During the pandemic, I moved back into my childhood home and while the world was going through incredibly challenging times I found solace in watching a pregnant chameleon grow. This Knysna Dwarf chameleon lived on a leopard tree in the garden, and every day I would check in on her and carry her to insects she could eat. I soon realised there were always at least ten chameleons to find at any given moment in the garden. This is core information about me: I have always loved nature and tiny creatures, but before the pandemic I had lost touch of how important that was in my life.
That paragraph should be a blog post on its own.
My name is Joan and I live in Cape Town, South Africa. I have a keen interest in hiking, conservation, chameleons, and the Oxford comma. Fynbos Fairy started as a TikTok where I would show off the incredible nature on my doorstep, but it quickly became more. My desire to write about and photograph everything that inspires me needed a home. Fynbos Fairy is that home.
This is a space where my thoughts as an English Literary Studies graduate converge with the hours I am left in my own thoughts in nature. The fynbos-covered mountains in Cape Town have become my happy place and I make a conscious effort to be in them nearly every day.
While hiking posts may be informative, this really is about more than just the routes I took. It’s the journey that my mind and senses go on along the way. The creatures I see along the way and what I learn. I hope you enjoy joining me on my adventures!