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.