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Aasvoëlkrans Hiking Trail

This trail is a short and sharp hike in the Montagu Mountain Reserve, some 2.4 km in length and 214 m in elevation gain. For relatively little effort it reveals panoramic vistas of the town of Montagu, Cogmanskloof and Bloupunt. From its highest point, the old English...

Perdeberg hike

The hike from Feetjiesbos (or Fairy Glen), near the Palmiet bridge, to Perdeberg Peak and back, in the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve, is not hard. It rises through rich fynbos at an easy gradient, gradually revealing views of the sweep of Sandown Bay beach to the Bot...

Kasteelkop & Nek

Kasteelskop is a rocky hill above Fairy Glen and below the Three Sisters that resembles a castle turret. It also features a castellated ridge from a certain angle. Our pleasant hike took in the kop and the nek (saddle) that separates it from the higher Three Sisters...

Three Sisters hike

The Three Sisters trail at Kleinmond is described as "challenging" and "moderate" on various websites and trails apps, opinions determined by the abilities and experience of the respective authors, I assume. I would advise that you be conditioned for hiking and be...

Up the Cascades

Cascades is a perennial summer outing on the Mountain Club's calendar. Either members scramble up the gorge, skirting the waterfalls, or they abseil down the gorge through the waterfalls - often doing both in a single weekend. I have abseiled it before, but this was...

Klein River by kayak

The Klein River and Vlei near Hermanus can apparently claim that: at 80 km in length, the Klein River is the river with the shortest distance between its origin and its mouth in the world - 5 km as the crow flies (according to the Stanford Tourism Bureau) the bird...

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Baboons matter

On the Cape Peninsula there are few people who are neutral towards the local Chacma baboons: you either love them or hate them. The remnant troops of the Table Mountain National Park which now protects a large portion of the peninsula, range from the southern table of...

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Doring River rafting

The Doring drains the Tankwa Karoo through the Cederberg range into the Olifants River. It can only be rafted in the winter-rainfall months of July to September. Photos and a Google Earth file. The weather forecast for this weekend promised nothing good. Consecutive...

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A caracal in Stellenbosch

A few weeks ago, after the fires that charred the mountains in the Jonkershoek valley, I was cycling to work through the Jan Marais Nature Reserve which is located near the centre of town. As I rounded a corner I was stunned to see a beautiful big caracal standing in...

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Kruger Park and climate change

The IPCC's technical paper on Climate Change and Water (pdf), published in June, features some dire numbers for South Africa's premier national park, the Kruger National Park. Should the global mean temperature exceed 1990 levels by 2.5 to 3 oC, then 66% of its animal...

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Welcome to RalphPina.com

Thank you for visiting my outdoor blog. RalphPina.com documents my experiences over many years of appreciating, and adventuring in, Nature. It celebrates visual beauty, advocates minimal impact, reflects on humans’ relationship with our ecosphere, spans the planet but focuses on the wild diversity of southern Africa. Photos, videos and GPS maps of hiking, cycling, kayaking, abseiling, canoeing and windsurfing..

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