If you regularly walk the paths behind Mountain Drive, you’ll have noticed around April this year a number of exquisitely painted ceramic signs marking the Turaco Trail.
If you regularly walk the paths behind Mountain Drive, you’ll have noticed around April this year a number of exquisitely painted ceramic signs marking the Turaco Trail.
It’s a loop below the Toposcope that connects with parts of the much longer Oldenburgia Trail.
And if you meet a man with a panga on the trail, chances are it’s Grahamstown attorney John Haydock maintaining it – as he was on Sunday morning.
Around 4.5km, it takes Haydock, who’s a runner, around 35 minutes to complet the trail. Add 20-30 minutes if you’re only moderately fit, or are walking with young children.
The trail is altogether a family affair.
Haydock’s son-in-law, Andrew Ginn, painted the colourful trail markers, and his wife, children and grandchildren have helped clear the path.
Together with the newly re-opened Oldenburgia Trail, the Turaco Trail, and other smaller loops in the area, hikers now have several options in Featherstone Kloof.
Large areas of bracken cover the hillsides. These and other pioneer plants have helped hold the soil after Working for Water cleared the area. When they started in 1997, long-leafed wattle and bluegum choked the springs that now flow freely, forming the headwaters of the Kowie River.
With views all the way to the Indian Ocean, river, forest, grassland and fynbos, it’s a wonderful resource right on Grahamstown’s doorstep.
Why’s it called the Turaco Trail?
Because the magical turaco (more commonly known as Knysna loerie) is what you might spot as you walk through the forested areas of the kloof.
