The Fynbos Road
Flora
None of the plant-books that have been written about the Southern Overberg have been able to tackle the magnitude of the floral abundance in the area with an estimated amount of species of close to 3000. Of the typical fynbos-families-families, the proteas and the ericas (heath) are already each represented with more than 50 species in the area bordering the Fynbos Road. New species have recently been discovered, such as the Grootbos-erica on Grootbos and more species, previously undescribed, will still be found.

Hiking through the field, you will suddenly find yourself surrounded by a different vegetation type and the large pink protea you saw a few metres back is suddenly replaced by a deep-red protea. Rocky and infertile mountain slopes can explode with thousands of white flowers, conveniently already fully dry when in full bloom to cope with the semi-desert situation of the dry slopes. The dry flowers will last forever in a vase with no water and are for this reason called "everlastings".

Two fynbos vegetation types are endemic to the area around the Fynbos Road. "Limestone fynbos" and "elim fynbos" have numerous species that are specific for these vegetation types and occur nowhere else in the world. As a consequence remarkable botanical hotspots with some of the rarest plants on earth can be found along the Fynbos Road. The protea pudens only grows in the small Geelkop reserve next to the village of Elim; with a few thousand species, the spatalla ericoides is confined to 3 finding places and small populations of the leucadendron elimense subspecies elimense can be found in a small number of small patches between Gansbaai and Elim. Off Pearly Beach there is one farm that is the exclusive home of 6 species; arguably the place in the world with the highest amount of ultra-localised species.

Where several fynbos species had to adapt to a semi-dessert situation on dry slopes, the lowlands and plains have (especially in winter) to deal with an enormous amount of water. Most of the small wetlands in the areas are "pans" (shallow lakes) and as such not recognisable by the uneducated naked eye as water-bodies since they are overgrown with reeds. The larger wetlands, such as the Soetendalsvlei, however provide for a magnificent picture of flat gold-blue water, covered with birds. Specific plants grow on the fringes of these wetlands and as stream bed vegetation and provide shelter to many endemic and rare frog species.

The Strandveld and the Agulhas Plains still sustain various Milkwood-forests, some of which go back hundreds of years and still cover large areas, such as the milkwood-forest on Grootbos. Several ancient free-standing milkwoods in the plains were used as navigation beacons by the early residents and were given names, some of which have survived till today. Not noticeable for people driving on the Fynbos Road are the indigenous riverine forests hidden in deep gorges in between the mountains. Especially the lower parts of these gorge forests have suffered in the past as a result of logging. Trees such as the real stinkwood were targeted for their valuable wood and are rare today. Cape beech, Assegaai, Red Alder, African Holly are still abundant. Some of these trees are hundreds of years old and too big for two adult men to embrace with both their arms. Especially on the road from Grootbos to Uilenes, there are remnants of Afromontane forests in deep sands on southern slopes. Morning fog helps these forests, dominated by hard pear and white stinkwood, to survive the summer. These Knysna-type forest patches are what has survived of colder days when the whole of the Cape was covered with forest. Having said so, the largest remnant, Platbos, appears to be expanding.

For guests interested to see the fynbos-fields and -slopes, flowering peaks in autumn and spring. At all times throughout the year, there are however always species that flower and fynbos is an attraction for 365 days of the year.