Trail Log 1995-1997 - Lamar at Colorado State University

62
July 31. Monday.
11.00 met with divinity faculty, Prof. Pieter Coertzen, dean of theology.
4.00. first lecture
August 1, Tuesday.
lecture
August 2. Wednesday
lecture
evening: reception at Johan's home
August 3. Thursday
rainy day, and river walk cancelled.
August 4. Friday
odds and ends
August 5, Saturday. Drive to False Bay, Harold Porter Nature Reserve (tea and scones there), and
Hermanus. Rainy day all day, and cold, but still an interesting trip. Johan came at 8.30. We drove
south and through The Strand, resort town on False Bay, the bay east of Cape Town. Continued
driving around the coastline to Gordon's Bay and Pringle Bay, then out to see Hangklip and Cape
Hangklip. Johan does sea diving from here. Stopped for tea at Harold Porter Nature Reserve, at
Betty's Bay. There were baboons on the grounds. This is fynbos area. There are a good many
baboons in the area and there are several leopards that prey on them. We went to see a penguin
nesting colony, of jackass penguins, from their call like a donkey. A natural enemy is the cape fur
seal, in this area. There were also in the nesting area many cormorants: white-breasted and bank
cormorants. There started a very heavy rain while we were watching and we hastened back. The
penguins normally only nest on islands at sea south of here, but in the 1980's they started nesting
here. The area is fenced to keep people out, but you can walk to the edge of it. Also the fence is
to keep predators out to which they would not be exposed on islands, such as caracals, mongoose,
jackals. Once a leopard got into the nesting area and killed 80 penguins.
Continued to Hermanus, a resort town, walked around harbor briefly. We were on the lookout for
whales (southern right whales), which come to this area to calve, but saw none. It is a little early
for them. A woman at the Porter Gardens had seen one calving yesterday. It cleared some as we
drove back. We stopped and looked at a Protea in bloom, roadside; I brought a bit of flower in to
take it apart. It has a sort of a composite-like flower; each individual flower on a long stalk, with thin
floret with four anthers. We stopped at a spectacular overlook over False Bay at Sir Lowry's Pass,
an overlook that I recall from my 1990 trip here, then with Reinold Rau and his Quagga Project.
More rain on the way back and in the evening.
August 7, Sunday. Jane and I drove to Cape of Good Hope. Left with mostly cloudy weather,
though some blue patches. But it turned out a quite pretty day, though everywhere mostly cloudy.
The clouds were part of the scenery, rather like the Lake District in England.
Took R310 southwest to its intersection with N2, then N2 into Cape Town. Drove by numerous
squalid townships for the blacks. On into Cape Town and took M3, which runs in front of the