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In all the years of walking on the mountain I have never climbed Platteklip Gorge. At Peter’s suggestion we parked at Kloof Nek and tackled the 15.4 km circuit up Platteklip, through the valleys of Isolation and the Red Gods, to the reservoirs and down Kasteelspoort, and back along the Pipe Track.  It was two [...]

Aka The Return of Gaucho Pedro This 3-day hike was like old times again – hiking with Peter Groves, my erstwhile hiking buddy who is out from the UK on holiday. Peter is also known as “Gaucho Pedro” after his escapades in Patagonia last year. The Hottentots Holland section of the Boland Trail is a [...]

The Mountain Club’s plan was to head up to Perdekop in the hope that, it being midwinter, there would be snow on the peak. Instead an unseasonal black south-easter raged, clouding in all the peaks around Franschhoek. So, plan B was activated. It amounted to a very pleasant 13.5km circuit of Scherpenheuwel, which is one [...]

In typical MCSA Stellenbosch style: a couple of koppies (little hills) on this uitstappie (outing). The numbers tell the story: 12.25 km maximum slope: 58.2% minimum elevation:  240 m; maximum elevation: 1405 m elevation gain: 1472 m; elevation loss: 1008 m moving average speed: 2.2 km/h (this number is a clue that it was pretty tough going). The party [...]

The mountain club’s plan was to walk from Franschhoek to Jonkershoek along the watershed via Emerald Dome and Victoria Peak. We would ascend Fortsnek and cross Noordkloofpiek, the scene of last year’s firefighting. It promised to be a long, hard, but spectacular, day. But an unseasonal south-easter raged through the night and clouded in the [...]

The route to Slanghoek Peak curves south and east up the Witte River valley. A fairly level and scenic walk from the car park at Eerste Tol on Bainskloof Pass of 12.5 km to a saddle below Slanghoek on Mountain Club property, known as Springstygbeugel1, almost traverses the Limietberg range from west to east. The MCSA party [...]

Last Sunday I hosted some of the Patagons and other hiking buddies at Jonkershoek for a day hike – “not too long, too high and too hard” was the request. So I thought it would be nice to follow the eastern watershed from north of Twin Peaks to Botmaskop – not too high nor too [...]

Also known as “Wessel Reloaded” 5 days, 52.2 km (55.1 km according to my GPS recording), 18 hrs 27 min moving time at a moving average speed of 3 km/h We all agreed afterwards that Oorlogskloof is probably the best hike in South Africa – mainly because of the care and attention-to-detail that went into [...]

We took the Old Mule Trail up to Blockhouse Gap where two old blockhouses, apparently built at the beginning of World War I to guard the eastern approach through the nek to the naval ammunitions magazines that scar the high valley above Simonstown, slowly weather away. From there a breathtaking walk along the Swartkop Ridges, [...]

At the beginning of the week that I finally became a member of the Mountain Club of SA, some of the Patagonian trekkers and I headed for Victoria Peak, the highest peak in the Jonkershoek mountains. It was a warm day with high cloud and haze and no wind. Pretty perfect. Our route followed the [...]

Another mountain club uitstappie to Haelkop peak (1390 m), one of the loftier peaks that rim the Jonkershoek valley. The route upwards to the watershed north of Haelkop is a fairly easy, yet relentlessly uphill, hike. Near the top the gradients steepen markedly. From the summit the views are panoramic and breathtaking. On this occasion [...]

Climbing Jonkershoek’s Twin Peaks (“Die Pieke“) is one of the outdoor experiences in the Jonkershoek mountains. On this occasion I went with the mountain club (MCSA) on the “uitstappie“. An uitstappie is one of those wonderfully euphemistic, Afrikaans terms that could mean anything from a stroll in the park to a mission. A Twin Peaks [...]

“The Earth never forgets that trees were its first thought” This intriguing idea was carved in Spanish on a wooden sign as we left Puelo on our first multi-day trek on the Los Hitos trail to Chile. And when you enter the ancient forests of northern Patagonia you realise what the importance of forests and [...]

As you may know I have just returned from 3 weeks’ trekking in Patagonian Argentina and Chile. Words don’t do it justice, so here are some photos while I figure out the words and prep the GPS tracks….

The Cape-based members of the Patagonia group are training for the trek through the Andes by taking regular walks in the Cape Peninsula’s Table Mountain National Park. Here are some photos from those walks along with some older ones…

I’m looking forward to my first foray to South America, a series of treks in Patagonia across the Andes from Argentina to Chile and back, over 21 days in March. My good old pal, Peter, has taken some trouble to research and document the trip on his site, so I suggest that you go there [...]

At 1589m Victoria Peak is the highest summit in the Jonkershoek area. It is visible beyond the valley from Stellenbosch and is  often – as it is today – covered in a white blanket of snow. The route as shown in this Google Earth track winds up the eastern edge of the Jonkershoek valley to [...]

A Google Earth map of the Rim of Africa Conservation Mega Trail, Stage One, 120km from Pakhuis Pass in the northern Cederberg to the Koue Bokkeveld mountains follows:

Here are the photos from the Rim of Africa Conservation Mega Trail. It was an epic.

Tomorrow I leave on what I expect will be one great adventure – the Rim of Africa Conservation Mega Trail. This will be Stage 1 from the Northern Cederberg to the mountains somewhere around Ceres – 11 days of wilderness walking. As the blurb says – “a walk of no ordinary proportion”. The vision of [...]