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..

Navigate

March 2025
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

Analytics

Friends

Good Causes

Hiking sites I like

Mountain & Hiking guides

Parks

Thank You

Your message has been sent successfully!

Thanks for contacting us! We will get in touch with you shortly.

Pipe Track to Hout Bay Corner

by Ralph Pina | Dec 27, 2021 | Table Mountain National Park

Via Corridor and Llandudno ravines December in the Cape saw a lot of unseasonal rain allied to some nasty Black South-Easters. The latter means low cloud on the mountains and unpleasant conditions. But desperate for a walk of some sort, Santie and I decided on a Table...

A farewell to Stellenbosch Mountain

by Ralph Pina | Oct 29, 2021 | hiking, Jonkershoek Nature Reserve

After 34 years of living and working in Stellenbosch, not to mention 4 years as students here, we are preparing to move to the Kogelberg coast for the next phase of our lives. Although I don't have any notion of deliberately taking leave of familiar peaks and trails,...

Recces and repeats

by Ralph Pina | Oct 15, 2021 | conservation, hiking, Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve, Jonkershoek Nature Reserve, Table Mountain National Park

I haven't posted in a while, so those who believe that if an outdoor activity hasn't been posted on digital media somewhere then it didn't occur, might think that I have been idle. Although there have been other distractions - like grandkids arriving for a long visit,...

Simonsberg

by Ralph Pina | Jul 24, 2021 | hiking

Simonsberg has been a looming, brooding presence in my life for almost fifty years. It towered to starboard daily on the short walks to engineering classes, and later on the cycle commutes to work. In stressful times when I needed calm and to gaze at something...