What was meant to be a three-day hike to Springstygbeugel and exploration of the area, turned into a curtailed two-day trip for me in a surreal turn of events. Paul had invited some MCSA Stellenbosch members, completed and lodged the CapeNature safety forms for us to...
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,...
Central Karoo The Erdvark Trail is located roughly 45 km west of the Karoo National Park. It winds up and through the foothills, valleys and tablelands of the escarpment, where the Karoo’s Koup ramps up to the Hoogland Karoo, in a great circuit some 67.8 km in...
Once I wrote, a bit arrogantly, that life was too short to repeat a hiking trail. I have since broken this “rule” many times and this trail, the Cape of Good Hope Trail, is increasingly responsible for these “transgressions”. The trail is like...
During April we three MCSA Stellenbosch section members – Sonja, Paul and I – made the long trek to that part of the Eastern Cape that forms the southern border with Lesotho, to participate in the MCSA national mini-camp hosted by the Free State section....
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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