Climbing Maternity Couch (Magaliesberg) Jul 2005

Day 1 (30 July): Rob picked Darrell and me up from my place. We arrived at Mountain Sanctuary Park at around 09:00 and started walking almost immediately. We soon were level with Cedarberg kloof and Rob started looking for Frog gully. He led us through bushes until we found a cluster of trees where we could leave our packs. While Rob sorted out his rack, we put on harnesses and a few other bits and pieces. We walked over to the gully where we scrambled down a fair distance before using a tree belay for the first abseil. We scrambled another short section before the second longer abseil. At the bottom we found Maternity Couch very quickly – it was right next to Frog gully. We clambered about 5m above the kloof floor before setting up our first stance. While I belayed, Rob led off. Darrell followed and I came up last. On the first pitch there was only one scary bit where we had to step across open space and swing onto the roots of some trees. Unfortunately my rope was still leading straight up at this point and I tried to climb up an overhanging crack. Getting pumped after four attempts I stopped and looked around me. Only then did I spot the runner on the tree because my rope wasn’t clipped to it. Then I stepped across and soon I was on top of the first stance. The second pitch went uneventful. After Rob led off on the third pitch and Darrell climbed up as well, I had to disassemble the stance. A cam that I put in over-cammed and refused to budge. After five minutes of fiddling I gave up and climbed the last pitch. At the top Darrell volunteered to have another go at it. Rob lowered him but after 15 minutes he also gave up. He climbed back up and we walked over to our packs for lunch. Rob left after lunch and we bouldered a little before walking over to the MCSA campsite at Cedarbergkloof. We made early dinner and watched the sun set before going to bed. We talked for a long time, partly because it was warm and partly because I struggled to sleep on the hard ground - I forgot my sleeping pad.

Day 2 (31 July): We rose at around 7am and were ready to go into the kloof just after 8am. We struggled to find Lunch and some of the other climbs upstream of Grey gully. Eventually we decided to go back to the things we know. I climbed Easy Meat and Jam & Toast again. Darrell had a go at two other faces on the same buttress but gave up after a while. We then walked back to camp for lunch. After lunch I walked down to MSP to collect Al. He arrived at 12:40 and we walked together back to the campsite. We returned to the same boulder and Al climbed a little with me belaying. Then Al had a go at belaying Darrell before we decided we had enough, packed up and walked out to MSP.