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We got up just before 5am, had some quick coffee and rusks and then drove out towards Buffalo Gorge. Nicola reminded me that we were supposed to pack tents and sleeping pads, something I’d obviously forgotten completely, and we had to turn back just outside Middelburg to go and fetch it quickly. Despite this short delay, we got Buffalo Gorge just before 06:30 and soon met up with George, Shirley and Eddie. After filling the water bottles and putting on sunscreen, we were on our way. A short uphill in the undergrowth of a small gully saw us topping out on a small plateau. From here the walking was easy and a light breeze made it very pleasant. After almost 2 hours of easy walking, following blobs of paint and white-tipped droppers, we came to gated fence that had no obvious way to cross it. There were what seemed to be markers on the other side, but without an obvious path or way to cross, our direction seemed doubtful. The map was consulted under some shady trees and Eddie convinced us that the path crosses the fence. So then we went under the fence at a weak point and carried on. Soon we arrived on a cliff edge and we could hear Diderick, Red-chested and Black cuckoos calling in the forest below. We walked until we reached the top of the 50m abseil point where we had a short tea break and then headed down into the valley towards the west. It was now late morning and the sun started getting hot. The trail split at one point into a 12 and 15km trip and we opted for the longer one. But half an hour later we got to a signpost pointing to the camp in the direction we came from and we were unable to find our location on the map. Out came the GPS which showed us just over 3km from the camp. Deciding that we had enough of the hot morning sun, we headed back on the GPS direction. We came upon a couple of paths and followed some until we reached a small donga where White-fronted bee-eaters nested in the mud banks. Two Jacobin cuckoos flew past as we decided how we were going to cross the small ridge. Then Shirley and Nicola found some markers and we followed these across the ridge. From the top we had less than 2km to go and George and I decided to walk straight to the camp on the GPS heading. Soon we had the camp in sight and by now we were very hot and the swimming pool at the camp looked very inviting. We arrived back just after 12pm and 5 minutes later were all sitting in the pool. After lunch we chatted the afternoon away, listening to the abundant bird-life in the trees. Around 4.30pm, the owner came around and took Nicola and Shirley off on a horse ride. I made fire and by 6pm George, Eddie and I were having a braai. Shirley and Nicola only returned shortly before 7pm and after some tea around the dying fire, we headed for bed.
We were up at 5am and recorded a number of birds before catching a quick breakfast and then dumping all our climbing gear into Eddie’s Citroen and heading up the hill to the abseil spot we passed yesterday. Before 7am we parked and took the short walk to the abseil spot. It took me about 10 minutes to set up the 40m abseil and then Shirley took the first steps across the edge. Then George had a go while Nicola took photos over the edge. I went down third and stopped halfway down to pull the end of the rope out the top of a small tree. The walk back to the top was interesting and got the adrenalin going and I was glad that Shirley wanted to go down again after Nicola to make sure she found her way back to the top. After Shirley went down a third time we packed up, drove back to the hut and left 15 minutes later for bacon and eggs at our place in Middelburg.
Despite the trail lacking some serious maintenance and the facilities not being the best, we had a fun weekend out and were happy to hear so many cuckoos out (6 species in total).
