Hole in the Wall/ Caveman's Overhang Traverse (22/28)

Unfortunately this one had a serious mishap.. My four sons and I set off late morning on Easter Monday from Cecilia Forest. We headed up to the contour path at the Kirstenbosch boundary and then took the path up to Rooikat Ravine and Cecilia Ravine. We reqched the bridle path after quite a few stops due to the heat.

Equipped with a route description and gps track we navigated the path past the De Villiers Reservoir and along the side of the ridge, through the hole in the wall and over the ridge to where we looked out over the dry Victoria Reservoir

The path became less clear but we managed to follow the cairns without too much problem and crossed back over the ridge to the Hout Bay side at the start of the Caveman's Overhang traverse.  We stopped there and had tea and lunch.

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After the lunch stop we found the path much more difficult to discern, and the cairns were almost non-existent.  At one point we realized we had gone too far off the gps track and retraced our steps to try to find the correct route.. I saw an overhang cave beyond a small gulley and suggested we see if the route went that way.  Leading the way around  a boulder I suddenly realized that there was quite an alarming drop on my right and called back to the others not to follow, while I took extra care with my handholds. Almost immediately afterwards I heard a noise behind me and saw Adam slipping.

His reaction was to jump away from the rock face, and while falling, grabbed onto the slender tree below us. The tree broke, but helped control his fall and he disappeared from view. Within a few seconds he called out that he was ok, and with huge relieve we saw him get up and sit down on a bank, but clearly in some pain.

We managed to get down to him fairly easily from a little further back (discovering that the correct route actually went right past where Adam had fallen). Ben applied his scouting first aid knowledge and after a head to toe inspection concluded that while he had some fairly deep grazes (probably from the tree branches or the rock below it), there fortunately were no broken bones, back or head injuries. We cleaned the wounds and patched him up carefully with our first aid kit. It seemed that he could walk, so decided to head back up to our lunch spot and then find a path back to the concrete road near to Victoria Reservoir. From there he managed to walk back past the Overseers cottage, along the first zig zag of the bridle path, and then down Spilhaus Ravine to our car.

Adam had a dangerous fall and we are very thankful that he did not suffer serious injury. Some lessons I have learned on reflection:  1) When you lose the trail, it is very important to control anxiety, slow down and take extra care. Retrace steps and look carefully for all possible natural lines - unlikely that a route with cairns will go out of character suddenly!  2) If you get to any sections that require some scrambling do not assume that your party knows the techniques to use - you need to clearly explain about three point contact and good hand holds; 3) Test a line first before letting your party follow you! 4) The value of a decent first aid kit. Maybe another roll of bandage or two would have been even better as adhesive plasters don't always stick so well.