Orange Kloof - always restricted access - somehow never been there before, so grabbed an opportunity to go with Meridian Hiking Club meet led by Karen Watkins. This was a hike to Woodhead Tunnel/Hell's Gate along ring road and back the same way. About 9 km distance and 4 hours in total.
Left Constantia Nek at noon, in a party of 8, at last able to go this way!
A stop at Parrot Ravine where the overflow of De Villiers Reservoir provides a good stream.
Ascending steadily to the top of the Hout Bay valley, with the Sentinel the most remote point looking back down.
A magnificent Harveya capensis - a parasitic plant.
I think a rain spider lives here.
At the top of the ring road we took the trail towards Disa Kloof. Looking back to the Constantia corner ridges.
And Vlakkenberg and the Constantiaberg/
Tritoniopsis
Bridget picked out a special one that could easily have been mistaken for another red Tritoniopsis. The cluster disa (Disa ferruginea).
Also saw quite a few of the blue Disa graminifolia.
We descended to the Disa stream. Most of the group avoided the dodgy footbridge with the rotten timber centre.
Or you did the duck walk.
Round a corner and there in front was this surprise. Hell's Gate - a deep gorge leading straight to a dead end wall, with the Disa stream entering from a side ravine.
This is the Disa stream dropping steeply down into the gorge.
And the portal of the Woodhead Tunnel dated 1891, which used to take water from this side of the mountain (and the Table Mountain dams) through the Twelve Apostles to Camps Bay pipe track and down to the city!
An exquisite clump of Disa uniflora right there above the tunnel.
A bit disappinted with the colour of the photos from our very simple Canon compact,
so I borrowed one of Karen's pictures here.
The lunch spot on a ledge above the Hell's Gate gorge.
The end wall of the gorge, with lush vegetation and more disas.
I climbed halfway down and took a picture looking downstream.
The lunch spot ledge again.
And the Disa stream coming down to the gorge.
Our group, plus Bob the photographer.
With a woolly sheep in the background.
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