Dropping down Cascades
When Paul suggested a lockdown escape to Cascades in Du Toitskloof, with a little abseiling involved, I thought it a decent idea. I knew that the MCSA often scrambled up it and abseiled down the next day. My conclusion was that if you can scramble up it, it can't be...
read moreKloofing Visgat
Almost by accident I was nominated to lead a MCSA Stellenbosch section kloofing trip down the Visgat canyon. Visgat is a highlight of the MCSA Cape Town section's summer calendar and they kindly allocate a few dates to Stellenbosch. The fact that I could have easily...
read moreFighting aliens in De Hoop
My recent post, The Whale Trail in the Pandemic, has attracted enormous traffic, by the standards of my site at least. In it I opine that biological control of Acacia cyclops (rooikrans) in De Hoop Nature Reserve is failing because my - admittedly unscientific and...
read moreThe Whale Trail in the pandemic
As South Africa emerged from the hard lockdown in mid-2020, I became desperate to escape to the outdoors. On the off-chance that the Whale Trail was open, I contacted Cape Nature and easily obtained a booking for the trail in January 2021. The hugely popular trail was...
read moreBurnt dogs, no Englishmen
A wilderness hike in the Cederberg in December is not everybody’s cup of tea, so when the weather report predicted the mercury rising to a scorching 40°C on day 3 of the proposed trip, I was quite surprised when there were no last minute cancellations, even from the...
read moreMad dogs and Englishmen …
... go out in the midday sun (in the Cederberg in summer) Or so the song goes. Except that the hiking group comprised a Belgian, a German, a half-Dutchman, a half-Greek-Cypriot and a boeremeisie - the instigator. All keen hikers and outdoorspeople. Almost exactly...
read moreHike above Kogelbaai
Studying satellite photos - on Google and Bing maps - of the mountains above Kogelbaai, I was able to discern a definite zig-zag path to the jeep track on the plateau north of Kogelberg Peak. So armed with a GPS waypoint for where the path leaves the Klipspringer...
read moreDeep into Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve
With much perseverance and determination Santie had obtained a permit to hike to Shamrock Lodge (it's really a basic hiking hut) at Landdroskop, What we didn't know, however, was that the permit was a "special dispensation". So when I arrived at Nuweberg gate, before...
read moreZebra stripes and yellow streaks
The MCSA Stellenbosch's first official post-lockdown outing was a weekend hike to Zebra Peak (1458m ASL; Sebrakop on national geo-spatial maps) on Piketberg. It is located on private land on the plateau rim, north-east of most of the cultivated lands. With the...
read moreBerg River Dam to Jonkershoek traverse
Via Assegaaiboschkloof With Santie having proposed another springtime foray into Assegaaiboschkloof to view the blushing brides in bloom, I misguidedly proposed a refinement to the hike: why not start at the Berg River Dam and continue over Bergriviersnek to...
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