Fighting the Kogelberg fire
The latest fire that swept through the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve last week was nothing short of disastrous. Young veld burnt again and all the eleven-year old veld has been destroyed, so that, in the words of a nature conservation official, "everything between...
Paddling up the Steenbras
There isn't actually much of the Steenbras River to paddle up, even on a kayak - only about 300 metres. Rather it's the 13 km round-trip paddle from Gordon's Bay harbour and the usually benign, but spectacular, rivermouth entrance that is most of the fun. On this last...
Slanghoek Peak via Witte River
The route to Slanghoek Peak curves south and east up the Witte River valley. A fairly level and scenic walk from the car park at Eerste Tol on Bainskloof Pass of 12.5 km to a saddle below Slanghoek on Mountain Club property, known as Springstygbeugel1, almost...
All along the watershed – Saaltjie to Botmaskop
Last Sunday I hosted some of the Patagons and other hiking buddies at Jonkershoek for a day hike - "not too long, too high and too hard" was the request. So I thought it would be nice to follow the eastern watershed from north of Twin Peaks to Botmaskop - not too high...
Hiking Oorlogskloof’s Rock Pigeon Trail
Also known as "Wessel Reloaded" 5 days, 52.2 km (55.1 km according to my GPS recording), 18 hrs 27 min moving time at a moving average speed of 3 km/h We all agreed afterwards that Oorlogskloof is probably the best hike in South Africa - mainly because of the care and...
Simonstown to Smitswinkel on foot
We took the Old Mule Trail up to Blockhouse Gap where two old blockhouses slowly weather away. Apparently the blockhouses were built at the beginning of World War I to guard the eastern approach through the nek to the naval ammunitions magazines that scar the high...
Victoria Peak with the Patagons
At the beginning of the week that I finally became a member of the Mountain Club of SA, some of the Patagonian trekkers and I headed for Victoria Peak, the highest peak in the Jonkershoek mountains. It was a warm day with high cloud and haze and no wind. Pretty...
Photos and thoughts from the 2010 World Cup
Aka De Kaap is weer Hollands... I am a football fanatic - always have been. That South Africa would one-day host the World Cup seemed completely inconceivable when I was growing up in the apartheid era. When SA won the right to host it the sceptics - especially some...
Kayak Rooiels-Pringle Bay, Kogelberg Coast
On this crisp morning, Deon and I launched at Rooiels and paddled out to look for the first Southern Right whales of the season, but it seems it's still too early. So we settled for a paddle down the coast to Pringle Bay and brunch. A fairly heavy swell was running...
More Patagonian trek stories
Long-time hiking buddy, Peter Groves, has produced a monumental work that documents our three weeks in Buenos Aires and Patagonia recently. It is liberally illustrated with his magnificent photos. I highly recommend a visit. Peter's not in the photo above because he...
Recent Comments