Last chance for Crystal Pools hike

Crystal Pools Hike

It was to the sound of baboons bark­ing that we got out of our car at what felt like just past dawn, but was actu­ally already bey­ond our appoin­ted meet­ing time. Needless to say, the other mem­bers of the party were late. The sound of baboons cer­tainly did not appear to daunt any of the other hikers already set­ting off across the R44 towards the hut from where we were to get our per­mits for the day.

Crystal Pools hike is extremely pop­u­lar. The 'gate­keep­ers', when we arrived finally at the start of the hike hav­ing taken in the view over Gordon's Bay and the mouth of the Steenbras River before our friends arrived, were already pre­par­ing to turn back the late­comers. And one hun­dred per­mits are issued a day.

I blanched at the idea of shar­ing a reserve with another ninety nine people – what were they think­ing allow­ing so many people into a nature reserve? 'Is there more than one trail?' I asked, assum­ing people got 'lost' in the reserve on vari­ous path options, only to hear that there was but this one path that fol­lows the gorge around the corner from the road and up. And that every­one before, and after us, would be com­ing along for the journey.

The res­ult of let­ting so many people into the reserve on such a reg­u­lar basis (to say that the hike is pop­u­lar is put­ting too fine a point on it) means that as from 1 May 2011 the gorge was closed for at least a year for rehab­il­it­a­tion. And after that the City of Cape Town is prob­ably only going to allow guided hikes to lim­ited num­bers of people.

The Steenbras River Gorge (it used to be known as the Kogelberg Nature Reserve and forms part of the greater Kogelberg Biosphere) is just out­side Gordon's Bay – you lit­er­ally cross the bridge over the Steenbras River and then park at the first oppor­tun­ity. It's a gor­geous set­ting. The gorge itself is mag­ni­fi­cent, the geo­lo­gical form­a­tions alone splen­did. But add to this the river, the many pools and then finally, the incred­ible set of ter­raced pools right at the end beneath the water­fall, and you have a walk that has become very attract­ive to many. And all of this just 3 kilo­metres from the car park.

The prob­lem with all this activ­ity, other than the cigar­ette butts, and the odd chip packet, is that plants' regrowth is severely hindered. The envir­on­mental team at the City of Cape Town have real­ised that unless some­thing quite rad­ical is done, 100 year old trees will dis­ap­pear and the rich diversity of the bio­sphere will deteriorate.

Absolutely. But why were so many people allowed in at a time in the first place?

It seems such a shame that the reserve has had to take such major steps to solve a situ­ation that need never have arisen. Admittedly what has obvi­ously occurred is that no-one was poli­cing the hut on the way in and once the word was out, streams of people have been com­ing in to take advant­age of the amaz­ing hike and the pools.

The walk itself is quite simple. With a couple of five-year olds in tow, we man­aged it at a gentle pace (there are quite a few loose rocks and pebbles en route), give or take the odd group of young­sters who came char­ging past, rar­ing to get to the pools before any­one else could take their favour­ite spot.

The hike is described as 'easy' and for the aver­age per­son, can even be tackled in ordin­ary takkies and a swim­ming cos­tume, par­tic­u­larly as the sole pur­pose of the hike is to cool off at the end. On our way out, we past the last two per­mit hold­ers, each hug­ging a gui­tar, with little other than san­dals on, which should give you an indic­a­tion to the ser­i­ous­ness of the hike.

Nevertheless, on a hot day like the one on which we ven­tured up the gorge, you might want to make sure you take lots of water, as the gui­tar play­ers were already ask­ing about a water source and whether or not it was safe to drink, and they had another couple of kilo­metres to go before the pools (a later source indic­ated that the water is far from savoury).

The Steenbras River runs along­side the path for most of the hike. There are also more than a couple of places where you can stop and cool off well before the offi­cial Crystal pools. And the path is clearly marked with large yel­low foot­prints and red-topped poles, even if the ini­tial part of the hike is a bit of a scramble.

We knew we had arrived at the first ter­raced pool as the shouts and screams of excited swim­mers reached us. We approached a rocky ledge over­look­ing the pool at more or less the same time as another party, one of whom had obvi­ously been before. He indic­ated that there were at least another three pools above this one and advised the second as the access point was a little easier with children.

Actually it ended up being quite fest­ive, join­ing a couple of groups of young people on the boulders under the trees on the side of the beau­ti­ful pool. We watched as a few scrambled up the sheer rock faces and then jeered one another on to jump from ever more pre­cari­ous ledges. Having had a good time, many of them then pro­ceeded up to another pool above ours. And there is appar­ently a fifth pool above the actual water­fall, which we could only just make out way above us in a crack in the rocks.

A beau­ti­ful hike. Just glad we man­aged to do it before the reserve is offi­cially closed to the pub­lic. It might be that we were of the last people to man­age the hike before it becomes a guided path to but a few.

Gordon's Bay Links

• Gordons Bay Attractions
• Gordons Bay Accommodation
• Cape Town Accommodation

Peers Cave

Peers Cave Hike

Most people get to Peers Cave, above the dunes of Fish Hoek, in a fairly dig­ni­fied man­ner, albeit a steep one. There is, after all, a fairly logical and easy to find path hewn for hikers that leaves a park­ing lot on Ou Kaapse Weg and takes you up to the cave in oh, say twenty minutes.

I know only because this was our jour­ney back down. Our trek to the cave was a little more ardu­ous as our hike leader, bless him (he really is a very nice man), thought that a bit of a bash through the bundu might be in order, and so we ven­tured forth to find the cave from the park­ing area at Silvermine, on the left just past the turnoff to Noordhoek, in order to come at the cave from behind the ridge.

It would have been a lot easier simply to go at it the way we later des­cen­ded. But then again, we would have missed out on all that jour­ney­ing up and down sand dunes and the incred­ible views over­look­ing the Clovelly golf course bey­ond, whilst try­ing vainly to find the path. And the kids abso­lutely loved find­ing the tags left for us by what must have been an ori­enteer­ing group that helped a little, but still had us leap­ing past and over boulders and across the debris left by those who had been paid to cut down everything vaguely invas­ive in the vicinity.

Peers Cave was simply beau­ti­ful, when we did finally find it. It isn't really a cave in the sense that you get deep inside a hole with only a smallish open­ing from which to view the world bey­ond. Rather it has a huge over­hang and is almost hewn into a series of incred­ible rock faces that provide a large space in which I can ima­gine the Khoikhoi of yes­teryear light­ing fires and gen­er­ally going about their busi­ness. It is also well pro­tec­ted from the north east­erly wind by a pro­ject­ing roof, and the views out over Fish Hoek, Sun Valley and bey­ond are fantastic.

We sat a while to eat our sand­wiches, and drink a cup of tea whilst dis­cuss­ing this and that in avid detail, the young­sters pre­ten­ded­ing to be the explorers that ama­teur archae­olo­gist Victor Peers was when he uncovered fos­sil­ised remains here in an ancient burial site in 1927. What we didn't real­ise is that appar­ently just above Peers Cave is a fur­ther cave known as the Cave of Ascension, sup­posed to be a ritual cave of fer­til­ity and rebirth, and held as sacred.

But Peers Cave is fas­cin­at­ing if you start read­ing up about it. The first thing excav­at­ors real­ised, upon dis­cov­er­ing sea shells in the cave and tak­ing into account the pos­i­tion of the cave mid­way between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, is that the sea must have come a lot higher in the days when the cave was in use. Particularly as these shells are only found some 3 miles into the ocean today.

Peers and his son weren't the first people to try and excav­ate in the cave, and pre­vi­ous explorers appar­ently did more than a fair bit of dam­age. What the Peers did uncover was bored shells, pieces of human bones, bits of rope, beads made from ostrich egg shells, orna­ments and arrow heads, which meant that the cave had been used by Strandlopers (beach walk­ers) — Khoisan who spent their time comb­ing the beach for food along the south-western African coast.

The high­light to the Peers' excav­a­tion was the dis­cov­ery of a blackened skull, the bone struc­ture of which was traced back to those who roamed the coast some 15 000 years ago (some accounts say 12 000). This skull in par­tic­u­lar is the largest brained type dis­covered yet. There were also three adult skel­et­ons found in the back of the cave. These remains had excel­lent teeth which led to the inter­est­ing pro­pos­i­tion that the burial was prob­ably made after early Portuguese explorers made it to Cape Town and that they were not Strandlopers at all.

As our hike leader impar­ted some of these details to the boys and they sat big-eyed, their hands already itch­ing to begin scratch­ing in the almost black sand at our feet, I cast my eyes out over the val­ley bey­ond and tried to ima­gine a time when there were no houses, roads, cars and devel­op­ment; when the sea was a lot closer, close enough to nip out of the cave and down to the shore to stock up on fish and shells; when life in gen­eral was left undis­turbed and when nature, not the needs of man, dic­tated when and how life was spent.

Not that I have any romantic delu­sions of life in a cave. I was quite happy to make my way down to a motor­ised vehicle, which would get me back to my snug home a whole lot faster than a jog along the beach would have.

Where?

You can reach Peers Cave from either Fish Hoek or Ou Kaapse Weg. Drive up from Sun Valley head­ing in the dir­ec­tion of Cape Town and find the sign­board to Peers Cave to your right in a small layby, or park the car off the road at one of the altern­at­ive Silvermine park­ing areas, to the right just before the San Michel Estate, Noordhoek for a longer haul.

Useful Links:

• Fishhoek Attractions
• Fishhoek Accommodation
• Cape Town Accommodation
• Western Cape Hiking Trails

Day walks in the Garden Route – we select the best

Garden Route Day Walks

One can­not ooh and aah enough about the Garden Route. It is not likened to the Garden of Eden for noth­ing and its entire coast­line is riddled with picture-postcard moments, wild, craggy beaches, forests, streams, water­falls and a wil­der­ness that, des­pite the attrac­tion for tour­ists, has not yet suffered the consequences.

Our choice of day walks below doesn't even begin to explore Nature's Valley and Tsitsikamma Nature Reserves, both of which have some beau­ti­ful trails of their own. Instead we've looked at the rather less obvi­ous walks. The Garden Route is riddled with walk­ing and hik­ing options – most farms, plots and forest nature reserves will have a series of walks on offer, but the fol­low­ing are well regarded and worth doing, not least for the beauty of the environment ...

George: Cradock Pass, Outeniqua

Garden Route Day Walks

A fairly long day walk of 12.5 km, the Cradock Pass day trail lies closest to the town of George. The walk is not for sis­sies (it is fairly strenu­ous) and fol­lows the track of ini­tial set­tler wag­ons on a steep des­cent into the Cradock Pass through the gor­geous Outeniqua Mountains. The pass itself links the coast with the Little Karoo, through the Outeniqua Nature Reserve.

The start of the walk is at the entrance gate to the reserve roughly 4km out­side of George and the end of the hike is on the north side of the Montagu Pass, where you will obvi­ously need another form of trans­port to get you back to the start, so at least two cars are advis­able. Unless you are par­tic­u­larly fit and fancy the walk back down the Montagu Pass. (Useful links: see George Attractions and George Accommodation)

Sedgefield: Goukamma Nature Reserve Trails

Garden Route Day Walks

You can­not help but notice the fresh-water lake and series of coastal sand dunes that lie between Knysna and Sedgefield. The com­bin­a­tion of incred­ible milk­wood forest and beaches make an incred­ible vista in which to walk, and in the thick of this, close to the mouth of the Goukamma River, lies the Goukamma Nature and Marine Reserve, with a 14 kilo­metre coast­line (look out for sign­posts from the N2 at the Buffalo Bay turn off). The reserve has a num­ber of won­der­ful day walks that range from the Beach walk, a 14 kilo­metre there and back affair, to the Goukamma to Groenvlei route, which tra­verses a series of veget­ated dunes for roughly 16 kilo­metres, and is fairly tax­ing. Shorter walks include the Lake Walk and the Circular route, the lat­ter tak­ing advant­age of a simply gor­geous milk­wood forest on the return. During the whale sea­son you can sight both whales and dol­phins here. There are also pic­nic sites and you can fish in the reserve. (Useful links: see Sedgefield Attractions and Sedgefield Accommodation)

Wilderness: Half-collared Kingfisher Trail

Garden Route Day Walks

This walk starts just out­side the Wilderness Village next to the rail­way bridge at the Ebb and Flow North Restcamp, and it's par­tic­u­larly great for hot days as most of it is through the shaded forest. Provided you're quiet, you'll see the Knysna loerie, giant king­fisher, the fish eagle and, obvi­ously, the half-collared king­fisher in amongst the incred­ible yellowwoods.

The trail is 7.2 kilo­metres and passes through the forest and next to a stream that ends in a water­fall where you can stop and swim. At times the climb is pretty steep, but on the whole the walk is easy and the trail not dif­fi­cult to fol­low.
(Useful links: see Wilderness Attractions and Wilderness Accommodation)

Plett: Robberg Nature Reserve

If you are any­where near Plettenberg Bay then not vis­it­ing the Robberg Nature Reserve is like going to Cape Town and skip­ping Table Mountain.

Garden Route Day Walks

Robberg is a rocky head­land that juts out from the coast­line just south of the town's beaches. There is a cave here where they've uncovered all sorts of arte­facts that date back to the Early Upper Pleisocene Age, and the veget­a­tion and bird­life are remark­able. But watch out for the odd freak wave that has been known to lift hikers off the rocks. There are three cir­cu­lar routes to choose from, all of them start­ing from the park­ing area and clearly marked – the Gap Trail, the shortest of the lot is per­fect if you're there only moment­ar­ily, whilst the Point Circuit Trail is over 9 kilo­metres worth of rocky shoreline and not recom­men­ded for children.

Best done on a spring low tide if beach comb­ing is your thing. (Useful links: see Plettenberg Bay Attractions and Plettenberg Bay Accommodation)

South of Plett: Harkerville Forest walks

Garden Route Day Walks

Aside from the rather chal­len­ging but beau­ti­ful 24 kilo­metre Harkerville Coast trail to Sinclair and back to the Harkerville Forest Station that most people do as an overnight trail that tra­vers­ing some pretty daunt­ing indi­gen­ous forest and then along the shoreline for 4 kilo­metres with quite a bit of clam­ber­ing and chain lad­ders to add spice to the route, there are other shorter trails in the beau­ti­ful Harkerville Forest. The Garden of Eden is an easy 800 metre trail, whilst a quick walk to the Kranshoek Viewpoint will bring you to a sheltered pic­nic spot at a stream. The Kranshoek Coastal day walk is a 9 kilo­metre cir­cu­lar walk that packs in both forest and coast­line and is well worth doing. (Useful links: see Plettenberg Bay Attractions and Plettenberg Bay Accommodation)

Mossel Bay: Koumashoek Circuit

This beau­ti­ful hike through fyn­bos in the moun­tains just west of the Robinson Pass has some fairly steep climbs and takes at least six hours to com­plete the 15 kilo­metre trail, but it is noth­ing like the Attaquaskloof three-day hike that you can also do in the area. You'll need most of a day to do the trail that starts at the sum­mit of the Robinson Pass. Be pre­pared for mist but the views are worth it. Book at Eight Bells. (Useful links: see Mossel Bay Attractions and Mossel Bay Accommodation)

Albertinia: Gouriqua hik­ing trail

Garden Route Day Walks

Whilst not much lit­er­at­ure exists for this par­tic­u­lar hike, it does take you through some pretty rare Albertinia fyn­bos – whilst the little dorp might not be much to look at, the plants that grow here are unique. It starts and ends at the Gouriqua camp­site and is 14 kilo­metres in length, described as an aver­age trail. (Useful links: see Albertinia Attractions and Albertinia Accommodation)

Near Wilderness and Sedgefield: Moonlight Meander, Starlight stroll

This is a walk with a slight dif­fer­ence. The best time to do it is at full moon or new moon as it explores the inter­tidal zone exposed by the low spring tide on the sandy shoreline from Swartvlei Beach to Gericke's Point (Gericke's Point becomes some­thing of an island when the tide is high, so you can under­stand the need for low tide). It explores the rock pools by torch­light, guided by a pro­fes­sional who can point out all the high­lights. It's pop­u­lar, so book ahead. The great thing is not hav­ing to risk sunburn!

Useful Garden Route Links:
Garden Route Attractions
Things to Do in Garden Route
Garden Route Nature Reserves
Garden Route Hotels
Garden Route Accommodation

Hiking up Du Toitskloof in the Limietberg Nature Reserve — The Krom River hike

Krom River Hike

Having just accus­tomed ourselves to the early morn­ing gloom of the Huguenot tun­nel, we emerged on the Worcester side to pier­cing sun­light and a day that prom­ised not only to be free of clouds, but also incred­ibly hot.

Early March is really not a good time to hike because of the heat, but some­how we find ourselves endeav­our­ing to do so, des­pite numer­ous post-it notes on the fridge door writ­ten from the more dis­pas­sion­ate per­spect­ive of the morn­ing after, along the lines of 'DO NOT attempt to hike in February / March – may this be a reminder' ...

Leaving home at 7am on a Sunday morn­ing is an achieve­ment of note in our fam­ily, par­tic­u­larly as it means fore­go­ing that second mug of cof­fee and a slouch on the couch in the ini­tial rays of the morn­ing sun. But well worth it if a hike in the heat of sum­mer is the inten­tion, des­pite said warn­ings that obvi­ously lose their impact after a month of  tak­ing up space in amongst the fam­ily pics ('oh look, a pretty pink post-it note') on the fridge door.

Incredibly we left a cloud enshrouded Cape Town with an ever-so-light drizzle that had me scut­tling back inside for last minute rain coats, should the weather hold. Subsequently, our boot was an offer­ing to the god of many options, and a sign of lack of dis­cre­tion on our part. Had we had to catch pub­lic trans­port we would have been in ser­i­ous trouble.

The hike up the Krom River, which runs the length of Du Toitskloof, is one of a num­ber of options in the Limietberg Nature Reserve. You need a per­mit to hike in this beau­ti­ful stretch of out­door indul­gence, in amongst moun­tain scenery and fyn­bos, although the num­ber of people who passed us dur­ing the course of the hike indic­ated that this rule obvi­ously only applies to some (there is a limit of 24 per­mits for the walk). There was much mum­bling amongst our party about the lack of integ­rity from those who obvi­ously do not feel the need to 'give back' for their time spent in the sanc­tu­ary (the num­ber of cigar­ette stompies in evid­ence did much to rein­force this conclusion).

The start of the trail takes one below a fly­over of the N1, just out­side the tun­nel, and then veers back towards the tun­nel, which means the ini­tial part of the walk is accom­pan­ied by the dron­ing sound of trucks and cars as they come and go. It does noth­ing to spoil the won­der­ful beauty of the walk, which is marked by a series of white boot marks painted mostly on obvi­ous stones that take one up an ini­tial steep climb to a ridge that ven­tures around and away from the tunnel.

Within a half hour you pretty much for­get that there is a high­way and city life just behind you, as the ridges, fyn­bos and pretty river bed over­whelm with their beauty. Interestingly the altern­at­ive route to the Huguenot tun­nel accom­pan­ies one for a fair por­tion of the hike, and every now and again a truck or car inter­rupts the silence.

The nature reserve in which we found ourselves lies close to Paarl and stretches from Franschhoek in the south, to the north and Voelvlei dam, and east towards Groot Drakenstein, cov­er­ing roughly 117 000 hec­tares. In sim­ilar vein to the rugged ter­rain in which we found ourselves on Sunday, the reserve is mostly a series of steep kloofs, deep val­leys and a num­ber of import­ant rivers that feed the Wemmershoek, Stettynskloof, Theewaterskloof and Voelvlei dams.

On the ini­tial part of the walk, and still up above the river filled with mag­ni­fi­cent boulders and river stones, we passed a couple of sol­it­ary fish­er­men, the silence punc­tu­ated only by the odd call of a bird and a gentle breeze that made our walk all the easier, par­tic­u­larly as at this time of day our jour­ney up the river was mostly in shade. I found myself eas­ing into the walk, com­ment­ary for­got­ten, as I thought how much easier all of this was than I remembered (until the way back in full sun, that is). Hiking's lovely! Those post-it notes were obvi­ously from a really dif­fi­cult hike...

After a while, one des­cends and walks along­side the river bed, mostly to the right of the river. There are numer­ous little spots along the way where one can swim in ice-cold pools, and the accom­pa­ny­ing sound of trick­ling water soon lulls one into a won­der­ful state of open-hearted com­radery with nature – isn't it all just beau­ti­ful. The river is crystal-clear and the passing of water over the river stones pro­duces a song all of its own. The aver­age pho­to­grapher, if here early enough to find the play of light on the water, will find end­less 'moments' await­ing capture.

Part of our group had hiked here as a fam­ily when the chil­dren were a lot younger. We were regaled to tales of how the chil­dren, bare­foot, used to make their way up the river bed, whilst the adults accom­pan­ied them along the path. As we speak, a group of youths head past us at a rapid rate, their boots already soaked through from their jour­ney along the river stones – why use a trail when you can pit your­self against the odds in the river.

We reach the first pools, as the fam­ily call them, with ease, and break­fast muffins made from the unusual ingredi­ents of cor­gette and cheese are passed around. The little ones hit the water with squeals of delight and imme­di­ately begin games that include build­ing moats and col­lect­ing river stones.

But the sun begins to make its pres­ence felt and we decide to push on to yet another won­der­ful set of pools, this time at the bot­tom of the final ascent to the water­fall, and the reason for com­ing on the hike. Reason or not, by the stage we reach the second set of pools I'm quite con­tent to nibble on my lunch and lie back to stare at the sur­round­ing cliffs and blue skies in the shad­ows of the rocks, whilst the oth­ers head off up the chain lad­der to the waterfall.

If the tales that fol­lowed are any­thing to go by, des­pite being slightly hairy (there is a chain lad­der but if a five-year old can man­age, then it is per­fectly do-able), the ascent to the water­fall is well worth it. The mag­ni­fi­cence of the silence up here, the incred­ible water­fall and the acom­m­pa­ny­ing cliff faces pro­duce a won­drous scene, depend­ing on how many other parties of people have got there ahead of you.

Tips for san­ity when doing the Krom River hike:

• start as early as possible
• take a fair amount of water as it gets hot, par­tic­u­larly on the way back
• watch the muddy patches – if you're not sure-footed then you might lose a shoe to the bog
• take swim­ming gear, hats and sunblock
• watch the chains up to the water­fall, they can be hazardous
• the water in the pools is ice-cold (whilst refresh­ing, you'll be shiv­er­ing in moments even in summer)
• be pre­pared to feel the full heat of the day on the return, but don't leave it too late

Useful Links

Western Cape Hiking Trails
Worcester Attractions
Worcester Map
Worcester Accommodation
Western Cape Accommodation

Cecilia Waterfall from Kirstenbosch — a wonderful walk

Cecilia Forest Walk

Normally, when people speak about walk­ing Cecilia Forest, they refer to the more-or-less amble you can do through the forest after park­ing on Rhodes Drive, along the main jeep track. Cecilia Forest has a num­ber of lovely walks and jog­ging paths that pass through Kirstenbosch and on to Newlands Forest, most of them along well sign-posted footpaths.

Generally the foot­paths are won­der­ful for sum­mer as most of any walk is beneath trees (those that have man­aged to with­stand the rather ruth­less elim­in­a­tion of 'invader spe­cies'). But my other half had recently been on a foray through Kirstenbosch in search of the red Disa, which, incid­ent­ally, has been seen flower­ing in far lower sec­tions of the gar­dens than usual. Whilst on his jour­ney, he passed a rather jovial hiker who men­tioned that the hike to Cecilia water­fall was really worth it.

Expressing enthu­si­asm, the fit hiker also waved his arms in a gen­eral dir­ec­tion and gave brief recom­mend­a­tions on how best to get there from Kirstenbosch, and ambled off up the moun­tain. My dear part­ner felt com­pelled to com­ply, and not even a week later, we found ourselves in the higher reaches of the gar­dens at Kirstenbosch.

Bearing in mind that we had a five-year old in tow, we set off, with a map to help us, on said walk. By the way, don't believe any of the hike descrip­tions that begin some­thing along the lines of : said hike, 3 hours, mod­er­ately dif­fi­cult. These stat­ist­ics are writ­ten by avid hikers (sim­ilar to the one who motiv­ated the hike in the first place) for whom scal­ing paths up and down the moun­tain are effort­less. They do NOT have chil­dren in tow, and they cer­tainly are not moms who haven't man­aged to fol­low a fit­ness regi­men in, oh, at least six years.

We thought we were smart too, as the actual Cecilia Waterfall walk starts on Rhodes Drive, all the way to the south­ern parts of Kirstenbosch on the con­tour path, where it then heads up onto Cecilia Ridge into Cecilia Ravine. Our thinkinig: we'd have some­thing of a head start if we joined only at Kirstenbosch.

There was def­in­itely method in our think­ing. But on a hot day, and with the ini­tial steep climb from the gar­dens, up past the dam, and then up again before passing the sign-posted Rooikatkloof where we then were expec­ted to start up yet a fur­ther set of stairs into the rav­ine – we were pretty much exhausted way before reach­ing the water­fall, and con­sequently didn't.

Which isn't to say that fit hikers out there won't man­age this as easy as pie. And it also isn't to say that we didn't have an amaz­ing time! In the first half an hour, we spot­ted a black liz­ard sun­ning him­self on a log next to the dam that kept our interest for at least ten minutes. The dam too held an inter­est­ing topic of con­ver­sa­tion about the con­ser­va­tion of water. And pro­teas have just star­ted to come into flower, so these were gor­geous too.

Once on the con­tour path above Kirstenbosch, we perservered. We reached a fork with a set of signs: Kirstenbosch, obvi­ously, down to our right, Cecilia Ravine to our left. We headed left, and up again. The path appears to head back in the dir­ec­tion of Constantia Nek at this stage, which can be a bit con­fus­ing. I have it on good author­ity that fol­low­ing this route def­in­itely does bring you to Cecilia Waterfall.

The path passes through some for­es­ted areas that are quite beau­ti­ful – tall fern trees, moss, lichen and a change of scenery, but des­pite the cool it was still mostly an uphill slog and when we could not make out the sound of a water­fall, we decided at this stage to turn back (five year olds can only keep going for so long without the prom­ise of some reward).

Notes:

A beau­ti­ful walk, but not for hot days, or for young­sters, unless head­ing out early.
Take lots of water, hats and sun­screen with you.

Useful Links:
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
Cape Town Attractions
Western Cape Hiking Trails
Cape Town Hotels
Cape Town Accommodation

Fun in the sun at Umgeni Valley

Howick Falls

Umgeni Valley Nature Reserve, situ­ated just out­side Howick in the heart of the beau­ti­ful KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, is one of Africa’s lead­ing envir­on­mental edu­ca­tion centres. The greater part of the reserve lies in the spec­tac­u­lar gorge below the Howick Falls, while the upper part is the fringe of a rolling plat­eau which has an aver­age alti­tude of about 1000m. I first vis­ited the val­ley 26 years ago on a grade seven school camp­ing excur­sion, which provided some fond memor­ies – the most endur­ing of which were a black eagle swoop­ing out of the sky to end the life of an unsus­pect­ing dassie and a chance encounter with a genet while con­duct­ing a night vigil around the campfire ...

Although admit­tedly not as excit­ing, a recent after­noon excur­sion to the reserve was a lot more relax­ing and provided me with the oppor­tun­ity to unwind after a rather frus­trat­ing week. My friends and I decided on a quick hike to the river and back – a wise choice con­sid­er­ing that we had two young chil­dren with us.

There are six walk­ing trails in the reserve – Shelter Falls, Inkonka, Black Eagle, Grasslands, Rietspruit and Dwarf’s Dawdle. We decided on Inkonka since it was the shortest although the steep gradi­ent on the way back meant the hike was def­in­itely not all plain sailing.

Walking Trails

After leav­ing our vehicles on top of the plat­eau we made the des­cent towards the Inkonka camp­site tak­ing in the beau­ti­ful scenery along the way. The reserve teems with animal (includ­ing gir­affe, zebra and wilde­beest) and bird life (270 spe­cies in all) and the air was abuzz with insects of every descrip­tion – includ­ing scores of but­ter­flies mak­ing their way grace­fully through the hot after­noon air.

With huge cliffs to our left and dense scrub to our right we con­tin­ued to make our way down to the camp­site which we reached within 20 minutes. The site con­sists of a few rudi­ment­ary dwell­ings situ­ated close to the hik­ing trail – not exactly ideal for a lengthy stay but per­fect if you are just inter­ested in an overnighter.

Moving on we nego­ti­ated another steep decline and were soon greeted by the sound of rush­ing water as the Umgeni River appeared invit­ingly before us. We had reached our des­tin­a­tion and rewar­ded ourselves with a dip in the river’s refresh­ing waters while a nat­ur­ally occur­ring water slide proved a big hit with the children.

After much fun and games we decided to make our way back and this proved to be the hard part as although the dis­tance involved was only a few kilo­metres, a steep des­cent always trans­lates into a steep ascent. After a bit of huff­ing and puff­ing we reached the top of the plat­eau and were happy to see our vehicles parked exactly where we left them.

Walking Trails

After enjoy­ing a well-deserved drink we reflec­ted on the afternoon’s events and unan­im­ously decided that our efforts were well worth it. The Inkonka Trail is per­fect if you just want to get out into nature for a couple of hours and enjoy some fresh air and a fairly relaxed walk.

Serious hikers are more than likely going to opt for some­thing a lot more lengthy and strenu­ous – some­thing which I’m sure is catered for.

For those vis­it­ors who’d prefer a drive rather than a walk, there is also an Auto Trail.

Umgeni Contact details:
Tel: +27 (0)33 330 3931
Fax: +27 (0)33 330 4576
Physical Address: 1 Karkloof Road, Howick, Natal Midlands, KwaZulu Natal

Useful Links:
Howick Attractions
Things to Do in Howick
Howick Accommodation
Midlands Accommodation
KwaZulu Natal Accommodation

Lazy man's hikes – where to walk off the wrath of the holidays

Lazy Man's Hikes

We've put together a list of trails that still qual­ify as 'hikes' rather than walks (although one or two are barely more), but the degree of dif­fi­culty is not too tax­ing. In other words, you don't have to be super fit to do these hikes, and for a couple you don't have to have done more than the odd push up at the gym dur­ing the year to manage.

These are hikes you can enjoy at the start or end of a day, when it isn't quite so hot. And when friends and fam­ily enjoy being out of doors together. Again, these are some of our favour­ites, and if you feel we've left any­thing out, please add your com­ments at the end of the article ...

Waterbuck nature trail – Hans Merensky Nature Reserve, Limpopo

how long: 11 km, 4 hours
dif­fi­culty: easy

Just near Tzaneen, this is a pro­vin­cial nature reserve in the Lowveld that includes some stun­ning scenery. Beautiful mopane and red bush-willow wood­land, riv­er­ine forest and doler­ite ridges and the Great Letaba River com­bine to form a won­der­ful back­drop for two well sign-posted hik­ing trails. There is wild­life too and you might catch a glimpse of the sable ante­lope and other Lowveld mam­mals (although no chance of stum­bling upon any of the Big 5). There are rondawels to hire, the Tsonga Kraal Museum, and hot springs on offer too.

Kadishi Trail – Blydepoort Resort, Mpumalanga

how long: 2 km
dif­fi­culty: easy

There are a couple of trails avail­able from the Aventura Blydepoort Resort in Mpumalanga that include the Guinea Fowl and the Leopard Nature Trails, but the Kadishi-Tufa trail is the one to look out for, although it's pretty pop­u­lar for obvi­ous reas­ons. This trail starts out­side chalet no 64 and ends near the lower view­point on the road. During the walk you des­cend into the val­ley tak­ing a meander into the rav­ine along­side the Kadishi River with its numer­ous water­falls and pools.

Loerie trail, near Sabie, Mpumalanga

how long: 14 km, 8 hours
dif­fi­culty: easy to moderate

This is a day cir­cu­lar walk that starts at Ceylon Forest Station in Sabie or the Castle Rock Caravan Park and is a favour­ite amongst vis­it­ors, so it might be busy dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son. If you want to make it shorter, park a car at either end and take the 5 km one-way. But you should find the full length hike rel­at­ively easy, con­sid­er­ing most of it is level and through pine and euca­lyptus plant­a­tions. The patches of indi­gen­ous forest are well worth it.

Pilanesberg net­work of trails, North West

how long: 7–8 km, half day guided walks
dif­fi­culty: moderate

These are group guided day hikes for vis­it­ors to the nature reserve. They vary in length and can take up to 5 hours. The bonus is that your guide usu­ally knows a great deal about the game and veget­a­tion of the Pilanesberg reserve and there is no chance of stum­bling from the path. Depending on whose account you read, chil­dren younger than 12 are not allowed on the hike, and group size is kept to a max­imum of 10. As an altern­at­ive you could try the reserve's elephant-back safaris.

Spandau Kop walks, Camdeboo National Park, Eastern Cape

how long: 5–16 km
dif­fi­culty: easy to moderate

The Camdeboo National Park, pre­vi­ously known as the Karoo Nature Reserve, com­pletely sur­rounds the town of Graaff-Reinet, and it is in turn dom­in­ated by the two glor­i­ously unusual geo­lo­gical form­a­tions of Spandau Kop and the Valley of Desolation. The Eerstefontein walk starts and ends at Spandau Kop, which you can­not help but see from the town. In the shadow of this unusual kop­pie you will find a cac­tus labyrinth at Obesa Nursery (but that is an aside for those inter­ested in tack­ing some­thing a little spir­itual onto their out­ing). You can choose any of three walks that start and end at Spandau Kop gate, and there are a couple of great pic­nic spots at Eerstfontein and Agterstefontein to round it all off. Look out for the amaz­ing gif­bol geo­phytes, a bulb that looks just like an onion.

Terblans Nature Trail, near Knysna, Garden Route

how long: 7 km cir­cu­lar, 4 hours
dif­fi­culty: easy

There is an abund­ance of day hikes in the Knysna area, and pick­ing but one for the whole fam­ily to do is dif­fi­cult. This route is named after a tree in the area, actu­ally the largest mem­ber of the Protea fam­ily, and not Terblanche the former AWB leader, des­pite the sim­il­ar­ity of the spelling. This lovely walk starts at the Grootdraai pic­nic spot at the old Gouna forest sta­tion, roughly 17 km north of Knysna and is well marked along the route with the sym­bol of a wild pig. The trail does start with a sharp des­cent and ascent, but aside from this is level and includes a num­ber of incred­ible yel­low wood trees. Because of the pre­dom­in­ance of moist forest in the walk, the bird life is won­der­ful and if you're quiet, you can hope to see the Knysna turaco, grey cuckoo shrike, olive wood­pecker, chor­is­ter robin and many more. Look out for signs of por­cu­pines and bush pigs.

Other hikes in the area include the Elephant Walk, Knysna Forest Walks, Kranshoek Forest and coastal walk, and the Robberg Peninsula Walk to name but a few.

Newlands Forest, Cape Town, Western Cape

how long: 1.5 hours
dif­fi­culty: easy

Cape Town has many day hikes. And many books have been writ­ten on the sub­ject. If you want an over­view, visit a book shop and sift through the avail­able hik­ing maps and journ­als of those who have taken the time to doc­u­ment them. Newlands Forest is beau­ti­ful in which to walk, par­tic­u­larly because of the wel­come shade of the trees in hot weather. There is a cir­cu­lar walk you can do that starts and ends at the Newlands Forest Station and is just long enough to feel as if you're exer­cising. It's per­fect for the whole fam­ily and is easy. What's more, the moun­tain back­drop and incred­ible scenery and inter­link­ing paths that invite explor­a­tion mean that you could end up here for the bet­ter part of a day. If you're after a longer, slightly more tax­ing hike, then take the Newlands Forest con­tour path, which starts and ends at Rhodes Memorial and meanders through Kirstenbosch. Parts are pretty steep though.

Ploughman's Kop, Royal Natal Park

how long: 7 km, 3 hours
dif­fi­culty: mod­er­ate to easy

Ploughman's Kop is a moun­tain in the shape of a head on the left arm of The Amphitheatre in the Royal Natal Park, which is in turn part of the Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg Park. Really the walk is about the Ploughman's pools, but to reach them you need to go on a rather short, but non­ethe­less tax­ing up and then down walk that takes you from the Mahai camp­site. The pools are en route to the 'kop' and well worth the effort, and you can make it up and down within three hours, give or take a few more minutes to enjoy the icy waters of the rock pools.

Advice when hiking:

• one should be rel­at­ively fit, although most of the above are easy
• take a first-aid kit along
• be pre­pared for all kinds of weather, par­tic­u­larly in the moun­tains
• hike in groups of at least three
• wear a hat
• don't cross rivers at high tide
• take nour­ish­ing food and lots of water along

Useful Links:

South Africa Hiking Trails
Things to Do in South Africa
South Africa Attractions
South Africa Accommodation

8 great (not that well known) day trails

Day Trails

Holidays are per­fect for get­ting out of doors and exper­i­en­cing sum­mer at its best. Depending on where you're headed, there are count­less day trails that vary from a couple of kilo­metres, done in an hour or two, to more sub­stan­tial 17 km hikes that take the bet­ter part of a day to complete.

We've tried to select rel­at­ively easy hikes the whole fam­ily can do, although any­one can enjoy these. And we'll no doubt have missed some obvi­ous ones, although we've also included a couple of city walks.  Essentially we've put together a list of day walks across the coun­try that might entice one to get out of doors. I know it has me ...

Up Lion's Head

where: Cape Town
how long: one to three hours, depend­ing
take: a lot of water, snacks, a hat

Heading up Lion's Head – a moun­tain in Cape Town that hov­ers around 670 metres above sea level — is a great way to see Cape Town from the heights, short, and steep enough to get the blood pound­ing, but not dif­fi­cult enough to hinder those who are not par­tic­u­larly fit. The wind­ing path up and around the moun­tain gives incred­ible views over Robben Island, the Atlantic Seaboard and Blaauwberg, through some of the most beau­ti­ful local fyn­bos. And the top holds fur­ther prom­ise of rock climb­ing, if that is your thing. This is a free hike and you won't have to bother with per­mits. That said, you will need to take a lot of water with you, and snacks. There are no facil­it­ies up at the top, so best use the bath­room first too (des­per­ately beat­ing a track into the bush is dif­fi­cult as the walk is pop­u­lar). If the heat of the day alarms you, then try the full moon ver­sion of the hike. It is extremely pop­u­lar, but when the moon is up and the wind down, there is no bet­ter place to be.

Castle Gorge

where: Hekpoort, Magaliesberg
how long: 5 to 6 hours
take: water, lunch, snacks, a hat, swim­ming gear

This is a won­der­ful way to get out of the city to exper­i­ence the beauty of the Magaliesberg. Included in the hike are encoun­ters with numer­ous crys­tal clear moun­tain pools, cab­bage trees and won­der­ful rock form­a­tions. Time spent lazy­ing on the edge of the pools remains a memory for years to come. The hike starts with quite an uphill climb, but it's good to know that the worst is over at the begin­ning. Once up on the ridge the views are worth it. And twis­ted rock form­a­tions, wooded val­leys, and the pools and water­falls make it an incred­ible exper­i­ence – hard to believe you are but an hour and a half out of Johannesburg. Access into the gorge proper can be steep and pretty daunt­ing to those afraid of heights, or chil­dren, so be aware and care­ful. But the pools are so lovely that it is worth it. You will need per­mits for the hike (and a code for the gate), which you can get from the Johannesburg hik­ing club

Lammergeyer (Lammergeier) Hiking Trail

where: Between Lady Grey and Barkly East, North Eastern Cape
how long: one to five days
take: water, lunch, snacks, a hat, swim­ming gear

This hike, or vari­ations of the hike, tra­verses the foot­hills of the Witteberg Mountains. The  scenery – moun­tains, grass­lands – is inspir­a­tional, to say the least, and the area devoid of any devel­op­ment. Add to this pic­ture crystal-clear streams, gor­geous sand­stone form­a­tions and basalt cliffs and you can under­stand why this part of the world is so highly regarded. The trail runs through the Lammergeier Nature Reserve in the south­west­ern spur of the south­ern Drakensberg (be aware that even sum­mer thun­der­showers are pos­sible here, and the weather is vari­able). Bird life here too is pretty spec­tac­u­lar. If you have chil­dren, try to include Slidey Pool on the itin­er­ary. You can also plan your hike to suit your needs, simply con­tact the private Lammergeier Nature Reserve.

Big Tree and Ratel Trail

where: Garden Route, Tsitsikamma National Park
how long: 4.2 km, about an hour
take: water, a hat

This isn't a long walk, but it is worth the trip and can take the whole day, depend­ing on how much time you want to spend in the Tsitsikamma National Park. The hike is all about the Big Tree – an incred­ible giant yel­low­wood tree that towers above other trees in the can­opy. It is thought to be about 800 years old and reaches 36.6 metres into the sky, its trunk a mere nine metre cir­cum­fer­ence. There is a board­walk along which you can walk through the won­der­ful cool forest — great for fam­il­ies. If you're into a longer trail there are another two you can take from here – one that is 2.6 km and another of 4.2 km – neither is daunt­ing. If you love trees, or a cool walk then Big Tree, which starts at the park­ing area 3 km from Storm's River bridge, is worth it. There is an entrance fee.

Mpophomeni

where: Hluhluwe, Greater St Lucia Wetland Park
how long: roughly 3 hours, 7 km
take: water, a hat, binoculars

One of two self-guided trails in Hluhluwe, the Mpophomeni Trail is a wiser choice for a day walk – the other, the Dugandlovu, involves an overnight stay. Mpophomeni will take you through a sand forest filled with trees of every descrip­tion, all labelled, and bird spot­ting is one of the high­lights – it is after all, an avian para­dise. It is beau­ti­ful, well worth doing and not all that tax­ing, unless you want to do the second sec­tion, which is a fur­ther 10 kilo­metres. And there is a book­let you can pick up from the camp office that gives you all the points of interest along the trail.

Grootvadersbosch

where: in the Langeberg, roughly 22 km north west of Heidelberg
how long: most of a day (2 – 15 km)
take: water, lunch, snacks, a hat

Renowned for its huge indi­gen­ous forest, you get more than one day trail in Grootvadersbosch in the Langeberg Mountains. Three trails — known as the Bushbuck — described as a 'dis­orderly dawdle' even if it is a favour­ite — Fonteintjiesbos, which runs through the forest with a water­fall halfway to look for­ward to, and Grysbok, which trails along the fringes of the reserve through fyn­bos with won­der­ful views. The forest is spec­tac­u­lar to walk through and if this is your first time in the reserve, worth tak­ing the Bushbuck trail for this reason.

Alberts Farm

where: Albertsville, near Northcliff corner, Johannesburg
how long: the choice is yours
take: water, lunch, snacks, a hat

Not even Jo'burg res­id­ents know about Alberts Farm, the 90 hec­tare con­servancy that includes grass­land, rocky ridges and a sec­tion of wet­land along the Montgomery Spruit. Those who know about it enjoy it for walk­ing their dogs, ori­enteer­ing and fly­ing kites. It is also the site of the only artesian spring in Gauteng and the second-largest green lung in the city, after Delta Park. It is thus a won­der­ful place to walk for the bet­ter part of a morn­ing along the spruit down­stream where it joins the Braamfontein Spruit. Best to go in groups.

Dirtopia Trail

where: R44 between Klapmuts and Stellenbosch
how long: 10 km
take: water, lunch, snacks, a hat (or not, if you're doing it by moonlight)

This is one of three hik­ing and moun­tain bike trails you can do from Delvera Farm in the heart of the Simonsberg wine­lands. Dirtopia Trail is a marked vine­yard trail of about 10 km that starts from the Trail Centre and wends its way through a Renosterveld Conservancy (formed by sur­round­ing farm­ers in 2004 to pro­tect the rare Renosterveld veget­a­tion) and yel­low­wood forest right to the sum­mit of Klapmutskop. It takes you roughly an hour to reach the top. The trail is some­times done as a moon­lit walk on full moon even­ings, or as a sun­set hike. The views from the top are pretty spec­tac­u­lar and worth the effort.

Useful Links:
South Africa Hiking Trails
Things to Do in South Africa
South Africa Attractions
South Africa Accommodation

7 most memorable hikes in South Africa

Memorable Hiking Trails

This is a dif­fi­cult list to assemble, par­tic­u­larly in a coun­try so filled with incred­ible hik­ing oppor­tun­it­ies and trails that one is hard pressed to nar­row it down to seven. Nevertheless, we have endeav­oured to put together a list of those hikes people talk about for years after the event; the hikes people tell oth­ers to do.

They're also rel­at­ively kind to hikers, in the sense that there is overnight accom­mod­a­tion on the route and the route is clear and well marked. Most of them are long haul hikes, most of them are at the coast (for some reason hik­ing at the sea pro­vokes man­i­fold memor­ies), and a num­ber have slack­packer ver­sions, or can be divided into shorter hikes mak­ing them more access­ible to everyone.

We will have omit­ted many fant­astic trails, so, by all means add your mem­or­able hikes to our com­ments sec­tion below ...

Hiking in Hogsback

Amatola Hiking trail
Where: Eastern Cape, Maden dam near King Williams Town to just near Hogsback
How long: 6 days, 100 kms (regarded as a toughie)
Best time to go: sum­mer, although you can go all year round

The good news about the Amatola Hiking trail is that you can do it in install­ments, or parts of it as day hikes or even longer. You don't have to do the whole 6 day haul in one. And if you shop around, some tour com­pan­ies will offer it as a slack­packer ver­sion. That said, it is regarded as one of the most beau­ti­ful hikes ima­gine­able and you need to be fit to man­age it in its entirety. Most of the trail passes through incred­ible, ancient and indi­gen­ous rain­forest with huge out­e­ni­qua yel­low­woods, red­woods, sneeze­woods, wild olives and lem­on­woods to accom­pany you. The out­side world dis­ap­pears, the bird life is incred­ible and your des­tin­a­tion, Hogsback, well worth remain­ing in for a few days.

Hiking in Drakensberg

Giant's Cup
Where: Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal, from foot of Sani Pass to Bushman's Nek
How long: 5 days, 59.3 kms
Best time to go: winter and autumn, although pre­pare for cold nights, snow, and sud­den changes in weather

This hike runs along the foot­hills of the gor­geous Drakensberg range of moun­tains, mainly through the Cobham and Garden Castle reserves. Views here are to die for. Along the trail there are rock pools, rivers (six rivers rush though the val­ley), caves and water­falls. And best of all, Giant's Cup trail is regarded as only mod­er­ately dif­fi­cult and chil­dren can man­age it, within reason – whilst there are some pretty steep sec­tions, if reas­on­ably fit, you should man­age. Overnight accom­mod­a­tion is in basic huts and you'll need to provide your bed­ding and food. If it sounds too long, you can shorten the trail by start­ing or fin­ish­ing at Swiman or Pholela huts. The main 'down­side' of the hike is pack­ing as you'll need clothes for all seasons.

Strandloper Trail

Strandloper trail
Where: East London coast­line, Eastern Cape
How long: 5 days, 59 kms
Best time to go: before the sum­mer rains, best between Feb and May, although from July to September you might see whales

The Strandloper Trail runs from the Kei River Mouth to Gonubie – almot 60 kms of gor­geous beaches, rivers, cliff tops and coastal forests. It's not called Strandloper (beach walker) for noth­ing. Most of the hike trav­ails beaches and the accom­pa­ny­ing waves, shorelines, tidal pools and incred­ible sand dunes, estu­ar­ies and coastal forests. It's clearly marked with little yel­low feet and accom­mod­a­tion bor­ders on basic with four overnight shel­ters and no hot water. But there are some good stops en route at hotels and pubs where you can get a good meal (although you might want to plan these before­hand), and, des­pite one or two dif­fi­cult river cross­ings and the fact that the last two hours of the hike are said to be the worst, it has some of the most mag­ni­fi­cent accom­pa­ny­ing scenery.

The good news is that there is a slack­packer ver­sion of the Strandloper called the Strandloper's Sundowner Trail – the same route, sleep­ing in hotels with your lug­gage  car­ried for you. However the cost is a lot higher.

Whale Trail

Whale Trail
Where: Western Cape, mostly through the De Hoop Nature Reserve
How long: 5 days, 54 kms
Best time to go: when the whales are here, between August and December

As its name sug­gests, this gor­geous hike takes place mostly on the coast where you are most likely to spot whales. The trail is 54 kms that stretch from Potberg to Koppie Alleen with five overnight stops within De Hoop Nature Reserve, one of the most unique and diverse reserves in the coun­try with spec­tac­u­lar views. Whilst tak­ing in a vast array of indi­gen­ous plants and flowers you will also get to spot around 50 whales at a time in the bay at De Hoop, regarded as one of the best whale watch­ing spots in the country.

Day one is the hard­est and cov­ers 15 km up Potberg Mountain – views from the top are breath­tak­ing. By day three you're doing a leis­urely 8 km through rock pools on the coast­line. And overnight accom­mod­a­tion is not rough­ing it by any stretch of the ima­gin­a­tion – you get to stay in a range of cot­tages, although you will need your own bed­ding. That said, you don't have to carry all your own lug­gage, as what you don't need in a daypack is taken for you to the next lodging.

Otter Trail

Otter Trail
Where: Eastern Cape, Storms River Mouth to Nature's Valley in the Tsitsikamma
How long: 5 days, 42.5 kms
Best time to go: avoid times when the rivers are swollen with rain

If not the most well known then cer­tainly the most pop­u­lar hike – you'll need to book the Otter Trail well in advance if you intend walk­ing it. And you will also need to be more than a little fit, as there isn't any­one to carry your bags for you, and it's a long-haul hike. But it fol­lows what is argu­ably one of the most beau­ti­ful strips of coast­line in the coun­try along rugged, rocky shoreline.There are excit­ing river cross­ings that need a little fore­thought to man­age, such as Bloukrans, deser­ted beaches, and fre­quent sight­ings of dol­phins. Despite the steep ascents and des­cents people do this hike again and again. If you haven't attemp­ted it, you're not regarded as a 'seasoned' hiker.

Marine Reserve

Kosi Bay Trail
Where: Maputaland, Kosi Bay – the north­ern sec­tion of the iSi­mangal­iso Wetland Park
How long: flex­ible
Best time to go: out of sum­mer – it can be really hot and muggy

Whilst there is a Kosi Bay Trail that takes roughly four days to com­plete, which can also be done as a slack­packer ver­sion, there are vari­ations and flex­ible trails, depend­ing on your level of fit­ness. The old trail, remembered by seasoned hikers with nos­tal­gia, unfor­tu­nately fell into dis­repair. But it is pos­sible to do the same trail again, just the accom­mod­a­tion has changed. On aver­age, if you do the trail in its entirety, you'll walk for three to four hours a day. And if you're up to it, you can add canoe­ing and horse rid­ing, a turtle tour or a boat cruise to your itin­er­ary. You will also be exposed to some of the most incred­ibly diverse and beau­ti­ful scenery – deser­ted beaches, dune forest, open savan­nah and wet­lands, and the sight­ing of log­ger­head turtles make this an incred­ible hik­ing experience.

Garden Route Hiking

Outeniqua Hiking Trail
Where: Garden Route, Western Cape
How long: 1–7 days long, depend­ing, 108 kms alto­gether
Best time to go: all year round

Set in the gor­geous Garden Route, this one of the most pop­u­lar hikes, and one of the old­est. A seven-day trail in its entirety it starts at Beervlei Hut, an old forest sta­tion, and fin­ishes at Harkerville hut near another forestry sta­tion. Despite the fact that the trails can only be done from west to east, you can make it shorter by doing it in 2, 3, or 4 day install­ments. The hike wends its way through ancient indi­gen­ous forests with incred­ible tree ferns and moun­tain scenery. It is a self-hike, well sign­posted, with accom­mod­a­tion in huts along the way. The hike is peppered with the call of birds, sight­ings of the legendary Knysna loerie, rivers, streams, and tower­ing yel­low­woods, stink­woods, iron­woods, white pears, beech trees and the occa­sional ver­vet monkey.

What's your favour­ite Hiking Trail in South Africa? Leave us a note in the com­ment sec­tion below!

Useful Links:
South Africa Hiking Trails
Things to Do in South Africa
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Boesmanskloof Trail (also known as the Greyton-to-McGregor trail)

Boesmanskloof Trail

It is hard to ima­gine that the walk between McGregor and Greyton, both won­der­ful little towns in their own right and worthy of overnight stays at each, is a mere 15 odd kilo­metres (depend­ing on which account you read, the dis­tance var­ies between 14km and 19 km), whilst the drive between the two is a labor­i­ous trek that can take up to three hours — some­thing about the Riviersonderend Mountains that seem to get in the way.

However, the Boesmanskloof hike, also known as the Greyton-to-McGregor trail, is not as simple as it sounds and can be rather phys­ic­ally tax­ing, par­tic­u­larly when you know that you are expec­ted at the other end. Some hikers do it as a there-and-back hike over two days, whilst oth­ers take the one-directional option from one town to the other. Done this way though, you need a car at each end ...

Should you choose the two day option there is accom­mod­a­tion at either end, although be warned that the hike does not end in the town of McGregor proper, but 14 kilo­metres out­side the town. Accommodation is thus either in some­thing called Die Galg (where the hike starts or ends in McGregor) or at a farm known as Whipstock farm.

Rumour has it that it is easier to start on the McGregor end, as there is an ini­tial down­hill that would be a rather steep climb at the end of your hike, if com­ing from Greyton. There is also a des­cent into the town of Greyton at the end, which in turn, would mean a rel­at­ively steep start if start­ing there.

You will need per­mits from Cape Nature to do the trail. The hike itself is quite beau­ti­ful. It winds right through the only notice­able gap in the Riviersonderend Mountains, and as such is strenu­ous, but if you're pre­pared to go at a leis­urely pace with rests inbetween, chil­dren as young as eight will cope, as will rel­at­ively fit adults.

During sum­mer, start as early as you can, as you're likely to exper­i­ence true Karoo heat in the val­ley. The sav­ing grace of the hike is without doubt Oak Falls, a won­der­ful chance for river swim­ming, a water­fall, lim­ited shade, and rock pools.

Hiking from Greyton to McGregor, your walk is divided into the fol­low­ing mile stones: Breakfast rock, the jeep track, Oakes Falls, Die Galg – with a lot inbetween. Try and begin the hike, if com­ing from the Greyton, from the nature reserve as it's really pretty.  The jeep track (a bit con­fus­ing as it starts before Breakfast rock) takes you up a val­ley called Wolfkloof. By the time you reach Breakfast rock, it's well and truly time for a meal.

The jeep track then ends just below the Perdekop, and from here you are miles from any sign of man. The path is luck­ily down­hill now, all the way to the falls, and a wel­come res­pite and time for a swim. The last sec­tion of the hike, between the falls and Die Galg, gives you the option of either tak­ing the his­toric pass (the shorter ver­sion, although very steep) or the scenic, 'unfin­ished' route.

Die Galg is a series of little cot­tages with beds and hot showers. They will sup­ply you with the essen­tials for a meal, if you ask them, which means you don't have to cart it with you. Die Galg also has a beau­ti­ful stone double storey cot­tage, known as the Eagle's Nest, and a swim­ming pool (at very reas­on­able prices).

PS: remem­ber a hat, sun­screen, water, and food

Contact Cape Nature:
For hik­ing per­mits please call the CapeNature call centre on +27 (0)21 659‑3500.

McGregor Links:
McGregor Accommodation
Greyton Accommodation
Western Cape Accommodation
Western Cape Hiking Trails

Slide show from Flickr.com:

Rambling in Robberg

Rambling in Robberg ...

Travelling with a young fam­ily on hol­i­day is often chal­len­ging, and one of the sure cures for cabin fever (make that car fever!) is get­ting some exer­cise! While stay­ing at a lovely little garden apart­ment in Plettenberg Bay called, “A Little Stint in Paradise”, we decided to ven­ture out for an after­noon, since unfor­tu­nately our two young boys are not used to com­munal liv­ing, and the noise levels were becom­ing intolerable!

Robberg Nature Reserve lies about 8km south of Plettenberg Bay and provides a rich geo­lo­gical his­tory, together with an array of flora and fauna. There are three main walks upon which you can embark, ran­ging from approx­im­ately an hour in length to a full day, weather per­mit­ting. If you hold a Wild Card, you’re in for free, but oth­er­wise you pay a small entrance fee at the gate, which is open from 07h00-17h00 and later dur­ing December/January.

Our one hour ramble took us past some breath­tak­ing scenery, and I was rather relieved to not have chil­dren of the age who could make the four hour trip, since there are ample warn­ings of freak waves and strong cur­rents! We were fas­cin­ated by some of the over­hanging rock struc­tures, and learnt that Robberg’s rock form­a­tions date back to the early Cretaceous period, which is some 130–110 mil­lion years ago!

Being whale sea­son, we could also spot the odd tail fin and blow­ing, though we gained bet­ter views of these mag­ni­fi­cent mam­mals fur­ther down the coast in Witsand, known as the whale nurs­ery. Robberg is appar­ently a nurs­ery of another kind; a seagull nurs­ery, with the board­walks clearly dir­ec­ted round their nest­ing spots. Cape fur seals and blue duiker also fre­quent the reserve, but we were not lucky enough to spot any of these. We did how­ever spot a few exhausted hikers who had been trav­el­ling since early in the morn­ing, so clearly the longer routes are not for the faint hearted (or unfit)!

We were happy to return to our mod­ern and well-equipped little town­house and end our walk with a good old South African braai. But the sights and sounds of Robberg were def­in­itely with me as I was lulled to sleep that night – my two little hikers hav­ing passed out long before!

By the way, if you are in need of an addi­tional exer­cise break on your return jour­ney from Plettenberg Bay (or on your way up from Knysna), the Garden of Eden is a good one. Located roughly halfway between Knysna and Plettenberg Bay, the forest is well sign pos­ted from the road. The easy 15 –20 minute walk, fol­lows a board­walk for its entire length through beau­ti­ful indi­gen­ous forest, and is thus suit­able for wheel chairs. If you close your eyes (and block out the odd heavy-duty truck rolling by!), you can quite ima­gine the ele­phants of Knysna of the past, crash­ing through the dense foliage.

Plettenberg Bay Links:
Plettenberg Bay Accommodation
Plettenberg Bay Holiday Apartments
Things to Do in Plettenberg Bay
Plettenberg Bay Attractions

'Seated'- Experiments in Film Making

If you have an interest in film mak­ing or an appre­ci­ation for the work of extraordin­ary people in gen­eral per­haps you would be inter­ested in attend­ing the free pub­lic lec­ture at Hiddingh Hall on UCT’s Hiddingh Campus (Orange Street), Cape Town, at 5pm on Thursday, October 14^th.

Filmaker Shelley Barry will present GIPCA’s 'Great Texts / Big Questions' lec­ture and will dis­cuss her exper­i­ence of mak­ing films from a wheel­chair.  Shelley, now an award-winning film­maker in her own right has had to over­come many obstacles after she was shot dur­ing the taxi wars of 1996.  Now para­lysed, Barry will speak about her exper­i­ences and exper­i­ments in mak­ing films from a wheel­chair.  Screenings from extracts of sev­eral short films will accom­pany her lec­ture — show­ing her cre­ativ­ity and pro­duc­tion in dif­fer­ent genres.

Shelley Barry was born and raised in the Eastern Cape and she com­pleted stud­ies in English and Drama at UCT and the University of the Western Cape.  Apart from work­ing extens­ively as a dis­ab­il­ity rights act­iv­ist, Shelley has also held pos­i­tions at the Media Manager in the Office on the Status of Disabled Persons in the Presidency and as the National Parliamentary Policy Co-ordinator for Disabled People South Africa.  In 1997 she co-ordinated Nelson Mandela’s Guard of Honour for his State of the Nation address.

Barry was also awar­ded a full schol­ar­ship from the Ford Foundation to study towards her Master of Fine Arts in Film in the United States and gradu­ated from Temple University in Philadelphia in 2006. Her films have screened at major fest­ivals and events around the world and been acquired by tele­vi­sion, includ­ing MTV, DUTV and WYBE in the U.S and SABC in South Africa.

UCT’s Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) was estab­lished to enhance the arts within UCT and the broader com­munity.  The Great Texts / Big Questions lec­ture series aims to engender a cul­ture of exchange of ideas and opinions.

Contact:
For more inform­a­tion call +27 (0)21 480‑7156.

Useful Links:
Cape Town Events
Cape Town Attractions
Cape Town Accommodation

Kgalagadi — two day wilderness trail that will leave you changed

Black-backed jackal

If you're into rugged hol­i­days like tak­ing on the Otter Trail then the two-night, guided (for obvi­ous reas­ons as meet­ing a lion on the path might not be everyone's idea of 'fun') !Xerry wil­der­ness trail in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park will no doubt appeal.

We're talk­ing real 'back to nature' stuff here with open-air toi­lets, only a thorn-bush fence between you and those pred­at­ors at night, and a traipse through the red sands of the Kalahari that will leave you both invig­or­ated and tired, but over­whelmed by the magic of the place...

You will also need to be aware that get­ting there might not be as easy as driv­ing to doer and gone through the Northern Cape until you can­not travel any­more. The road from Askham to the south­ern gate of Twee Rivieren is said to have improved some­what, but it's still pretty tor­rid to drive.

You'll need not only your wits about you, and a spare tyre or two as insur­ance, but most def­in­itely an off-road vehicle (this is not the realm of sedans) so take ser­i­ously the bro­chures that say some­thing along the lines of: please note that the roads in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park are not sedan-friendly – they're not over-exaggerating – it can take as long as three hours to nego­ti­ate the 60 kilo­metre sec­tion of road before you reach the gate.

Known as the !Xerry Wilderness Trail, the trail heads into a region of the Kgalagadi Park where little has changed since the days of our fore­fath­ers — so this describes real solitude, free­dom and wil­der­ness (not just the sort advert­ised in every game farm bro­chure between home and the Kruger National Park).

Actually, it's not as 'wild' as it sounds. You'll find your­self at a base camp of sorts where you will spend two nights, and the days include an early morn­ing and late after­noon walk. But, it is in the middle of nowhere. And you are in the heart of the wil­der­ness. There is the dis­tinct pos­sib­il­ity of see­ing creatures both great and small. And you will be very much aware of your pale, insig­ni­fic­ance in the lar­ger scale of things.

Things in the park have changed though. Now the main roads within are tarred the park is no longer the ter­rain only of those who are pre­pared to rough it. Larger tour groups are mak­ing their way here and the odd traffic jam is no longer an exper­i­ence releg­ated to the city you've just left behind.

That said, it is still one of the most incred­ible exper­i­ences pos­sible — the com­mune with the desert. Dry river beds of the Nossob and Auob Rivers, elec­tric thun­der­storms, 38 000km² worth of park, three quar­ters of which lies in Botswana, effort­less sand dunes, sight­ings of the black-maned Kalahari lion, and nights punc­tu­ated by the call of the black-backed jackal make a trip here more than worth the effort.

We begin our two-day !Xerry Wilderness Trail with some trep­id­a­tion. It's become a stand­ing joke in our house­hold that I sadly lack the pre-requisites of what it is to be 'gung-ho'. I like my creature com­forts. None-the-less, I toss my regard for freshly combed hair and toi­lets that effort­lessly flush aside, intent on mak­ing this trail through dune veld, 12 kilo­metres or so west of Nossob, worth every minute.

Our guide doesn't fool around when it comes to just how he expects us to behave whilst we're under his super­vi­sion. His instruc­tion to walk in a single line, not in groups is one I've not heard since school and I find myself wrest­ling with either act­ively rebelling or real­ising that there is wis­dom inher­ent in his instruc­tion and that he just might know what he's talk­ing about.

Despite my obvi­ous anxi­ety, the late after­noon walk is a gentle one. And the inten­tion is not to meet face-to-face with a lion, but to re-negotiate our rela­tion­ship with nature. We learn instead about whist­ling rats, squir­rels, mice that live in trees, sur­ic­ates (meerkat) and other little creatures like the buck spoor spider, called this because it looks remark­ably like the drop­pings of a spring­bok.

Pretty shrikes and per­fect little finches rent the air with their calls, and the rather awk­ward kori bus­tard, some steen­bok and blue wilde­beest are about as big as the game is going to get, whilst out and about. But the alchemy of the Kalahari is in its sand dunes and effort­less sky­line. Try sit­ting on the top of a dune with the sun going down and you'll find your­self blown away. There is little to beat the exper­i­ence and my heart is soaring.

That is until I brave the toi­let back at base camp. It's little more than a long drop, and it doesn't have a roof. And then there is the low-lying fence that might give you an incred­ible view out over the Kalahari whilst you sit doing your thing, but doesn't exactly allow you the feel­ing of safety or pri­vacy. If this is as bad as its gets though, then !Xerry is a piece of cake.

The !Xerry Wilderness Trail takes place only in the cooler months between April and the end of October. Kgalagadi is a place of extremes and sum­mer can be unbe­liev­ably hot, whilst the nights in winter plunge below freez­ing. The best time to visit is between February and the end of April or in September/October.

Why go?

• the isol­a­tion and seclu­sion does some­thing for the soul
• the wild life pho­to­graphy oppor­tun­it­ies, because of the con­cen­tra­tion of anim­als in the dry river beds, are second to none
• if you are even remotely inter­ested in birds of prey then this is a haven
• the incred­ible desert scenery is a unique exper­i­ence, and a chance to see the unusual – bat-eared fox, meer­cats, honey badgers, and pangolins
• and the never-ending yearn to see the black-maned lion

Bookings
Contact SANParks on Telephone:+27 (0)54 561‑2050

Useful Links:
Kgalagadi National Park
Kgalagadi Accommodation
Northern Cape Wildlife Reserve
Northern Cape Accommodation

Scaling Steenberg Peak — a 2.5 hour circular route at Silvermine

Scaling Steenberg

I must be hon­est and admit that we did this hike in reverse. Well, not exactly reverse, but we opted for the clock­wise dir­ec­tion, whilst the hike, when you take the time to read the descrip­tion, actu­ally recom­mends that you take the anti-clockwise route in order to the avoid the rather obvi­ous uphill slog to Wolfkop – 'The anti-clockwise dir­ec­tion avoids a long slog up the Wolfkop steps'.

But hey, all things being equal, we felt we got a good deal from our hike. And the advant­age of doing it this way (the clock­wise route, against recom­mend­a­tion) is that you get to see really great views over the Constantia Valley and Muizenberg far sooner than the other more sedent­ary ver­sion of the hike.

I must just add that it takes plan­ning (some­thing we're not always great at) in order to set off for the Higher Steenberg Peak along the recom­men­ded jeep-track past the water­fall at Silvermine's Gate 2. This is because the hike is so obvi­ously sign­posted at the start of Gate 2 in the other dir­ec­tion, away from the jeep track – so I think we can be for­given for going the way most people would go.

After leav­ing our car with the more than jovial car guard in the park­ing lot (your car is safe with him), we obeyed the sign and headed up towards Wolfgat. Map in hand, sun begin­ning to head for its mid­day pos­i­tion in the sky, the first few minutes of the hike were lovely, filled at this time of year with fyn­bos, and the path eas­ily discernable.

Photographs — Left: Initial Path / Right: Sign post

After roughly 15 minutes of ambling, the walk starts to take a pretty steep turn as one heads up the Wolfkop steps. For most fit hikers this would qual­ify as a mod­er­ate incline, but we are any­thing but fit and rely instead on our nat­ural enthu­si­asm for walk­ing to get us up hills and down dales. Not a bad strategy but when it comes to scal­ing great heights, not recommendable.

Nonetheless, the views even from part-way up are well worth the exer­tion. Ou Kaapse Weg stretches out below one and the vista extends across to Silvermine West, Constantia, Elephant's Eye Cave and the back of Table Mountain all the way to Devil's Peak, depend­ing on the level of the light (hazy days are not as great).

From the top of Steenberg Peak there are unin­ter­rup­ted 360° views that are awe inspir­ing and well worth the steep steps to reach it. On the one side one can see all the way to Long Beach in Noordhoek, and on the other all the way across Marina da Gama and Muizenberg to False Bay. This is where we broke for reflec­tion, some­thing to nibble, and to drink in the views. How lucky are we to have this on our doorstep?

And the rock form­a­tions in par­tic­u­lar are fant­astic. Some are stacked in a way to emu­late caves, oth­ers look so pre­cari­ous, as if they may at any moment tumble from the pos­i­tion they have held for who knows how long. No sur­prise then that there was a pre­val­ence of liz­ards sun­ning them­selves on the rocks. Blue headed iguanas and other smal­ler ver­sions were obvi­ously not fussed by our pres­ence and soaked up the neces­sary rays really close by.

You head up the gully between Splitkop and Steenberg Peak. Because most of the ini­tial hike takes place on the north­ern slopes of Silvermine there is a pre­dom­in­ance of the most incred­ible fyn­bos. Vygies were already begin­ning to show their faces to the sun, clusters of flower­ing fyn­bos in yel­lows, purples and pinks grouped together gave pause for thought, whilst the path now lev­elled out, even if it was still climb­ing as we headed onto the sea­side of Splitkop, and allowed us to drink in the beauty fur­ther still.

Photographs — Left: Vygies / Right: Rock formations

Most of the veget­a­tion on this side of Silvermine was burned in what is known as the 'great fire' of 2000. As a res­ult much of it is young and you can see hun­dreds of flowers around the year – par­tic­u­larly pro­teas, and moun­tain dah­lias. Pick up a copy of Cape Peninsula by Mary Maytham Kidd if identi­fy­ing the plants and flowers is import­ant to you.

One of the most won­der­ful aspects to this hike is that great swathes of land here is utterly undeveloped. When one is not look­ing out over the city one's frame of ref­er­ence is instead the joy of being com­pletely emersed in nature in a way one can sel­dom do. There was no sound of man. No sight of man. And this not even 30 minutes from home...

From here one can extend one's walk to include Muizenberg peak (if you want to make a day of it), where you will be able to add views over Kalk Bay to your list of sights, but we chose instead to des­cend past the radio masts and met up with the ori­ginal jeep track to head towards Junction Pool, even if we did miss it!

By this stage of the hike we were begin­ning to flag and a stop for lunch was def­in­itely in order. We found a spot down next to the stream, the sound of run­ning water a balm for our tired legs, and the food a way to rein­vig­or­ate ourselves.

The lat­ter part of the hike joined the path that is used by many for walks over week­ends (the jeep track). This wasn't a week­end so we were lucky enough to have the place to ourselves. This part of Silvermine takes one past Maiden Pool and back to the car park at Gate 2. It is easy to walk, has beau­ti­ful views, and runs par­al­lel to Ou Kaapse Weg for some way, allow­ing unusual views out over Noordhoek.

Photographs — Left: Path towards end of hike / Right: The views

Highlights of the hike:

• if you want a chal­lenge, take the clock­wise sign­posted ver­sion. If you're after a more sedent­ary walk, go anti-clockwise
• fant­astic 360° views!
• gor­geous rock formations
• abund­ant fyn­bos in late winter – ericas, pro­teas, vygies
• able to pic­nic at numer­ous spots along the way, so take your lunch/snacks with you

Things to remember:

• in sum­mer, start as early as pos­sible – it gets hot
• take along hats, sun­screen and plenty of water
• not a hike for young children
• dog-friendly

For more des­tin­a­tion inform­a­tion see:

• Cape Town Hiking Trails
• Western Cape Hiking Trails
• Things to do in Cape Town
• Cape Town Accommodation
• Western Cape Accommodation

Strolling the pipe track

Pipe Track Hike

The pipe track, above Clifton and Camps Bay, can be a leis­urely stroll or a strenu­ous jog, depend­ing on your needs or your mood of the morn­ing. It is easy to reach, easy to fol­low, rel­at­ively easy to walk (depend­ing on the pace of your hike) and great for kids.

It is also one of the most soci­able hikes I've been on. It is very sim­ilar to the Constantia Nek con­tour path from Constantia to Kirstenbosch – a hike with very few ups and downs, and extremely pop­u­lar with loc­als and their dogs. If you walk it on a week­end expect to pass or be passed by another party at least every five minutes, if not more fre­quently, espe­cially if you're on the pipe track around midday.

On a per­fect wind­less winter's morn­ing, the pipe track is up there with going to the beach; a stroll in the park comes to mind it is so pleas­ant to do. And the views are the reason you head up here. The start of the walk is at Kloof Nek. Don't get con­fused as we did and assume that there is a park­ing lot for this walk alone. There isn't. You turn in at Kloof Nek as if you are going to head up Table Mountain in the cable car, but park at the bot­tom park­ing lot on your left.

Crossing the road to reach the steps up along­side the water­works' cot­tage is prob­ably the most dan­ger­ous aspect to the hike, and you will more than likely start along­side at least another two or three parties set­ting off. The route you fol­low is from Kloof Nek to Slangolie Ravine (roughly an hour and a half each way) but you can at any stage of the walk, turn back and head home, which is part of the joy of the hike.

Once you're up the hill, the pipe track runs level with the path almost all the way, although you only see snatches of it. To your left is Table Mountain – not an aspect that is famil­iar as it is the west­ern flank of the table – but you do get to see the cable cars enter and exit the top port. Alongside ini­tially, and then behind you, is Lion's Head in all its splend­our and, as you pro­gress, the Twelve Apostles extend ahead of you. The com­bin­a­tion of moun­tains and sea is heady stuff.

Right from the word go you are aware both of Camps Bay and why the hike is named the pipe track. As you round the first bend, you will see the pipeline as it crosses a small rav­ine, and will likely stumble across a series of aque­ducts along the walk (don't expect any­thing glam­or­ous, they're simply cement blocks on which a series of num­bers are pos­ted in red). Water still runs through these pipes, which brought Cape Town its first clear water in 1938. Before that any water com­ing into Cape Town was brown, in sim­ilar fash­ion to the water one sees in numer­ous streams in the moun­tains around Cape Town.

A little fur­ther along the walk, you will pass beneath a brick build­ing called the Woodhead Reservoir, the Kloof Nek fil­tra­tion plant. Much of the walk is shaded by a series of stone pine trees, enorm­ous as they stand along the pipe line.

There are one or two dips along the path, but the major one to look out for is the plunge (if you can call it that, as it is really slight) into Diepsloot gully, but this is quite far into the walk. Up and out of it and you head into a couple of quar­ries and the Matthew Jackson Gully, now closed to the gen­eral pub­lic, but which was fre­quently used as a route up Table Mountain (incred­ibly steep but it would not have taken too long if you were fit).

The views out sea­ward are incred­ible. From up here you would eas­ily see whales in the bay, if there were any, and we watched as a few people headed onto the beach below – little ants in their toy­land cars, as my four-year old son described them. The moun­tain side was strewn with little winter dais­ies, also known as Euryops abrotan­i­fo­lius, and the odd pro­tea still in the bud stage.

The lush smell of metalasia in the heat of the sun as we pro­gressed reminded me of ripe figs, its smell linger­ing on our clothes as we brushed past bush after bush, and the joy­ful play of purple, yel­low and white fyn­bos blos­soms in the soft light of winter lightened even the most mel­an­cholic amongst us.

The walk winds on, con­tinu­ously above Camps Bay until you hit Blinkwater rav­ine  (formerly known as Stinkwater) where, after about two hours, due to numer­ous stops en route (a walk with a young child is never straight for­ward) for snacks, fruit and water, we col­lapsed under a series of big pine trees.

Whilst my son and I stared out over Bakoven whilst seated in the lower branches of the pines, and watched a yacht pull in and drop anchor in Camps Bay, whilst pre­tend­ing we were a fairy queen and her prince, who draped my hair in vari­ous twigs and made me meals in the fairy kit­chen at the top of a huge gran­ite rock, my other half con­tin­ued briefly through a forest and out beneath the Blikwater peak. Just here above the sub­urb of Rontree (I hadn't heard of this sub­urb before doing the walk) you can join the pipe track in Theresa Avenue. It is more of an uphill but you get to do the walk the other way round – towards Lion's Head, although I would recom­mend doing it the way we did, from Kloof's Nek.

Highlights of the hike:

• not chal­len­ging at all – a dead easy hike (although there were those who jogged there and back!)
• look out for the numer­ous benches along the way
• fant­astic views!
• able to pic­nic at spots along the way, so take your lunch/snacks with you

Things to remember:

• in sum­mer, start as early as pos­sible – it gets hot
• take along hats, sun­screen and water
• head down happy val­ley after­wards to Camps Bay and have a swim in the sea  – a per­fect day's outing

Useful Links:
Western Cape Hiking Trails
Camps Bay Accommodation
Kloof Nek Accommodation
Cape Town Accommoation