Red Stone Hills

One of the great advantages of being “retired” is that my time is my own. So, when Leonie invited my to join her and Sonja to explore the arches of Red Stone Hills after our almost-abortive hike at Gamkaberg, I accepted with alacrity. On a previous visit to Vensterkop, they had spotted another arch high in the distance beyond that required some exploration. These arches and peaks are on private land, so we met the landowner at his farm Rietfontein Volstruispaleis and he kindly guided us out to the foot of Vensterkop.

The walk up to the first arch, Vensterkop, is quite easy and short, and it was there that I sent the drone out to shoot some video (see the results below) and also flew it out to the other arch visible high up on the next red ridge to the west. As the drone flies (crows tend to be a little recalcitrant) it is about 1 km away, but there are no paths, except for animal tracks, and we would have to cross a lot of dead ground covered in pointy and prickly bush.

  Leonie gazes up towards Vensterkop

Vensterkop

But first, the ladies decided that we should repeat their previous climb to the peak on the ridge north of Vensterkop. The route to the peak looked quite precipitous to me. And it was as if the resident baboon troop was barking warnings at us. It was clear that quite a bit of scrambling was required across and up red conglomerate that appeared to be soft and crumbly. Consequently, on the first traverse across a steep cliff I felt decidedly exposed and tentative. But I soon realised that the conglomerate was fairly solid and offered excellent grips and footholds, even for my hard hiking boots. We lunched below the peak on the ridge. The baboons happily and effortlessly skipped up and over the ridge ahead of us.

On the way to the peak. Looking back to Vensterkop
Ostrich Foot Quagga fig or Prince Albert vygies?

Then we took quite a difficult and steep descent to the valley floor. By the time we had bundu-bashed across the valley – my exposed shins a bloody mess – and up the opposite slope to below the distant arch, we were decidedly more confident of finding a scrambling route over the top of the ridge to the arch, which Sonja did. It is interesting to reflect that as we had gazed across the valley at this arch from our lunch stop, none of us felt too enthusiastic about the precipitous descent to the valley and the climb to the arch – but nobody voiced these thoughts, so our respective silences compelled each other to tackle it.

The conglomerate of the Red Stone Hills is actually part of a geological formation called the Buffelskloof Formation. Most websites quote a description by Geoff Wyatt-Goodall from his seemingly obscure book, Geology of the Klein Karoo. Apparently, the formation was previously known as the Enon Conglomerate and there are exposed outcrops all the way from Calitzdorp to the Eastern Cape. For example, as one approaches De Rust from the west, another range of red ridges looms on the left. I asked Google Gemini to summarise information about the formation:

  • Formation: Buffelskloof Formation (Current Name)
    • Rich in reddish conglomerates, sandstones, and breccias (from the Italian for “rubble”).
    • Deposited by high-energy rivers and flash floods during the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana millions of years ago.
  • Red Colour: The northern part of the formation is rich in iron minerals that oxidized, giving the hills their distinctive red hue.

Below the far arch
Leonie on the ridge approaching the higher arch. Vensterkop at left.

Sonja at the upper arch

View the rest of the photos in the shared album