Looking from afar at a fynbos landscape, the picture is quite bleak and you would not guess how many different species crowd together. In order to get a feel of fynbos, you need to get up close. The Western Cape is an ancient landscape dotted with rocky outcrops and scarred by steep and deep gorges. Streams flow from the mountain catchments to the ocean through these gorges. Fynbos did not always penetrate in these gorges and this is where many ancient forest remnants can still be found. The red-golden colours on the rocks represent Lichen, a fungus associated with (mostly) algae and a sign of clean-clean air.