The Magnificent Seven

Nope, not the film. And not me and six of my mates either. But very possibly a new target (for when I have been to all 50 US states).

Of 400 botanical gardens worldwide, just 7 were selected to be in the "Magnificent Seven". Of those, I have been to three - Kew, Edinburgh & Kirstenbosch, here in Cape Town. Admittedly the Botanical Gardens of Peter the Great in Komerov, St Petersburg, Russia might prove bit of a challenge right now, but Sydney, New York and Missouri sound right up my strasse. For another day.

For now, I am in a coffee shop (where else?), reflecting on the beautiful 3-4 hours we spent in Kirstenbosch yesterday morning, in the sunshine, under the shadow of Table Mountain. Backdrops don't get much better than this!

Admittedly it isn't that warm, and we are steadfastly hanging on to our down jackets for now!

Well over 500 hectares, containing an amazing array of plants is a joy to wander in - and it even has coffee shops!

Remarkably the fynbos (pronounced fain-boss), from the Dutch fijn (fine) bosch (bush) has a diversity of species, unmatched anywhere else in the world. It is simply the vegetation growing on the mountains and coastal plains of South Western Africa. Over 7000 species occur in an area of only 41,000 sqkm. That might mean nothing until you compare the Cape to the only 5 other floral regions of the planet. On size alone the Cape region is tiny compared to all of the other "kingdoms".

And it contains a concentration of 94 different species per 1000 sqkm, compared to the nearest "competitor", Australia with just 14. Proteas are just one of the beautiful plants unique to this area. A King Protea, the national flower of South Africa.

Anyway, I think you get the point. This is an amazing place for floral diversity and many many of the species are unique to the area (roughly 80% of them). So Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens are, with my typical understatement, a very good place to spend a day! So we did. Just some of the beautiful specimens we came across on our walk:

Strelizia, Bird of Paradise or Crane Flower

Pincushion (I think)

As yet unnamed species

Did Elisa obey? Of course not!

Cute

A magnificent Yellowood Tree, South Africa's national tree.

I have hundreds more, but I will spare you those. Another fabulous day on the latest "trip of a lifetime". Not many days left but we are certainly making the most of them. The cloud came back to cover the top of Table Mountain yesterday so we didn't go up. So that is still to do, as well as Robben Island, District 6 ... Going to need holiday to get over this one.