Clovelly Ridge circuit (8/7)

Our walk started from Sunbird Centre off Ou Kaapse Weg.

 We crossed the stream wetland over a plank bridge and followed the trail up the Silvermine river valley, past some old ruins that Slingsby calls the Powder House.

The most striking vegetation features were the large pincushion trees (Leucospermum conocarpadendrum) dense with yellow flowers and talk pink Watsonias.

On one of the buchu (agathosma) bushes were these beautiful brown beetles with shiny papery brown and black wing cases. Later idenfied ast Lycis (net-winged beetle).

It is always a treat to come across the exquisitely painted Galdiolus carneus.

Love the vanilla smell that Struthiola gives off in the evenings, but this was midday, so looked more closely at its delicate tiny flowers.

We various straw flowers (everlastings)

Pelargonium triste/ kaneelblom (cinnamon scented).  Below, one with its grapefruit sized tuber exposed on the sandy path.

Another little pelargonium (P. longifolum we think)

Roella ciliata

And some beautiful mountain dahlias (Liparia spendens)

Our lunch stop was just opposite the Amphitheatre, where the Cave Peak path branches off.

Penaea mucronata making a colourful picture in front of us.

After lunch we took a wrong path and got lost on Cave Peak, first going one way then another way, and finally relocating back to where we had lunch, and realizing that we had taken a minor path from our lunch stop, instead of the main Cave Peak path.

Once we were on the main path, we crossed the ridge and descended past Devil's Pit and then to Boomslang cave.  Heard flapping/whistling sound above us in the mist and found that some people had strung up a cable or slack line apparatus spanning about 50 metres above the lntrances to the caves. With the strong wind blowing and south easter mist it was obviously not a good day to perform a Go Pro stunt , though. I wonder if they ever did what they intended to?

Then we descended down to Trappieskop saddle, finding the scramble down the rock ledges quite tricky (is there a better way that I am unaware of?).  After that it was down the stony path to the Clovelly streets, along the golf course, and then back up the Silvermine valley to our car. That last bit not very enjoyable, a soft sandy track into the afternoon sun, with uninteresting vegetation with aliens,

But there was at the end a rewarding crossing of the Silvermine stream, with lovely yellow Wachendorfia thyrsiflora (Butterfly lilies) and Psoralea along the banks.

Distance 11.3km, elevation gain 500m, duration 4h 38 minutes.

Maltese Cross (7/6)

Saturday's hike was to the Maltese Cross from the parking at the end of the track from Dwarsrivier farm.

As was the case yesterday, there were so many beautiful and interesting plants, and I took many pictures to identify or remember. This was one of a few Chasmanthe flowering.

Nearly at the top of the valley, we stopped for a break in the shade of the cliffs.

That is such an impressive rock formation against that wonderful sky.

Just next to the Maltese Cross there is this impressive example of sedimentary rock folding, standing all on its own.

The blue lizards kept me entertained for a few minutes on the way down.

At the beginning of the day's hike, after crossing the stream and ascending the trail for about 1 km up the Bokveldkloof, the breeze from the north-east had carried the sound of tumbling water up to us.  It seemed to be coming from further up the stream that we had crossed and where I noticed some rock bands intersecting the river course.  It seemed worth exploring so near the end of the hike I ran ahead of the group and went exploring....

The pool that I discovered far exceeded what I thought might be there!  I took some pictures and had a swim, then went off to tell the others and get them there.

It was only about 500m directly from the car back across the undulating grassy flats.

The guys were suitably impressed and some considered it the highlight of the day!

Later, back at Driehoek, David and I went for another walk of about an hour on one of the farm routes to a view point and some bushman paintings.

We reached the overhang and found an arrow sign pointing upwards but still took some time to find these two figures of a buck and a human.

The site has had a lot of weathering and possibly also fire damage, and much of the rock has flaked off.  There were small smudges of other figures that suggested there was a bigger scene visible long ago.  Not very impressive, but the excursion did satisfy some more of that need to explore and see what is at the end of the map/trail.

That evening I took Colin, William, David and Tony to the Cederberg Observatory for the slide presentation and telescope viewing. The talk/slides were good and up to date, but a bit disappointing through the telescopes, as the sky was bright with a large moon and no Jupiter or Saturn up.

The next morning we went up the Waterfall path for about 30 minutes, had a communion service among the rocks next to the second waterfall and pool, and then a group photo and lekker skinny dip!  Packed up and left for home by midday.

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.