Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden will grant free access to learners up to Grade 12 on Mondays to Fridays until December 15, 2020.
A group of doctors advising schools in the Peninsula on how best to prevent and manage Covid-19 in the school setting sent out a letter on 13 October with advice on how to keep the Matric learners safe for their exams.
The letter recommends limiting socialising outside the school and meeting a few friends in an open space.
In response to this letter, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is granting free entry for all learners on weekdays from October 22 until December 15, 2020. Learners can visit the Kirstenbosch Ticket Office to redeem their free ticket.
How to plan your Kirstenbosch adventure
Whether you want to walk in the fresh air, chill with a picnic, enjoy a cup of coffee or perhaps take on an adventure, Kirstenbosch offers it all.
If exploring on your own is your thing, get a map at the Ticket Office and explore to your heart's content. Choose the Garden Guide if you are going to explore the Garden, and the Walks and Trails Map if you plan to venture into the wild side of Kirstenbosch.
To begin your adventure, start with the Conservatory, a desert house with a majestic baobab tree in its centre, succulent treasures and weird welwitschias, also known as tweeblaarkanniedood.
Then take a walk on the treetops on the Tree Canopy Walkway aka ‘The Boomslang‘ and be on the lookout for birds and life-size sculptures of dinosaurs lurking behind giant cycads in the Cycad Amphitheatre.
During the Fynbos Walk, you’ll spot many different kinds of flowering proteas. Be sure to visit the African art in the Sculpture Garden.
Get an insider’s view of Kirstenbosch and join a free, 90 minute guided walk in the Garden weekdays at 10 am, starting from the Visitors’ Centre (Gate 1).
Take a walk on the wild side and tackle one of the trails through the Kirstenbosch Estate. There are five trails to choose from. All are well-maintained, logged footpaths or gravel roads and are sign-posted.
The Braille Trail and Boekenhout Trail are ideal, easy, forest walks for those pressed for time and the not so fit. The Stinkwood Trail is a relatively short exploration of the oldest part of the forest with some of the largest trees.
The Yellowwood Trail and Silvertree Trail are long, strenuous hikes that take you up to the waterfall and around the estate, through both indigenous forest and fynbos. It is possible to climb Table Mountain from Kirstenbosch, up Nursery Ravine or Skeleton Gorge.
Call 021 799 8783.