Abseiling and birding, Nov 2017

Our friends from Highveld Hikers asked me to set up an abseil for them. Since it was very close to our home, it was decided to go to Buffalo Gorge, about 20kms north of Middelburg. We've camped and hiked here before (neither of which are to be particularly recommended) but they do have a semi-decent abseil spot allowing for a good 45 metre descent.

Early on Saturday morning, Nicola and I drove out to Buffalo Gorge. It was overcast and cool and the forecast predicted rain for later in the day. We did some birding along the way and were excited about a pair of Temminck's coursers seen running ahead of the car. The track to get to the campsite wasn't particularly good so we ended up being a few minutes late but were happily greeted by Shirley, Eddie and Laurence. As they were ready to go, we packed all the gear in the Xtrail and set off. Just outside the gate we met the owner (Ryk) who explained where to go and what to do. The track to the mountain top was not good at all so we had to take it very slow. Close to the parking spot we exploded out of the car when the car flushed two Harlequin quails. A third one flushed as well as we approached the landing spot of the first two birds but we did not chase them any further. Shortly we parked the car and walked to the cliff edge. Unfortunately it was obviously not the right spot to abseil so we ended up wasting almost an hour. The map we received from Ryk had more than one map version and this, together with the text and his earlier explanation were completely contradictory. But eventually we found the right spot and I proceeded to set up the abseil. Neither Nicola nor I fancied the walk back to the top so we decided not to abseil ourselves. While I guided Shirley, Eddie and Laurence down, Nicola recorded birds we saw and heard - these included Orange-breasted and Grey-headed bushshrikes, Red-winged starlings, Mocking cliff-chat, Alpine and White-rumped swifts, Cinnamon-breasted bunting and Black-crowned tchagra. While we waited for the group to walk back to the top, the wind picked up and by the time they were back, it was blowing quite hard and cold. We decided to only do one more abseil for Shirley and Laurence and then pack up. After their return we quickly walked back to the car and drove back to the camp. We made it just in time - just as we started eating lunch it started raining. Not wanting to get stuck in mud, Nicola and I left shortly afterwards and returned home.

Checking Shirley before she goes over the edge

Shirley on her way

Not looking down

Cloudy view over the Selons river valley

Getting Laurence ready to go

Laurence over the edge

Strapping Eddie in tightly

Eddie on his way

A number of Middelburg Bird Club members met on Sunday morning on the edge of town to drive in convoy to Herman and Louise's farm, about 20kms north of Loskop dam. It was a beautifully clear day so we regretted somewhat only leaving around 06:30 and arriving at the farm at 07:30. While some people wanted to have some snacks and coffee first, Nicola and I immediately started birding and quickly added Southern black tit, African paradise flycatcher, Red-chested, Diederik and Levaillant's cuckoos, African green pigeon, Spectacled weaver, Red-faced mousebird and several others. Half an hour later we all started walking up a jeep track towards their tented camp and had some good birds along the way including White-crested helmetshrike, Willow warbler, Chinspot batis and Black cuckooshrike. Back at the farm house before 10am, some people went for a drive to the top of the ridge for a nice view towards Groblersdal. The rest of us tended the braai fire and watched a Southern black tit raid the African paradise flycatcher's nest, seemingly eating the day-old chicks. When the other returned from their drive we socialized while pot-bread was cooking at the fire. After lunch there was an outbreak of termites after yesterday's rain and this attracted hordes of Red-billed queleas, Barn swallows, European bee-eaters, White-rumped and Little swifts. Around 2pm people started packing up and by 3pm we were back at home.

Male Black cuckooshrike

Cut-throat finch and Dusky indigobird

Cape white-eyes

Southern black tit attacking African paradise flycatcher hatchling

MotherAfrican paradise flycatcher back on the nest

It was a very enjoyable weekend meeting up with friends we haven't seen in a while and enjoying some great birding and just being outside!

Cycad hiking trail, Feb 2017

Hikers: Pieter, Nicola, Shirley, Lawrence, Lorraine

It was a blissfully short drive we had to do to Cycad’s basecamp – just 40kms! Just before we left home, Shirley phoned with a request to bring along a gas stove, in case threatening rain forced us to cook inside. Nicola and I arrived at the basecamp almost an hour before the others and discovered that another group would also be hiking the trail – they had the use of the second hut. When Shirley, Lawrence and Lorraine arrived it took us over an hour to catch up on all the news and happenings since we haven’t seen each other in over a year. The dark clouds that threatened earlier turned into nothing and by 5pm we had our braai fire going. A beautiful sunset accompanied our dinner and after, we played our video of Iceland and reminisced about one of our best holidays yet.

 

At the basecamp hut, Lorraine, Shirley and Nicola almost ready to go

Day 1 (18 Feb): We were doing the trail as a basecamp, rather than sleeping over at the Arendsnes camp – the other group was doing the trail as a backpack. It was slightly annoying that there were only two toilets and two showers for all of us together especially when the other group started hogging both sides despite a verbal agreement that each of our groups would stick to one side. Nevertheless, we all finished up and were walking by 7am. It was a very pleasant morning but the trail that was neatly mowed for the first hundred meters, very soon disappeared entirely. It was well-marked though and only occasionally we had to stand still a little to look for the markers. This did annoy me somewhat – if you need that many markers to be able to follow a trail, then it's not a good trail. Good trails you can follow without having any markers. Nicola and I birded as we walked as well. By 10am we had reached the lip of the Olifants river gorge and had nice views up and down the valley. We could see the Arendsnes camp on the edge some distance away but first we had to descend down to the river.

Olifants river gorge, Arendsnes camp perched on the edge in the upper left corner

Lawrence looking down the Olifants

With the trail so badly unkept, it was a little slippery and dangerous in places but we got to the bottom safely. Here another obstacle awaited us though: fields and fields of blackjacks. By the time we reached a spot where we could access the river, most of us spent almost half an hour cleaning off blackjacks while Lorraine took a dip in the river. Soon after we started the climb up to Arendsnes and reached it at noon on the dot. It really was a fantastic location for a camp, perched on a cliff edge, overlooking the Olifants valley. We sat on the braai deck to have lunch and not long after, the first of the other group arrived (this was their overnight stop).

Trail-side butterfly

 Our tummies full, we headed off again, walking through some convoluted boulder fields and grassland, arriving back at our basecamp at about 2pm. Although the morning was cool and pleasant, the afternoon had turned hot and nasty and we all headed for the shade on the hut’s verandah. The rest of the afternoon we rested and started our braai fire again around 5pm. Around 7pm we watched bats leaving the eaves of our hut with Nicola’s infrared phone camera and listened to the Fiery-necked nightjars calling.

Trail-side lizard

Day 2 (19 Feb): The night was a bit warmer than the previous one and sleep didn’t come too easy. But today’s walk was a bit shorter and we were on our way again by 7am, initially following the same trail as the day before. Soon we were at another viewpoint over the Olifants valley and this time descended into a side kloof that was a little more pleasant than the slippery non-maintained path of the previous day. Thankfully our path joined up with the other trail past the blackjack fields but the climb back to the top of the gorge was possibly a bit worse, at least at first, because again there was just no path whatsoever and we just walked marker to marker through the tall glass and scrambling over rocks and boulders. The steepness did eventually ease up as we walked in a side valley that started higher up on the plateau. From here we joined again the same trail back to the hut and reached it by 11am.

African pygmy kingfisher

Middelburg cycad

Looking upstream in the Olifants river valley

It was a pleasant weekend and really great to see good friends. The location and views on the hike were great, but the path, not so much.

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

• Photos
• List of birds

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.