City offers fun filled environmental winter holiday programme
The City of Cape Town’s Blaauwberg Nature Reserve and Table Bay Nature Reserve will be hosting a fun and entertaining holiday programme during the June/July school holidays. The programme will run over a period of two weeks, from Monday 25 June to Friday 6 July.
The aim of the holiday programme is to teach children about the environment in a fun, but educational way, with art and craft activities as well as theme based games.
The first week will be spent at the Blaauwberg Nature Reserve where the children will learn about sea shells and how to make interesting crafts from these. They will also learn about a few local reptiles and make their own reptile box. The week will end with a good workout and an opportunity to save our unique and irreplaceable Fynbos by helping with the removal of invasive plant species and enjoying the beautiful view from the top of the Blaauwberg Hill.
During the second week the programme will continue at Table Bay Nature Reserve. At the Rietvlei Section of the reserve, participants will visit various bird hides while learning about the bird life found there. They will also have the chance to test their survival skills in an ‘Ultimate Survivor’ game. At the Milnerton Racecourse Section participants will search for the ‘Little Five’ and enjoy a fun ‘Wetland Adventure!’
Activities, which are all weather dependent, will start at 09:00 and end at approximately 12:30 daily. The programme will be aimed at children between the ages of 8 and 14 years. Due to limited space, bookings should be made in advance. Bookings open on Monday 18 June and close on Friday 22 June.
The programme activities are as follows:
Date
Topic
Place
Time
25 June
Crafty Crabs – arts and crafts with seashells
Eerstesteen Resort, Blaauwberg Nature Reserve
09:00–12:30
28 June
Rock-a-Reptile – learning about local reptiles
Eerstesteen Resort, Blaauwberg Nature Reserve
09:00–12:30
29 June
Helping our Fynbos – removal of invasive plants and hike up Blaauwberg Hill
Blaauwberg Hill
09:00–13:00
2 July
Bird Kingdom – learning about local birds
Rietvlei Section, Table Bay Nature Reserve
09:00–12:30
3 July
Wetland Adventure (see note below)
Milnerton Racecourse – Table Bay Nature Reserve
10:00–13:00
4 July
Little Five  (see note below)
Milnerton Racecourse – Table Bay Nature Reserve
10:00–13:00
5 July
Ultimate Survival
Rietvlei Section, Table Bay Nature Reserve
09:00–12:30
For more information regarding the programme or to make a booking, please contact Elzette Krynauw at
The programme highlights the importance of wetlands and how they function; threats to wetlands are also discussed. The activities will take place in the southern part of the Milnerton Racecourse Nature Reserve, the section that is normally closed to the public.
Wednesday 4 July – Little Five
The “Little Five” animals are introduced and the programme discusses each species, their requirements and other interesting facts about these animals. There is also a general introduction to the nature reserve.
