Brilliantly coloured wildflowers, a king protea with a blossom the size of a dinner plate and spectacular views across Eastern Cape all the way to the Indian Ocean make for a great outdoor adventure while hiking Grahamstown’s Rietberge fynbos.

Grahamstown is surrounded by steep-sloped kloofs (ravines) and dry, rocky hills – the Rietberge – covered with fynbos, which in the Afrikaans language means “scrubland having no trees with thick trunks.” Fynbos is considered a distinct botanical biome and occurs only in a narrow belt at Africa’s southern tip. It’s a vegetation type characterized by extremely high plant diversity and the presence of numerous evergreen shrubs, particularly heaths and proteas, many of which grow nowhere else. Fynbos vegetation is adapted to nutrient-poor soils and frequent fires. (Tap on photos to enlarge.)

Recently,Vilis and I hiked a seventeen-kilometre loop from our apartment on campus at Rhodes University to Signal Hill in Grahamstown’s Southern Commonage (municipally owned land) and then home again. Much of the time, we walked paths and a road that passed through low-growing fynbos.

On distant hillsides, the fynbos looked like it would easy to walk through, but up close, it was densely tangled, hummocky and rocky. When we ventured off the road, our ankles and knees received a good workout. However, our reward was brilliantly coloured wildflowers, a king protea with a blossom the size of a dinner plate (South Africa’s national flower), and spectacular views across Eastern Cape all the way to the Indian Ocean. Hiking Grahamstown’s Rietberge fynbos is an excellent outing!