia natalensis dangling over the edge of the cliff

Pterocelastrus echinatus

Struthiola pondoensis

Utricularia prehensilis

Utricularia sandersonii

 Feeling that we were walking where few others had walked, we scrambled, hopped and slid down the rocky streambed, past clear pools to finally reach the point where we had stopped on our last visit here. A few of us managed to reach the bottom pool and then along the boulder-strewn bed to the next, taller cascade. From here it was evident that a lot more work would be required to find a way down to the Umtamvuna River. 

As we entered the bottom pool we started hearing excited barking and soon we found ourselves in the midst of a group of about seven hunting dogs although there was no sign of their hunters. Their unwelcome presence in the reserve was reported to the reserve management.

Making our way down the gorge (Photo: Gail B-W)

Heading down the gorge

Some of this required quite a scramble

But ultimately, the water proved to be irresistible (Photo; Gail B-W)

We enjoyed cooling off in several of the pools while having our lunch before eventually wending our way back to the vehicles. We were interested to see a single Polystachya pubescens growing in a small hollow of a branch of a Neocussonia (Schefflera) umbellata, overhanging but about 6 m above the stream.

A Polystachya pubescens in a safe hollow high above the water

Just before the final slog up out of the gorge

Participants: Alf H, Anne S, Dorothy M, Gail B-W, Graham G, Kate G, Mark G, Tracy T.