MS Touring

10/06/2025

South Africa has some fascinating geological history (if you’re into that kind of thing!), and we have many excellent geological sites showing us a glimpse back into some of the earliest parts of the earth’s history, with 4 of the 5 oldest mountain ranges on earth.
Just about everywhere you visit in South Africa, you can look down, or up if you’re at the right place, and with a little bit of knowledge, decipher what you see.
In and around Johannesburg, in many gardens and landscape centres, you will find a rock colloquially known as “Pelindaba Rock”, named after the area in which it is commonly found on the surface, and popular in gardens and water features due to its inexhaustibly unique formations. However, taking an easy walk into the outskirts of greater Johannesburg, and parts of Pretoria, you can find these rocks roaming wild in their natural environment.
Now, geology as a subject tends to bore many people, and often when people are interested in it, and try and do some reading to expand their knowledge, they get put off by all the technical terms which don’t appear to make sense to anyone that speaks any normal language. South Africa’s geological terms are no different, and tend to be quite voluminous due to the vastness of the material available, however, geology as a subject is very similar to most rocks, easier to work with when broken down into smaller chunks!
To understand and appreciate these rocks, a few points need to be clear;
Pelindaba rock is made of dolomite and chert, found in bands of varying thicknesses, colours and patterns.
Dolomite is a sedimentary rock primarily composed of calcium magnesium carbonate (like limestone, which is only calcium carbonate). Sedimentary rocks are composed of sediments that metamorphosised into rock under the influence of heat and pressure over time, so a sediment – silt, or dust – suspended in a fluid – normally water – which settled to form a layer, which then changed into rock. One of the other main type of rocks are igneous rocks, which are formed through the cooling and solidification of volcanic lavas.
Chert is a type of hard, dense, fine-grained sedimentary rock primarily composed of silica, primarily microcrystalline quartz and chalcedony (both of which are products of erosion of other rocks).
In our environment, dolomite was formed in what was then called the Malmani Sea, when cyanobacteria, through the actions of photosynthesis, would take in carbon dioxide, combine it with calcium in the water to produce calcium carbonate, and as a by product give off oxygen. Some of these bacteria formed hard colonies – effectively the earths first coral reefs – which also had a slimy outer layer. During periods of rainfall, and bear in mind that the surface of the earth at this point had no plants to anchor the soil during violent storms, significant erosion took place, washing finer materials into the sea. These microparticles then settled on the slimy layers in varying thicknesses. This is where our chert layers come from.
During drier seasons, these bacterial colonies would grow through the sediment layer to reach sunlight again, and when it rained again, more silt would wash down. This explains why there are layers of dolomite and chert, and the varying thicknesses would be dependent on the length of the wetter and drier periods. As millennia passed, climates changed, continents moved and the sea filled up with sediments and dried out. What we see in these rocks are essentially fossilised bacterial colonies and mud.
As these colonies removed carbon dioxide from the water, they also changed the chemistry of the water, making it less acidic, allowing minerals like magnesium to precipitate out of the water column, where it bonded with the calcium carbonate in the colonies, to make calcium-magnesium carbonate – dolomite.
Essentially these bacteria are what changed the entire atmosphere of the planet, to enable life as we know it today, where just about every living organism requires oxygen to survive.
If you read any geological texts or papers, you might think to yourself that they make little sense, with their references to supergroups, groups, subgroups, formations, reefs and whatnot, however when you think of them as a physical address of where something lies in relation to something else they start to make a little more sense.
So, where you would have a house number, street, suburb, town, and country for a property, you have a formation, subgroup, group and supergroup for rocks, and generally speaking the oldest formations are the deepest from the surface, with the younger formations closer to the surface… except where you get faulting, upliftments, unconformities and other examples, where geology from deep down, has been turned for some reason, and brought closer to the surface.
Although these rocks, officially known as Malmani Dolimite were laid down relatively deeply within the Transvaal Supergroup around 2 and a half billion years ago, two actions resulted in them coming up to the surface in a roughly 10km wide belt in an east-west curve to the north of Johannesburg and southern parts of Pretoria, namely the upliftment of the Johannesburg Dome, a prominent granite structure roughly 70km in diameter, to the south of the Transvaal Supergroup resulting in the southern layers moving towards the surface, and the later intrusion of the Bushveld Igneous Complex to the north around 2 billion years ago, caused by significant volcanic activity and a massive weight of lava which came to the surface in a layer up to 9000m thick in places, the weight of which collapsed the underlying earth’s crust causing the northern part of the Transvaal Supergroup to dip, and further increase of the see-saw effect of the Transvaal Supergroup layers in the south.
The softer dolomites, now exposed to surface elements weathered faster than other rock types, creating many karsts, sinkholes, and cave systems within this belt. This is also where we find the Cradle of Humankind, which has to date provided aver 60% of the hominid fossils on earth, as well as a trove of fossils of other prehistoric species, enabling us to start building the puzzle of how life in this region has evolved.

23/03/2025

Friday 21 March 2025 saw us taking a guest to Rietvlei Nature Reserve southeast of Pretoria. Rietvlei has been a conservation area since 1929, and covers around 4000ha of Bankenveld grassland and wetland areas, as well as surrounding the Rietvlei Dam, which provides water to the city of Pretoria.
We arrived just before 07h00, to an early Autumn misty morning, making visibility a bit challenging with light not great for taking pictures, however by 09h00 this had burned off and although it remained partially overcast, it was a warm day.
Birding was the primary activity for the day, and we managed to finish off with around 70 species, of which a good 2/3 were new for our guest.

09/03/2025

We had another outing to Pilanesberg Game Reserve yesterday, 08 March 2025.
The park has recently seen torrential and widespread rainfall, as a result grass and bush are very thick, and with the abundance of water, wildlife is widely disbursed. Despite these challenges we had excellent sightings although only a fairly low bird count of 44 species for the day.
There is a huge variety of butterfly species present now, and we saw a few new species we had not seen in the park before.

17/02/2025

A trip report from a few days back, up to Pilanesberg Game Reserve. Although overcast with scattered downpours, it was a good day in general with plenty of animals and bird species, as well as a good variety of insect life about. A lot of young animals recently born, though sometimes hard to spot in the thick bush and long grass, were all lively with the respite from the heat.

11/02/2025

07 February 2025 marked the centenary of the paper authored by Professor Raymond Dart on the description of the fossil skull of what was to be named The Taung Child.
He identified the fossil as belonging to a new hominin species, Australopithecus africanus, later to be dated at around 2.1 million years of age, and the first hominin fossil found in Africa. The fossil was estimated to have belonged to a young specimen, aged 4-5 years, and had evidence of strange gouging in the eye sockets and along the head, which in 2006 were determined to have been produced by the talons of a large eagle, like the Verreaux’s Eagle – when the remains of primate prey of this species are examined today, almost identical marks are frequently found! The international community at the time rebuffed his ideas, as he was not part of the “scientific establishment”, and they were looking outside of Africa for human origins, however he was later vindicated when further hominid fossils were discovered elsewhere in Africa.
The fossil was discovered accidentally by quarry workers blasting limestone near Taung in what is now Northwest Province, roughly a year before Dart published his paper. It was to be the first of many exciting hominid discoveries in South Africa over the next 90 years…
Dart was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist who came to South Africa from England in the early 1920’s, as professor of anatomy at the newly created department of the same name, at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Although hominid and early Homo sapiens sites are dotted across South Africa (some of the more important ones of which we cover on our geological tours), the most important site in South Africa, and indeed in the world, is the Cradle of Humankind, where Dart spent a significant portion of his career working on more Australopithecus fossils.
The cradle area covers around 47 000 hectares, and to date has produced over 65% of all hominid fossils found on earth.
After the Taung fossil, Dart identified a number of skull fragments from Kromdraai Cave in the Cradle area, which belonged to another species, Paranthropus robustus (living between 2 and 1 million years ago). Another Australopithecus africanus skull was found at Sterkfontein Cave in 1947.
In 1954, the oldest evidence of controlled use of fire, by Homo erectus, was discovered in Swarkrans Cave. Swartkrans has also produced fossils of Paranthropus robustus, Homo ergaster, and Homo habilis.
From the 1960’s onwards it was presumed that no further fossils were found in the area, and it was presumed that there was nothing else to find, until the early 1990’s when Prof Lee Berger discovered new hominid fossils at Gladysvale Cave, with Andre Keyser finding more at the Drimolen site. In 1997, two hominid teeth were found at Gondolin site, and shortly thereafter the most complete A. africanus skeleton was found at Sterkfontein.
Early Homo sapien remains were found at Plover’s Lake in 2001, as well as hominid fossils and stone tools at Cooper’s Cave.
In 2008, Lee Berger discovered a new species, Australopithecus sediba, at Malapa excavation site, the first new species discovered in decades. They lived between 1.95 and 1.78 million years ago. At the time of the discovery, two partial skeletons were found, however since then at least three more individuals from this species have been discovered and are being excavated.
In 2013, Berger and team started investigating a previously unexplored cave system within the Rising Star Caves, and discovered a trove of fossils belonging to yet another new species, this time Homo naledi. This species lived between 330 and 230 thousand years ago, and to date almost 2000 fossil pieces of more than 30 individuals have been excavated, ranging in age from infants to aged adults.
The dolomitic cave systems within this area are numerous, and many of them have yet to be properly explored, many of them have only been very marginally excavated, and there may yet be more caves that have never opened to the surface. One can only hope, as there are surely many more significant and exciting species to be discovered, answering the age old question of “Where do we come from?”

06/02/2025

2nd February 2025 was World Wetlands Day

We headed out to visit Marievale Bird Sanctuary and do a bit of wetland birding and see what changes the recent rains had brought.
Marievale is an artificial wetland, roughly 15km2 in area, situated on the southern part of the Blesbokspruit, one of Gauteng’s major perennial rivers, and a tributary of the Vaal River, the country’s second largest river by length.
Water levels are largely artificially maintained through the release of mining and municipal effluents, however a significant amount of urban precipitation runoff feeds through the wetland as well, and during periods of heavy rainfall the area becomes quite flooded. When the water depth is too high, the mudflats required by wading birds disappear, meaning that best visiting times can be quite seasonal.
The wetland is designated as an Important Bird Area, as well as a RAMSAR site (the only one in Gauteng Province), and provides feeding and breeding habitats for nearly 250 bird species, as well as many small mammals.
Marievale is one of the few remaining high-altitude wetlands protected in South Africa and is also the largest permanent wetland in the Highveld grasslands. Increased effluent discharge means that the water quality is generally poor, polluted with high levels of nitrates and phosphates, which in turn increases the growth and spread of emergent vegetation, which, without active management tends to take over the surface water and makes the ponds less suitable for many bird species.
Wetlands are important parts of the landscape, performing many functions, such as water storage, flood attenuation, water purification, wastewater treatment (in man-made wetlands), recreation and tourism and as important reservoirs of biodiversity.
Many wetlands comprise several different vegetation types, over and above their base riparian zones, and due to the expense of engineering them suitable for construction etc have ended up forming nature preserves, often close to, or surrounded by man-made environments.
Wetlands have essential roles to play in our environment, but many wetlands are under severe stress from human activities such as water pollution (chemicals, and improperly treated sewerage), garbage from illegal dumping, being filled in, in order to make them suitable for construction, water-stress as a result of drought, water abstraction upstream etc and invasive species of both plants and animals. It is imperative that we protect these areas to increase the supply and quality of our water, prevent damage to our own environment from severe storm events occurring secondary to climate change and to prevent extinction of species that depend on this habitat to breed, feed and live.
Although the two weeks of intense heat after almost a month of rain has left everything a bit parched, and the water levels were very low, we still managed an impressive 71 bird species for the day, including 10 herons and egrets, 12 ducks and geese, and numerous other waders and grassland species, as well as plants and insects.

15/01/2025

A recent walk through the Highveld grasslands in the Cradle of Humankind with Richard Gill, although raining quite a bit, making everything very wet, was quite successful as far as arthropods and flowers go.
Situated about 25km north-west of Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, the Cradle of Humankind is characterised by rolling hills and grasslands, bisected by several perennial streams and a few permanent rivers on geology mainly made up of dolomite, with some chertz and quartzite ridges.
Still fairly “wild” as far as the province goes, there is a variety of birdlife, several free-roaming small mammal species, and now a couple of large game reserves and other protected areas mainly due to the fact that the area is the richest trove of hominid fossils on the planet.
Although the area has been settled for probably more than a hundred years, it is still fairly sparsely populated and agriculture and industry has been mostly low impact, with some subsistence farming, small amounts of livestock, and a few spots of limestone quarrying many decades ago, so, in places the veld is still quite healthy, and in some spots, almost pristine, which means that the botanical diversity is quite high.
A lot of the wild flowers are in bloom at the moment, with more expected as summer progresses.

02/01/2025

Some good local birding going on with all the recent rains. Plenty of plants are flowering so insect life is great, and soon there will be dozens of dragonflies and other aquatic insects around as the rivers and dams fill up.

22/12/2024

December started off with a substantial heatwave, nevertheless, a few light rains spurred the highveld grasslands to life. Some short forays into the local area offered up some variety.

27/09/2024

27 September 2024 is World Tourism Day

Two recent news articles highlight the responsibility we have as visitors across the world, to ensure that we limit any negative impacts we might have on the places we are visiting.

The first article mentions a packet of corn chips dropped in a cave system in the United States, and the effect that it had on this ultra-specific micro-biome, even within the short time it took to clean up the spillage.

https://www.iflscience.com/dropped-cheetos-could-have-triggered-ecosystem-chaos-in-largest-us-cave-chamber-75874

The second article brings to light how information sharing, such as with social media, makes it so much easier for masses of people to be able to witness certain short-lived natural occurrences, but also increases the interference in these, and the potential long-term effects of that.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/26/social-media-posts-endangered-species-capercaillie-birders-aoe

In many places in the world, and particularly in South Africa, there are numerous scarce or threatened species and habitats that would be significantly negatively affected in the same instances raised in these articles.
Many people also don’t realise that poachers troll social media in order to see what species are living in what areas, and then move into those general areas to harvest them, or use the metadata from images to find out exact co-ordinates of where images were taken to guide them right to where the species were photographed.
We specifically make a point of asking all our guests not to share images of heavily trafficked species such as rhinos and pangolins on their social media pages, however although these are some of the highest-value species to poachers, there are many others around the world that are just as at-risk.
Many reptiles are sought after in the exotic pet trade, in a country like South Africa with a high number of endemic species (those found nowhere else), there is a demand for smugglers getting these especially into the European and American markets.
Many plants endemic to the dry regions of South Africa go into the collector’s trade in Europe and Asia. Due to the environment in which they live, they are normally long-lived and very slow growing, maybe only producing seeds once in ten years if conditions are right (some even several decades), so digging out even two or three will create a huge vacuum in these habitats, and these plants may support a species of insect or other animal dependant on them as a vital food source, and so many life-cycles may be affected leading to collapse of the microbiome. Other plant species such as orchids are so rare, that only 15 or 20 individuals are known to exist in a space of several hundred square metres, hardly viable as a population, but valuable to an unscrupulous collector!
Your guide should always be knowledgeable about what they are showing you, so you can always ask whether something should not be shared – we like to spoil you with the special sightings when we can, and we also want you to be able to share amazing experiences with your friends and families – however you can make it harder for people with nefarious plans by switching off your location data on your phones and cameras, or being a bit vague about where you saw a species at risk, or altering the metadata in other ways.
Environments can also be easily damaged by vehicles and pedestrian traffic, your guides should never take you off road to “get a better photo”, or encourage behaviours that will increase the risk of this kind of damage. In desert-like environments, tyre tracks can take over a quarter of a century to disappear!
The world is a beautiful place, we have a responsibility as tourists to do as much as we can to keep it that way.

From breeding spots overrun by visitors to photographers disturbing endangered species, experts say the rarer the find is, the bigger the problem

07/09/2024

The first Saturday of September is
South Africa has 9 species of vulture found within its borders, all of which are heavily endangered, mostly due to habitat loss and collapse of the biomes in which they survive. They are also directly targeted for traditional medicine, and frequently killed or injured by man-made structures such as powerlines, or die because of consuming the poisoned carcasses of what farmers consider vermin. In some parts of the world, where drugs such as diclofenac are widely used on livestock, this has a severe effect on vultures which results in starvation after they have consumed carcasses where this drug is present. They are also heavily affected by lead poisoning from the ingestion of bullets in carcasses.

Of the 9 species found here, they fall into 6 genus’, this year we will look at the genus Gyps, the largest Old World vulture genus, containing 8 extant species, of which we have three. This group is also sometimes referred to as Griffon Vultures. Rüppell’s Vulture is considered a vagrant in South Africa, originating from The Sahel region and East Africa.
Our two more commonly seen species are the Cape vulture, Gyps coprotheres, and the White-backed vulture, Gyps africanus.

21/03/2024

21 March 2024 is International Day of Forests.
The forest biome in South Africa is the smallest of the 9 plant biomes found in the country, covering just 3000km2 or 0.1% of the country’s surface area. The biome is divided up into 12 different vegetation units, or forest types, based on where they are found, climatic characteristics and floral diversity.
Today we will have a look at some of the Southern Afrotemperate Forest diversity. In South Africa this forest unit can be found along the southern Cape coastline, eastwards into the Eastern Cape with the densest cluster remaining on the border of the two provinces. The cluster of forest patches between George and Knysna cover around 60 560 hectares, of which the biggest single unit is around 27 000 hectares.
Southern Afrotemperate Forests stand as resilient guardians of biodiversity. Characterized by their lush canopy of evergreen trees, including Yellowwoods, Cape Beech, and Stinkwood, these forests provide habitat to an array of plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth. From the elusive Cape Parrot to the diminutive Forest Pink Orchid, these forests teem with life, offering a sanctuary for countless species to thrive.
Yet, beyond their ecological significance, Southern Afrotemperate Forests hold cultural and economic importance for local communities. For generations, indigenous peoples have revered these forests as sacred spaces, weaving their traditions and livelihoods intricately with the rhythms of the land. Additionally, these forests serve as a source of sustenance and livelihoods for communities through ecotourism, sustainable harvesting of timber, and non-timber forest products.
However, despite their resilience and value, Southern Afrotemperate Forests face myriad threats, including habitat fragmentation, invasive species, and climate change-induced shifts in precipitation patterns. As guardians of these invaluable ecosystems, it is our collective responsibility to safeguard their future by promoting sustainable land management practices, enhancing conservation efforts, and fostering community-led initiatives for forest stewardship.
Through collaborative action and reverence for nature, we can ensure that these majestic forests continue to flourish for generations to come.