EXPERIENCE ON CAPE POINT NATURE
RESERVE
At the tip of the Cape Peninsula 60 km South West of
Cape Town lays Cape Point, a nature reserve within Table Mountain National Park
declared Natural World Heritage site. On the 23rd of September 2014
the whole of Life Science 151 ECP students were headed to the 7750 hectare of
rich flora and fauna. This was an exciting journey for me as it was a first
that I was going to the Cape Point Nature Reserve (CPNR), as I even made sure
that I am not late as I usually be during lectures. I enjoyed seeing different
beautiful places along the way but I did not think that the trip will take more
than 2 hours I even thought that the bus driver is driving slowly. We finally
reached our destination and the weather did not look promising as there were
possibilities of rain but even if so that would not have stopped us from
observing the nature on the reserve. Before we went off the bus we were told
that there are baboons in the reserve and that they can be dangerous if
provoked and this made to be scared but on the contrary I wanted to see the
baboons for experience.
Our first task was to walk up the strenuous hill to
the Light House; this took me about 10 minutes to reach the light house and
that I was thinking about the baboons also had an impact of me taking too long
to reach the desired destination. Along
the way I saw a couple of creatures namely: lizards, butterflies, birds and
some beautiful plants. The view from the light house was exceptionally
tremendous as I saw everything on that part of the reserve clearly and of
course the ocean. We then had to go to our next stop of which was the beach
(Diaz Beach) of which I can say it was my best destination we occupied on the
CPNR. While busy enjoying our trip we also had to answer questions as this was
a formal practical, this made me to not be too excited and forget the purpose
of trip. After answering some of the questions my friends and I did not
hesitate to hike to the top of the cliff of which was also not easy, surely I
lost some kilos on this trip. On the top of the cliff was the best moment ever
for me as it was about 2km high, though the wind was very strong this made us
to quickly go down after we also took a few pictures. I then went to the beach
with the expectation of seeing sea animals of which disappointingly I did not
see. I wished to take a short swim but I would not be able as the area was the
“Marine Protected Area”. We were then summoned to the buses for the next and
last stop at the Cape Point shops. 
From this stop we had a chance to answer some of the
questions and also observe some plants. I went to East from the shops where I
saw man-made dam of which sort of has drain. On my way back I saw a tortoise,
lizard and springbok waste of which showed there were springboks around the
area and then we were called by our practical organizers. This was the end of
our outing, I really enjoyed it and gained a lot of knowledge!!!!
