Suikerboschfontein hiking trail Jul 2010

On Friday the 2nd I picked Nicola up in Middelburg and we drove another hour or so to Japie's house, arriving just before 5pm. George, Brian, Shirley and Eddie were already there and the fire was going well. There was a definite chill in the air for which the fire helped very little and by 7pm, everybody had found an excuse to head for bed.

All night long we could hear dripping on the roof and we woke to foggy morning. A quick breakfast saw us on our way shortly before 8am, covered in warm layers. The trail is well-laid out and easy to follow. We first descended down a long spur before entering some indigenous forest patches skirting below a cliff face. With the mist lifting, we stopped at the Baboon hotel for a quick scramble and stunning views. Some more contouring brought us into more broken terrain and we had a number of easy up and downs before we reached the first of some ruins. Some studies have been done on these ruins and an interesting pamphlet was available to read back at the hut. Past the ruins we stopped for lunch at around 8km, with only a little over a kilometre left to our overnight camp.

With lunch over we started the slow ascent, first through some forest again, then out onto broken terrain, littered with huge rocks and boulders of all imaginable shapes and sizes, making for a very interesting climb. Rooikrans camp, a cluster of 4 sleeping huts, 2 ablution huts and a communal area, very skilfully hidden among the rocks, greeted us just before 1pm. After a good deal to drink, we spent the rest of the afternoon clambering over the rocks and reminiscing about previous trips. Brian and Eddie got the donkey boilers going so we could all have hot showers and by 3pm, the cooking fire was lit as well. It meant that by 5pm, with the sun dipping behind the horizon, we were all fed and drinking a last cup of tea. None of us stayed up much beyond 6pm and we all headed for the warmth of goose down.

Nicola and I got up around 6am and started packing up. With lots to do back in Middelburg now that our new house's registration went through, we were eager to get back home. At 7am we said goodbye to the others, still mainly in their sleeping bags. Although the night was beautifully clear, there was now a thick patch-work of clouds scattered from horizon to horizon. We climbed through more broken terrain, and then contoured around the tops of two beautiful ravines before descending into the second. A network of ladders and ropes guided us through the forest and crystal streams before the path steeply climbed out through a break in the cliffs. Taking a quick break we could see the other four on the opposite side making their way around the ravines, about 45 minutes behind us. After the 5km mark the trail contoured a bit before going through another ravine. With about 1.5km to go, the path snaked into the upper reaches of a small depression and when we climbed out of this, Japie's house was right in front of us. With hot showers only an hour away at home, we dumped our packs in the car and were on our way.

Suikerboschfontein is well-known as a beautiful and practically designed trail. We will be back to do this one again!