Region#

Braamekraal Farm is situated in the foothills of the Outeniqua Mountains of the South Cape region of the Western Cape Province of South Africa, 5km from the village of Rheenendal. The nearest town is Knysna, some 25km away.

The farm is situated near the edge of the indigenous forest, all of which is a protected nature reserve. The last remaining forest elephants still roam the area. The forest is the largest unfenced wildlife area in the Southern Hemisphere.

Climate#

We enjoy a Warm Temperate climate, which means we never get frost. We usually see snow on the mountains in Winter, but only for a few days before it washes away. Who knows whether this will remain status quo as Global Warming sets in in earnest...

We get rain all year round, with slightly more rain during Spring and Autumn than Summer/Winter. Normally our rainfall averages over 1100mm per year, though the last seven years have been mostly drought with occasional relief/floods. Even in these "drought"[1] times we get sufficient rainfall for our needs, though there are times when there is not truly enough for crops without irrigation. Water/rainfall was a very important factor in our choosing to live in this area, because we rely totally on harvesting rainwater from the roof for all our household water needs.

Site#

Our smallholding is 1.7 hectares (4 acres) in extent: about 100m north-to-south and almost 200m east-to-west. Check out the satellite picture on Google for a better idea. The Northeast corner of the plot is the highest point, at 211m above mean sea-level, and the lowest corner -- the Southwest corner -- is just below 200m, so we expect to have a lovely beachfront property in about 50 years' time :-) We are about 15km from the sea as the crow flies. (Well, in truth the crow tends to fly in circles over the Chicken House, hoping to catch a Chick or two!)

Soil#

Soil is a clay-loam, topsoil depth runs from about 25cm at the top of the plot and down the slope (East to West), to over 1m at the bottom. The reason for this is that the original inhabitants -- the infamous Knysna Woodcutters -- a sort of hillbilly community of a century ago -- ploughed the land directly down the slope "to improve the drainage". As a result much of the topsoil has been washed downslope.

This is not helped by it having once been forest, and, like most forest soils, is actually a pretty thin, fragile, nutrient-poor soil, tending to be very acid. As we rebuild the soil, though, it comes back to life, and, being a strong, heavy soil. is tremendously resilient and rewarding when treated with the love and respect it warrants.

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[#1] The SA Weather Service defines a drought as "less than 75% of normal rainfall", where "normal" is a 30-year moving average. Of course they seldom get the actual weather forecast right...