Life after the George Fires

When we first saw the smoke behind Cradock Peak never did we know that if will burn across to George’s side and burn all the way into to plantations and up to the houses. With the Knysna Fires from a year ago still fresh in the public’s mind one could sense some a feeling of anxiety, and rightly so. It truly set social media abuzz.

The first notion was that it is good for the fynbos to burn on the higher slopes which is indeed the case but when it jumped the railway line and the back-burns did not work the situation turned more serious. Luckily no lives were lost around George and structural damage kept to a minimum by our brave fire-fighters that came from all over the country to join in the efforts.

One building that sadly did go up in flames was the Old Toll House in the Montagu Pass. This historic landmark and place where many a mountain biker enjoyed tannie Gerda’s coffee and pancakes on Saturday morning, were destroyed together with many an historic artefact inside. It drew a lot of media attention with SABC news covering the story and the Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille also paid a visit to assess the damage.

This event obviously also had a huge impact on our trails and natural surroundings. Tourism surely took a knock, but nature is already busy restoring itself. On the single tracks in Witfontein and Saasveld most wooded structures were burnt such as bridges and berm support. Holes and ditches appeared where trees and roots burnt next to and under the trails.

There are many people already back cycling, running and hiking in the mountain and there are still some safety concerns with burnt trees that are blowing over. Around George the fire effected six landowners/managers namely George Municipality, Cape Nature, DAFF, MTO, SANParks and NMU University. One would think that they would make an effort to speak as one voice about the fire that effected their land and the safety concerns, but communication has been poor in many instances and they only have themselves to blame if people are using areas they shouldn’t be using.

I took the liberty to ask some of the landowners for their feed back and this is the situation when this article was written on 26 November:

Cape Nature (Higher slopes of the mountain where fynbos normally is)

All their hiking trails are still closed to the public, as well as the main gate at Witfontein.

DAFF (Witfontein Plantation)

Thandeka F Gwala, manager at DAFF wrote in an email on 12 November: ‘The DAFF property is accessible for recreational activities as long as there is no threat to health and life. The access into the state land is controlled through a licence, I would therefore advise that all clubs using DAFF land (as well as the Park Run) apply for access for recreational activities of no commercial value and no fees will apply (individual users are exempted from applying for a license for recreational activities e.g. walks, jogging and cycling). Those that are using trails for commercial value to apply for the use of the land though the license which will be at a cost to the activity applied for.”

MTO (Saasveld Plantation)

MTO is busy with an assessment of all the trails on the land they manage and will engage with stakeholders about the way forward. At this stage they are also concerned about safety and cannot say if the trails are accessible or can be restored until they have completed the process.

George Municipality (Land between Witfontein and Saasveld)

At this point, the official and unofficial trails on George Municipal ground remain closed to all members of the public for recreational or other use, following the fires until further notice.

Harvesting of burnt trees will become a priority in the near future and access in these areas will be off-limits. The landscape around George will change forever but we will run, ride and hike again as nature recovers herself. A big thank you to everyone that helped fight the fire and donated towards it. We will be setting up a crowd-funding campaign in the near future to assist with the trails and rebuilding of the Toll House so please keep an eye out for this.

Article: Werner Rall