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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 Panorama Route is one of the Jonkershoek valley’s classic day trails. From the bridge (Witbrug) at the apex of the circular road, where you climb the left side of the valley, to where you descend to the Swartboskloof parking area, you will walk about 17.1 km, climb through 1665 m (maximum elevation is 1267m) [...]

The 13 km walk down Cape Point’s east coast from the gate to the restaurant at the point is possibly the most scenically spectacular hike in the country. Besides the vistas across False Bay, the precipitous drops to the rocky coast below and the way the peninsula unfolds as one skirts Judas Peak or Die [...]

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 [...]

(another Kruger safari) Olifants Wilderness Trail, Kruger National Park The African bush has been calling for a while, so we packed up and headed 2000 km north-east for Kruger and our favourite means of really experiencing the bush: wilderness walking trails. Our first trail was the Olifants Wilderness Trail, one of Kruger’s seven and one [...]

Last Sunday I took the new lime-green Skua out for its maiden paddle around Gordon’s Bay. We ducked into the old harbour, sheltered from a cloud burst under the NSRI station for a while, cruised over to Harbour Island and weaved through the marina, and then powered across gray glass to the seals at Seal [...]

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 [...]

There isn’t actually much of the Steenbras River to paddle up, even on a kayak – only about 300 metres. Rather it’s the 13 km round-trip paddle from Gordon’s Bay harbour and the usually benign, but spectacular, rivermouth entrance that is most of the fun. On this last Sunday morning, the paddle was breathtaking. Schools [...]

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 [...]

On this crisp morning, Deon and I launched at Rooiels and paddled out to look for the first Southern Right whales of the season, but it seems it’s still too early. So we settled for a paddle down the coast to Pringle Bay and brunch. A fairly heavy swell was running and we gave 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 [...]

I’ve long heard of it and I’ve always wanted to go there. Much of the area is owned by the UCT Mountain and Ski Club and the Mountain Club (MCSA) is able to obtain permits. I went with the Stellenbosch section of the MCSA. But be warned: be fit or be young…