Wolfberg Cracks, Arch and Gabriel's Pass (6/6)

The church men's hiking weekend in the Cederberg, camping at Driehoek. Colin and I left Cape Town at 2.30pm on Thursday afternoon and returned on Sunday.  We had excellent weather the whole time and enjoyed some good days of hiking.

We were 20 guys in a scattering of small tents around the central cluster of gazebos, braais and circle of chairs.

It was my first stay at Driehoek and I liked the campsite a lot and look forward to going back again with family/friends.  Lots of grass, shade, overlooking the stream with views of mountains.

A lovely large swimming hole (with waterblommetjies, a rope swing and slide!)

Friday hike - first destination the Cracks. We drove to the parking above Sanddrif - some of the group who chose to do a shorter hike to the cracks took the cars back to Driehoek afterwards.

Colin - many times he and I found ourselves getting left behind: taking pictures of plants, lizards, rocks, discussing their identification or sharing our fascination with the natural world.

Our minister Rob looking good on his first venture into the mountains of the Western Cape.

First water break.

Almost at the narrow crack after negotiating the ledge and scrambles up to the windows.

Wolfberg Cracks are a superb!

And on to the Arch.

The cool croc taking a drag, and other characters.

At the Arch we had our lunch and the Cape Rockjumpers were looking for a crumb or two.

Continuing our hike, we followed the vlaktes north and descended to Gabriel's Pass which we followed down to De Rif for a rest in the shade of the old cedar grove.

I don't think I have seen quite so many and so large antlion traps as under those cedars.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWkfAyfBDHE)

I took a small detour to get close to some beautiful kniphofias below De Rif at the jeep track.

This was the section that I had never done before - the trail from De Rif down to Driehoek through a fantastic complex ridge with super rock formations.  Came upon a few dead burnt Clanwilliam Cedars. Apparently there are living trees still there - will have to look harder next time.

The yellow flowering bushes that densely covered the more gentle slopes on the last few k's down to Driehoek I later found out are Rafnia.

It was an excellent 8 hours of hiking during which we covered about 16 km.

Red Hill to Scarborough (5/5)

Bridget and I joined a MCSA meet "tramping across the koppies and vlaktes of the Red Hill Plateau at an easy pace" led by Martyn Trainor.

We started from Red Hill at 8.45am, to end at Camel Rock in Scarborough (cars at each end), and the South-easter was pumping hard with low cloud over the land.  Some concern that we had not brought much warm clothing, as it was rather cold.  Happily the cloud lifted after and hour or two, and with the sun shining, the wind chill was reduced.  But not the strength of the wind, and we had to contend with it all day.

The route started on the Kleinplass Dam Trail, but we branched off after a while to head toward Grootkop.

These little plants growing up to about 40 cm were all over the whole day's hike and looked like a buchu but did not have the characteristic buchu crushed-leaf smell.  Later identified it as Agathosma hookeri after googling "agathosma with no fragrance" or something like that!

A very interesting erica was found growing in a scramble between some rocks on the way up Grootkop - Erica halicacaba. The species name means "gooseberry" in Greek and the large flowers apparently have some resemblance to the Cape gooseberry when they are dry and brown.

At the top of Grootkop we had our first sit-down break.

Then we headed down again, towards the Kleinplaas dam.

Geissorhiza tenella (klein langpypie), a delicate little bulbous flower we encountered all day, especially in this area.

The route had now turned off path and bundu bashed over some vlaktes and onto another low ridge with sculpted rock features, towards our tea stop.

Although there was a super balcony ledge looking towards the dam, the wind was unpleasant and we made a tea stop behind some rocks at the end of this ridge.

More cross country walking followed as we went towards Vlooiberg.  Bridget looking good with the Cape Snow (Syncarpha vestita) in full bloom.

Had to lie right down to get the scent of this ground pincushion (leucaospermum).

From far away these syncarpha plants could have been sheep grazing, but were spectacular from close as we started our climb up Vlooiberg.

Touch the beacon and sit down for a while...

Ocean View and Noordhoek beach in the distance.

The route went down the western slopes and onto an old jeep track.

I spotted a shy little tortoise next to the track.

After about 1 km on the track our leader took us off westward towards the sea. This gladiolus was growing in a crack in a rock.

Another plant that was all over the whole day - Lachnaea grandiflora.

We enjoyed a good lunch break on the steep slopes overlooking Misty Cliffs. Roella ciliata flowers.

Need to find out what this is.

A colourful little wetland after turning off the jeep track on the way to Scarborough.

A view of Witsand and the Crayfish factory point with Platberg rising up to the left.

Pseudoselago and Chironia

Magnificent Gladioli on a small rocky ridge that we crossed before descending to Scarborough and the end of a very interesting and enjoyable day.

Vlakkenberg circuit (4/4)

Bridget and I did a late Sunday afternoon hike starting at 4pm from Constantia Nek, over Vlakkenberg, down to the saddle and then on the Bokkemanskloof path to the top of Blue Valley Ave in Hout Bay, and back to the car on Hout Bay pipetrack gravel road.

We parked the car at the Nek, walked down the main road for 200 m and crossed the road to where the trail starts, and headed up through the access path. After we reached the top of the log steps between the vineyards on the left and the Silvermist property on the right, and headed south west on a slightly less steep ascent, we enjoyed this view looking back towards Constantia corner and Orange Kloof.  We had a good sighting of a black kite perching on the very top of a pine tree, having to work hard to balance against the movement from the strong south-easter blowing.

Slightly visible in the above photo, and more noticeable below, were about 7 or 8 cables that had been suspended right across the valley below us on the Silvermist property. Some of them must have had a span of 500 m and construction seemed to be in progress. We debated and decided that it was most likely a new zipline adventure development (subsequently confirmed: http://saforestadventures.co.za/index.php/cape-town-2/cape-town-zipline-tour to be opened apparently on 1 Nov )

From here on the trail runs through lovely fynbos and the flowers are superb at this time of year. We crossed Vlakkenberg and headed down to the saddle on the Hoerikwaggo trail, through dense flowering leucaspermum conocarpodendrun trees, looking across towards the Constantiaberg.

Below, the beautiful marshy area where you cross the saddle.

The Bokkemanskloof path down, new to me, was rather overgrown and wild, but full of interest.

We eventually found a very good position to stop for tea, sheltered from the south-easter and enjoyed the warmth of 6 pm sunshine

The remainder of the downhill went on the right hand side of the stream and indigenous forest.  Further down quite a lot of black wattle was around, with dense stands of slender trees high up on the opposite slopes.

We came down to the residential area and walked down Blue Valley to Fynbos avenue which took us to the gravel road of the Hout Bay pipetrack and a bit of a slog in the fading daylight back to the car at the Nek.

Distance 9km. Climb 400 m. Total time 3h 9m.