Betty's Bay and the Kogelberg

The Harold Porter National Botanical Garden Sits At The Foot Of The Kogelberg, Which By Species Count Is The Richest Patch Of Fynbos On Earth And The Core Of A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve With Waterfalls And Kloofs Behind The Garden, An African Penguin Colony On The Rocks At Stony Point, And One Of The Great Coast Roads Running Past The Gate · Betty's Bay, Western Cape

The Kogelberg, behind the coast road an hour and a half east of Cape Town, is by species count the richest patch of fynbos on earth - something like fifteen hundred plant species in a few hundred square kilometres, a great many of them endemic, which is why it is the core of a UNESCO biosphere reserve. At its foot in Betty's Bay is the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden, which runs from the beach up into two kloofs with waterfalls in them, and which exists specifically to grow the coastal fynbos of this stretch of coast. A few kilometres along the shore at Stony Point is an African penguin colony you can walk a boardwalk through - a separate entrance and fee, which the row says because people conflate the two. Getting here is half the pleasure: the R44 between Gordon's Bay and Kleinmond is cut into the cliff above False Bay and is one of the great coast roads anywhere in the world, and half the pleasure of coming.

On the R44 coast road 90 km east of Cape Town, between Gordon's Bay and Kleinmond, Betty's Bay, Western Cape, South Africa

The Harold Porter National Botanical Garden keeps daylight hours daily with a SANBI entry fee, a tea room and a shop, and the Disa and Leopard kloofs behind it are reached on trails from inside the garden - THE LEOPARD KLOOF TRAIL NEEDS A PERMIT FROM THE GARDEN OFFICE and the gate into it closes early in the afternoon. THE STONY POINT PENGUIN COLONY IS A SEPARATE ENTRANCE AND FEE a few kilometres along the shore, with its own daylight hours and boardwalk. KOGELBERG WILDERNESS ACCESS NEEDS A CAPENATURE PERMIT arranged ahead and numbers are limited, which is why the fynbos there is in the condition it is. The R44 coast road is open ground and spectacular. Betty's Bay and Kleinmond have guesthouses and shops. It is ninety kilometres from Cape Town and MALARIA-FREE.

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