My discovery at the Cape Point Nature Reserve

Tuesday, the 23rd of September 2014, Group 1 and 2 of the Life Science 151 course went on an excursion to the Cape Point Nature Reserve. At 8:30 am, we met our lecturer in the Life Science Auditorium for a brief period to warn us about the dangers of certain animals and handed out the practical that we had to complete at the reserve. We left campus at 9:00 am and reached the reserve at 11:30 am.

The Lighthouse:

 The first place/area we were taken to was the lighthouse.  In order to view the lighthouse, we had to walk up a series of stairs.

 

 Figure 1: The view of the Lighthouse from the shop.             

Figure 2: The shops and the toilets

At the lighthouse, I observed the amount of vegetation and the ocean shores of the nature reserve. The lighthouse area was quiet busy with tourists that were touring the area. The first Lighthouse was built too high therefore the ships could not see the light beams of the lighthouse, since they were above the clouds. Due to this, a second lighthouse was built a bit lower in order for the ships to see the light beams and therefore the first lighthouse was now made a tourist attraction. We were only given 30 minutes to walk up the stairway, fill in the answers to our practical, take pictures and then return to the bus.

The Marine Protected Area (MPA):

 Our next destination was the Marine Protected Area (MPA). This area was located at the see shore where it strictly prohibits anyone from swimming or fishing in order to protect the marine organisms that lived there. We only had from 12:30 pm until 13:30 pm to take pictures, climb the mini mountain and fill out the necessary questions that needed to be answered.

Above are pictures taken at CPNR.

 The Visitor’s centre/ Buffel’s Fontein: Once we were done viewing both The Lighthouse and the MPA area, we returned to the visitor’s centre where we filled out the rest of our practical and enjoyed our lunch. The visitor’s centre had tables and benches to sit on and complete our practical, a café and a small museum displaying the animals that lived in the area many years ago and images of the different monuments located in the reserve.