Take a hike ... in Gauteng!

When you say the word ‘Gauteng’, people invari­ably think of Johannesburg or Pretoria, of a bust­ling met­ro­polis, of bumper-to-bumper high­way traffic, even of coalmines, dust and crowded, inner-city informal set­tle­ments. It’s not pretty maybe, but it’s part of the deal. What we all tend to for­get, is that Gauteng is not just another shakily out­lined shape on the South African map, but a vast province — and one with far more to offer in terms of aes­thet­ics than one thinks. Visitors to the coun­try often head to scenic Cape Town, the pic­tur­esque Garden Route or pan­or­amic Mpumalanga, but a meander around Gauteng is well worth the detour ...

It may not have the ocean, but what Gauteng does have is sev­eral moun­tains and botan­ical gar­dens that are great spots for hikers. Gauteng Hiking trails range from a Sunday walk to an overnight slog to multiple-day treks for the ser­i­ously hard­core. Though even a beginner’s trail might not seem like a walk in the park at first, hik­ing is a great way to get fit, and the sat­is­fac­tion of a sum­mit lends itself to quite a sense of achieve­ment, not to men­tion the de-stressing bene­fits of wan­der­ing about in nature. So get some sturdy walk­ing shoes, join a group and put that first foot on the path ...

Northwest of Johannesburg, and a mere hour and a half drive away, are the Magaliesberg, a 120 km sprawl of moun­tains that pred­ate Everest (geo­lo­gical research has traced their ori­gins right back to their nas­cence, about 2 300 mil­lion years ago). The range, which divides the highveld grass­lands to the south from bush­land savan­nah to the north, is a favour­ite with hik­ing enthu­si­asts. And no won­der — it’s a place of extraordin­ary beauty, with sheer quartzite cliff faces, streams fed by under­ground reser­voirs, an abund­ance of indi­gen­ous veget­a­tion, and per­en­nial spark­ling water­falls. Spectacular, 100m-deep gul­lies also make it a great spot for kloof­ing.

Hiking a Magaliesberg path or explor­ing any of the private reserves, you’ll be treated to a visual feast of the incred­ible diversity of plant-life here, an array of flowers, fungi and ferns, not to men­tion more than 130 spe­cies of tree. And not just your aver­age land­scape of fyn­bos stretch­ing as far as the eye can see either: get ready for giant moun­tain aloes with their acid orange flowers, winged-pod bush wil­lows, tall red pokers, trumpet-flowered wild gardenias, the pine­apple lily, wild fig ... oh and let’s not for­get the sweet fruit of the Marula trees nestled into the lower slopes.

The moun­tains are home to the usual moun­tain crit­ters (baboons, dassies, bush­b­a­bies, klipspring­ers and ver­vet mon­keys) as well as some big­ger game (zebra, gir­affe, wilde­beest and the re-introduced Sable). A few shy leo­pard also enjoy the veget­a­tion of the deeper kloofs. Birders are also well catered for, with a chance of spot­ting any­thing from a com­mon finch to the majestic black eagle to the exquis­ite para­dise flycatcher.

Near the town of Heidelberg, and about an hour’s drive from Johannesburgburg, is the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, a nearly 12 000 hec­tare reserve dom­in­ated by the Suikerbosrand Mountain Range, which peaks at nearly two kilo­metres above sea level. The reserve is a hiker’s para­dise, criss-crossed by an extens­ive, 66-km net­work of back­pack­ing trails. Multiple-day hikers shel­ter in the overnight huts inter­spersed through­out the area, each of which is equipped with beds, hot showers, chem­ical toi­lets and under­cover braai facil­it­ies. A more gen­er­ously equipped med­it­a­tion hut on an out­post not part of the other trails can be booked for a few days isolation.

The great thing about this sys­tem is that you can tailor your route to whatever time­frame you have in mind, whether you want a quick overnighter or you plan to cover the entire reserve, which can take about six days’ worth of hard­core hik­ing. There are also a couple of day-visitor trails that take hardly a few hours to com­plete, as well as a wheel­chair friendly trail and a 60 km, tarred ‘tour­ist’ trail for vehicles.  The moun­tain itself is com­posed of igneous basalt rock and sed­i­ment­ary sand­stone, and the eco­sys­tem sup­ports a wide vari­ety of grasses, trees and wild flowers, includ­ing the Highveld Protea, or Suikerbos, from which the reserve takes its name.

A third very pop­u­lar spot for Gauteng hikers is at Hennops, near the well-known Hartbeespoort Dam, which has the added attrac­tion of a 4x4 trail and obstacle course. The two-day Hennops hike is com­posed of two trails, the 11 km Krokodilberg and the 6 km Zebra trail, which altern­ately lead you along the Hennops River and into the sur­round­ing moun­tain. Two base camps on the riverb­ank, Loerie and Hadeda, offer tired hikers a chance to refresh them­selves with a good night’s sleep and a dip in the rock pools or swim­ming pool (at Loerie). While a-walking, hikers are sur­roun­ded by gor­geous scenery includ­ing indi­gen­ous flora, the spark­ling river, and spec­tac­u­lar gorges and plat­eaus. And of course, keep an eye out for moun­tain creatures and birds.

For social climbers — or those who aren’t famil­iar with the area and need a bit of guid­ance — there’s the Johannesburg sec­tion of the Mountain Club of South Africa (http://www.mcsa.org.za/). With a pro­gramme that’s geared toward envir­on­mental respons­ib­il­ity, the Club organ­ises mid­week and week­end hikes, as well as numer­ous other bells and whistles — from back­packs to base camp week­ends, slideshows to social events. If you’re new to the hik­ing scene, they’ll intro­duce you to a whole col­lec­tion of dif­fer­ent trails, as well as giv­ing you an oppor­tun­ity to get out there and do some good in the environment.

For those who can think of noth­ing worse than steep ascents or bundu-bashing, there are ways of hav­ing a walk­about in nature that don’t require overnight packs or gasp­ing for breath on the side of a moun­tain. One of these is the Smuts Trail, in Irene. A three-kilometre walk through the grass­lands sur­round­ing the Smuts House Museum, this trail is a must-do for bird enthu­si­asts. More than 300 spe­cies have been iden­ti­fied in the sur­round­ing area, includ­ing four vari­et­ies of owl, a host of small birds, beau­ti­ful riverb­ank dwell­ers such as the Kingfisher, and a col­lec­tion of stately rap­tors. And if you don’t know your barbet from your bok­makierie, guided walks with pro­fes­sional bird watch­ers and orni­tho­lo­gists are available.

With this teem­ing wil­der­ness so close by, and with so many oppor­tun­it­ies of explor­ing it, there’s no excuse not to get out of the city and take a hike.

Contact:
MCSA: Johannesburg Office: Tel: +27 (0)11 807‑1310 (8-10am)
E-mail: info @ mcsa.org.za (remove spaces around the @ sign).

Useful Links:
Mountain Club of South Africa Web Site
Mountain Club South Africa Johannesburg Section

Things to Do in Gauteng
Gauteng Attractions
Gauteng Hotels
Gauteng Accommodation