Kwelera’s Garden of Eden
I think the first time I surfed Kwelera Mouth was 1980 with my friend Bryce Webster. I knew the area as a fishing spot with my dad since primary school days but as a surf spot I only docked with the fabled “Yellows” either in the very back end of high school or first year varsity.
A conservative number of how many years I have enjoyed this niche of coast is probably about 45 years. It is the river mouth wave that appeals to me, the playful sandbar right hander that reels across the beach from the jump rock to the caravan park or the easy left hander that comes into and up the river mouth.
The point wave, dubbed fickle point by some, is heralded by those who love it but decidedly not a favourite of mine — perhaps I have been spoiled by growing up at Nahoon Reef. Fishing along the Kwelera Point is a big entertainment when the shad are on the run.
Regular surfers to Kwelera may have noticed the SANBI office on the left after Whats Landing on the way to the wave, in recent years looking more and more organised. Just at the beginning of the Covid lockdown I was fortunate to meet Nomama Mei. She is passionately excited about the Kwelera National Botanical Garden.
As curator to the garden, her energy and enthusiasm knows no bounds. I popped in to visit her at the Kwelera offices recently
— the surf was not up to scratch and a tour of plants seemed like a more interesting way of spending time.
Nomama studied for her degree at Unisa but is currently, while running the garden, completing an honours degree in botany at Rhodes University in Makhanda.
Big plans are in place for the future of the Kwelera Botanical Gardens. Erstwhile open farming fields near the offices are soon to become endemic indigenous Eden of the Eastern Cape.
Surfers will soon see fencing going up around the 10.8 hectare site as well as accommodation, offices, a nursery, herbarium, library, seed bank and educational facilities.
A wetland is part of the project and you know how plants attract birds. In time we will be able to enjoy picnics, weddings, concerts, art, plants and education in the garden. For those wanting indigenous plants, water wise and succulents, these will also be on sale.
“We are going to grow very big, I am ambitious,” Nomama tells me as she tours me through her delightful nursery and temporary plant stock.
EC has a crazy wild diversity of plant species from Port St Johns and Msikaba to Aliwal North and down to Cape St Francis. The garden is going to be spectacular.
The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) are the driving force behind the Kwelera National Botanical Garden.
A leaflet bills them as: “The organisation responsible for scientific research, knowledge management, policy and planning, as well as human capital development through biodiversity and empowerment.”
With the proud botanical art history that Auriol Batten and Ellaphie Ward-Hilhorst bring to our region and with the rich riverine vegetated dune system and the natural beauty of our Wild Coast I expect the Kwelera National Botanical garden to become a great joy on many levels.
I have high expectations with Nomama Mei at the helm. If the wind blows east, my strong encouragement is to go look at the plants.