The Cape Fold belt is a mountain range that hugs the southern tip of Africa. it is the most biodiverse place in the world, squeezing 20% of Africa's flora into 0.5% of it's land mass. as of 2018 it had never been traversed in its entirety. So I set out to change that, and in the process learn as much as I could about my backyard. the route was 1 136km with 46 000m of elevation, largely off trail and self navigated. This project was a catalyst that generated a deep love for south africa's landscape and a desire to explore, document and protect it at length.
This project was the foundation that motivated collaboration in:
'the privilege of movement' to open biodiversity corridors and save the last remaining elephant in the knysna forest;
'addo2fish' to create a mega reserve, prevent rhino poaching, and regenerate indigenous albany thicket biomes;
And 'run west' to stop illegal mining on south africa's west coast.
all of these lie in the cape floristic region which covers the cape fold belt.
images by simon pocock
