Year in the Wild Blog

Cape Times Newspaper Column – July 2011 – West Coast National Park

My first column for the Cape Times, on the West Coast National Park, published in July 2011. (1MB size) Also check out the online version on the Cape Times/IOL website.

Awesome photo of Langebaan Lagoon…

I wish I could claim to have taken this photograph, but alas, I was given it by Pierre Nel, senior section ranger at West Coast National Park. The lagoon, seen from this view is so impressive, don't you think?

But it also illustrates how small - actually - this sensitive ecosystem is.  When you're IN the park, on the ground, it seems so BIG and expansive, but in reality it's not. It's like that for most of our conserved areas in Africa.

It reminds me of a chat I had with Dick Pitman, one
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Trip to Malgas Island – West Coast National Park

I need to give marine ranger William Brink and field rangers Debbie Winterton and Andile Manana an extra mention...

They took me out yesterday on the SANParks law enforcement rubber duck to Malgas Island to see the Cape Gannets. Even though its not peak season for the birds, there must have been several thousand on the small island, which is probably about the size of two rugby fields. Malgas is a very important part of the Gannet's survival, as more than 60 000 birds breed here every year,
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Shortest day of the year…the start of summer!

What a way to spend the shortest day of the year! The West Coast National Park, just an hour's drive north of Cape Town was drenched in sunlight all day. I woke up at a cottage in Churchhaven on the lagoon, had a (cold!) swim at sunrise (about 8am), then spent the day taking photos of the park and avoiding all the tortoises (they're everywhere!), then had a swim at sunset (about 5:30pm) in the Atlantic Ocean on the eastern shores of the lagoon's peninsula.

The central focus of the park is
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