A scene in Harold Porter

Waterfalls, forest and mountain gorges are among the natural features of the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden accessed via tranquil walking trails. Started in 1955 by farsighted citizens as the Shangri‑la Nature Reserve, this coastal fynbos Garden is today an extended national heritage asset welcoming people from everywhere to benefit from accessible wonders of nature.

The undeveloped part of the garden, more than 190 hectares of it, forms part of the core zone of the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve. This is a UNESCO‑recognised conservation landscape. The cultivated garden forms part of its buffer zone. This ten hectares of developed garden is both beautifully landscaped and filled with cared for flowering plants to delight and inform the public, accessed from the R44 in Betty’s Bay.

On all this land there are about 1600 kinds of plants, 60 kinds of birds and several occasionally seen animals including porcupines, tortoises, hyraxes, baboons, and some snakes (SANBI; Wikipedia).