Fernkloof (Magaliesberg) Sep 2006

Gordon came to my place at 06:30 and we left in my car for Bergheim. This was a guiding weekend for Philadelphia Reformed Church in Hatfield. Having heard rumours that Fernkloof has turned a little trickier than usual after the heavy rains earlier the year, I wanted to see the kloof for myself before taking the group down. Therefore, Gordon and I left early so we could do the kloof before they arrive.

Day 1 (15 September): Arriving at Bergheim, I paid a R300 deposit for the entire group, parked the car and started walking towards the kloof. We confirmed that we had to take the left fork in the path before going through the cattle turnstile past the fence. We continued up the hill at a good pace and were on the contour path soon. We continued on the path but instead of crossing the tributary as usual we carried on higher until we arrived in a flat, wetland-like plateau. We skirted this to the east for a while but then aimed straight for a saddle on the opposite side. Arriving at the top of the saddle a stiff breeze blew up the mountain. We could see down to the south and also the distant mountains of Kgaswane Mountain Reserve. We gradually rose over the next hill and then I spotted the trig beacon I was aiming for. Walking across to it, we happened on a path and followed it all the way to the beacon. I took a GPS reading, a few photos and then walked to the southern edge from where we could see Olifantsnek dam as well as the ridge of the amphitheatre leading down towards it. We then turned around and decided to follow the path all the way down to see where it got us. The path was very distinct and followed an easy slope down back towards Fernkloof. Soon we found ourselves in the tributary running into Fernkloof and we could get back on the normal route I take. Then we descended and proceeded down the kloof. At the big tree descent I discovered that a lot of sand in the pool directly below has been washed out and we had to repair a rock bridge to enable people to cross dry here. I noticed a few trees dead in the kloof, barring progress, that used to be alive. At the large chock stone with the sisal rope the rock just left of the waterfall was much wetter than usual and shuffling across this was very scary – I decided right there that I would protect this the next day in some or other way. Going through the pool went quickly but I was a bit surprised at how cold the pool was. We then walked back and got to Bergheim at 14:30. We bought some more charcoal, set the tents up and packed the fires, ready for when everyone arrived. At 16:30 we walked down to the boom to wait for everyone. Mariaan phoned to ask if I could phone Willie to give him some directions, which I did. Not long after, the first group arrived, followed by all but one car, which only showed up at around 19:00. By then we had already started the fires and were almost ready to braai. After dinner, we chatted around a gas lamp for a long time before eventually settling down for the night.

Day 2 (16 September): Gordon and I got up before 6am and started preparing a lovely breakfast of omelettes with mushrooms, peppers and bacon. I still wanted to get some wood before we left for the day so we had to wait until 8am when the office opened. We all left at around 08:20. The walk to the start of the climb went quickly but on the uphill things slowed down considerably. Larry and Juanita struggled with the uphill the most but with well-timed rests we still managed to get to the contour path by about 10am. The walk around to the view of the nose went fast and here we sat for a while enjoying the view. Here I also urged everyone to go to the toilet if they needed to. Descending into the kloof took a while but without incident. At the waterfall some people took a quick shower before we moved on. The first obstacle, the tree, proved tricky as Larry lost his footing trying to get down the boulder below the tree and took a bit of a tumble. Luckily the other group members were on hand to catch him. The next obstacle, the tree-root crossing, was less of a problem and everyone were able to descend the rope without problems. I decided the previous day to rig a handrail at the long slab descent and since we got to this point at around 12:00 I decided to have lunch just before this section. We stayed for an hour at the exact same spot where Gordon and I had lunch the previous day. At 12:45 I left to start rigging the handrail and at 1pm the first person started walking down. Seeing the tentativeness with which people made the descent, I was very glad I did rig the handrail. While Gordon carried on down the kloof with the group, I packed up. The next section was the sling down climb. When I got there, Gordon had already managed to get two people down, saving some time. Then the most difficult part came up – the sisal rope descent. Taking another look at it I decided that the chance of a slip and fall was just too great to simply have a handrail alone. On top of that, the sisal rope was badly frayed at the top where it was wedged around a chock stone. I decided to rig both a handrail as well as a belay. This took some time. Then I had Gordon dress people up in either the one harness I had or an improvised sling harness. Stefan sat at the corner just below the waterfall, clipping people into the belay just before they got onto the slippery rock. People would then be belayed by me while crossing the worst part and then still be on belay while using the sisal rope as balance to climb down the boulder. It took us some time to do the first two people – Larry and Juanita, but when we got the hang of the system, it went faster. However, we still spent about an hour and a half to get everyone down. I also urged them to take the swim right after going down the rope, which meant that when I finally packed up and descended, I was the only one who still had to swim. Then it was a short delay before we got to the bottom of the kloof. Larry had built up a nasty headache at this time and we left for camp as soon as we could, arriving back at around 17:30. I quickly got two fires started and then went for a quick swim while Gordon looked after the fires. It was a very long day for all and we worked hard. It was not surprising that after dinner everyone disappeared into their tents. During the night it started to rain lightly and I went out to put things in the car.

Day 3 (17 September): When we woke up, the weather looked weird. There was a strong wind blowing and dark clouds moved in from the south. We laid in for a while but when the rain stopped we quickly had breakfast of fried eggs and cheese grillers. Not long after breakfast the wind direction changed to a north westerly and soon it rained again. But it wasn’t very hard and didn’t stop us from packing things up and clearing a bit of the camp. At around 9am, the weather looked like it might stay decent for a while and we left for the kloof, carrying abseil equipment. The vote was carried the previous night that we would do the short abseil in the bottom of the kloof. I was banking on doing the longer one the previous night, but when the weather turned a bit sour I was glad we didn’t have to walk that far. At the top of the cliffs, I took a few minutes to find my usual abseil spot and then took about 15 minutes to set up a releasable abseil with belay, using both ends of my static rope. Gordon went down first to help people out of the harnesses at the bottom. Then I supervised all those who haven’t abseiled before. Even though the cliff wasn’t that tall, the overhang certainly made things exciting and everyone enjoyed it tremendously. It took me until after 12 to supervise everyone. Clouds had started to build again, so I sent the group on their way back to camp while Gordon and I quickly packed up. It started dripping again as we left. We walked back to the camp in 10 minutes, packed up the tent and said our goodbyes as everyone was on their way. The wind was blowing very strongly and the clouds looked ominous – I didn’t care to stay very long either. After everyone left we spotted a pair of trainers that stayed behind so knowing that the group was going to stop at Tree Tops I chased after them and dropped off the shoes before leaving for a home.