I was supposed to spend a few weeks at Kogelberg Nature Reserve in December, but will only get there in July, once the reserve's new accommodation is ready. I can't wait, because the Kogelberg is one of the world's most famous nature reserves. Here's why: it hosts the greatest diversity of plant species per hectare on earth. Of course, it's almost impossible to prove this emphatically, but the general assertion remains true.

This small mountainous valley near Cape Hangklip, about an hour's drive south east of Cape Town, hosts close to 1700 species of plants on just 18 000 hectares of conserved land, and about 150 of these species are found nowhere else on earth. The Amazon rainforests hosts way more species in total of course, but over a much larger area. So Kogelberg packs a big punch for such a small area.

I was there over the past weekend, and although the spectacular fynbos is the star of the show at Kogelberg, the nearby coastline is also special. I took a few photographs as an unseasonal cold front moved over the area.

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