Se7en Discover the Streams, Springs and Ponds at Kirstenbosch…

We have hit holiday mode… which means I am nowhere near my computer and blogging is taking a back seat to the fun things we are doing right now… and that includes a whole lot of getting outdoors and taking every opportunity to enjoy the Winter Wonders Programme and Free Entrance to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens for kids.

Every Saturday during the holidays, they have a fantastic guided tour of the gardens under the guise of “Family Treasure Hunts…” Think following clues and exploring your way through the gardens and the treasure is ultimately a heap of knowledge. The volunteer guides are fantastic and spend about two hours answering bazillions of questions, from everybody there… short and tall… about plants and birds and rocks and trees… with enormous patience and enthusiasm. They obviously are passionate about their task and they do it well.

You can choose from four themes, and that is the problem… they are that good, and we have only managed two of them. I really hope they offer these family friendly tours to families again and again because we are loving them. You can pick your treasure hunt from flowers to trees and rivers to the conservatory… whatever the weather there is some good exploring to do.

This week we chose the watery tour… and our first clue led us into the gardens to find the teddy bear ears…

The Lily Pond…

And could you drink this water or not… hmmm a lot of reeds are filtering the water… it is moving… lots to think about.

Onto the next clue…

And dashing off to find the next clue… I love that the kids are intended to get heart and soul involved and can (and do) ask as many questions as comes to mind, not to mention encouraged to stop and listen, touch and feel… and there is always a good spot to climb and clamber, all in all making what could be a drudgy visit to the botanical gardens something fun and exciting and something they want to do again and again…

And we have been hoping to spot one of these fresh water crabs in a sunny spot for ages, so that we could get a really good look at it…

And then we got a little bit side tracked by banana trees…

There are the bananas and hanging down at the bottom is the enormous flower…

And this… is a banana seed. Have you ever. You learn new things every day.

Following the Stream…

To the source…

There is a spring in that pool, created by the different lanes of rock… the Table Mountain Sandstone is porous, and the Cape Granite is not. So the water is forced out and creates this beautiful stream that is always 18 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, the guides had a collection of magnifying glasses at hand for taking a closer look.

We stopped to look at the science experiments…

Beautiful mountain water…

Pond life…

While wandering through the gardens…

Through secret tunnels…

Past incredible plants and creatures…

One thing we have all learnt is to stop and read the signs… there is a lot to learn on them…

On we went…

Into the wetlands… and real live bull rushes… and the sounds of dozens of frogs…

And then we learnt where the rivers and streams flow…

We are all about the source to the sea…

You can download the full Winter Wonderland programme here.

Don’t forget we have a fabulous GiveAway running right now… click on the link and leave a comment…

• Se7en’s Visits Kirstenbosch and the Winter Wonderland Programme…
• Se7en+1 Reasons to Visit Kirstenbosch Right Now…
• Se7en+1 Set Out As Citizen Scientists in the Fynbos…
• Se7en + 1 Meet the Dinosaurs Amongst the Cycads at Kirstenbosch…
• Se7en + 1 Discover the Boomslang at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens…
• Adventure Trails in Kirstenbosch.
• Kirstenbosch’s Winter Wonder Program.
• Kirstenbosch and the Braille Trail…
• Kirstenbosch for kids…

We would like to thank the publishers Struik Nature and Penguin Random House South Africa who supplied us with the spotter’s guides to giveaway. Also, thank you to Hippo Communications for organising free entrance to the Gardens for myself, so that I could attend these events and bring them to our readers. This was not a sponsored post and all opinions are as usual my own.