Sunday, 28 August 2016

Baviaanskrans hiking trail, Aug 2016

Sorry folks, Google decided not to support Picasa web albums anymore and Google Photos (where all my photos was moved to automatically) does not have the option of embedding a slideshow of an album. So until Google comes to their senses, I can only provide a link to my Google Photos page where you can view photos of this trip.

Links

On Friday after work, Nicola and I drove through to Kgaswane Mountain Reserve, and met up with George. Shirley was supposed to join us on the hike too but got the sniffles and decided to rather stay home. Having not hiked with the club for a year and a half, there was lots of catch-up to do and we did this over a fire with African scops owls and Fiery-necked nightjars providing background music. We stayed up chatting until after 9pm but with an August chill still in the night air, we finally crawled into bed.

Day 1 (27 Aug): We were all up at first light, had breakfast, packed up and were underway by 07:15. The trail started with a gentle but persistent climb out of the kloof where our camp (Explorer Camp) was in. The sun was shining brightly but the temperature was very pleasant so early in the morning. Birds were singing too and we logged White-bellied sunbird, Green wood-hoopoe, Black-backed puffback, Black-collared barbet, African grey hornbill etc. With practically no hiking done in the last 18 months, both Nicola and I took it slowly up the hill but when the gradient improved and we headed down towards the Reserve’s entrance road, we started catching up to George again. It really was a beautiful morning and very pleasant to be out in the bush again! Past the road we descended some more until we reached a small stream where we sat for some snacks. Then followed a long climb up a ridge opposite our overnight camp at Avon-More. It was now past 10am and the sun was definitely a bit hotter. I started dragging behind a bit but eventually caught up with Nicola and George waiting at the top of the ridge. A steep and loose descent got us into shady woodland bordering a dry river bed. In a nice shady spot we stopped for lunch and just ten minutes after lunch, walked into Avon More camp. I remember from the last time I did the hike in 2005 how well the huts were camouflaged by concrete work looking exactly like the surrounding boulders – it still looked exactly the same! Both Nicola and I had some overworked muscles but it was great to get in some decent exercise. After a nice cold bucket shower, we lazed around camp, listening to birds and just enjoying the peace and quiet. At 5pm George started our fire which we only used for warming up our meat that we braaied last night. We all headed for bed much earlier tonight and I persuaded Nicola to sleep “outside” in the communal area which was completely open on both ends – this helped us to hear African scops owl, Pearl-spotted owlet, Spotted eagle-owl, Fiery-necked and Freckled nightjars.

Day 2 (28 Aug): Knowing that there was a lot of climbing ahead of us, we got up just as the night started to lighten a little. All three of us were ready to go at 06:45. The first kilometre wound up and down the slope of the ridge where Avon More camp was before starting to climb up the Tierkloof gorge. This was quite steep and a few tricky spots slowed us down. By 9am though, we were sitting at the viewpoint above Tierkloof waterfall and enjoying the view. The trail from here took a long loop across the top of the waterfall, circling through the valley above the falls before ascending to the ridge on the southern end of the valley. We all deemed this loop unnecessary and climbed straight up to the entrance road and then straight up the ridge. Eventually we picked the path up again where it crossed a saddle in the ridge and we finally reached the beacon at the top just after 10am. After a brief rest we had our first flat walk for the day along the ridge crest and about a kilometre later started the steep descent back down to Explorer camp. The day has warmed up considerably by now and the shady patches in the wooded gully were very welcome. George pulled ahead of us at this point and we only saw him again back at Explorer camp which we reached just after 11:30. We said our goodbyes as George hit the road and after a quick wash under the tap, we were on our way as well. Despite many muscles aching with unfitness, it was a very pleasant weekend. It’s a pity that Shirley was sick and couldn’t join us.