Fernkloof (Magaliesberg) Mar 2005

A quick day outing to Fernkloof.

Cedarbergkloof hiking and abseiling (Magaliesberg) Mar 2005

Jeanne-Louise and Ivan left on Friday night already to sleep over at Mountain Sanctuary Park. The rest of us met early Saturday morning at the parking lot across the church at varsity. We left just after 7am and got to MSP just after 08:30. We decided to pitch the tents first, in case it rains, and also had something to nibble on before we finally scraped the courage together to go for a walk.

Day 1 (12 March): It was just after 10am when we finally left the campsite, walked up to the grotto and took the path that split off towards the twins. It was completely clouded over and the walking was very pleasant. We all took some photos at the Twins before descending down into Cedarberg gorge. We made our way to the overhang where I always abseil. While the others waited at the bottom, Al and I climbed to the top to set up the abseil. Then each of us abseiled and got everybody else up to do the same. Al packed up everything up top while the rest of us started to have lunch. After lunch we continued downstream. The gorge quickly got deeper and the memories of the kloof slowly returned to me – I haven’t done the kloof in 3 years! We got to the junction with Tonquani gorge and I decided to go see what the pool at the top looks like. I haven’t been there since I did the climbing course in 1999 and then it was from Upper Tonquani. So we took the walk to the top – I forgot how long it was, but it was very enjoyable. When we reached the pool and I realized it was almost 3pm, I got us all moving downstream quickly. I remembered one or two of the spots where we had to wade deep through the pools – it was good fun to be there again! When we finally reached the bottom we were all soaking wet but thoroughly happy. We got back out on the jeep track that led steeply back up to camp. As I still wanted to get some wood and firelighters from the office, I set out at a fast pace up the hill. Jeanne-Louise and Ivan stayed with me and when we got back to camp, Ivan and I went to the office to get the necessary things, including some very welcome ginger beer. We all had a quick shower after starting the fire. The braai was excellent but none of us stayed up for very long.

Day 2 (13 March): We all slept a bit late. Corne and Yolandy treated us all to a five star breakfast before we all took another rest until the clouds started to thin. We then took a leisurely walk down to the slide pools, lazed around for a while before returning just after 1pm. We packed up and drove back to Pretoria where we arrived soon after 3pm.

Castle gorge (Magaliesberg) Jan 2005

Darrell, Al and I drove out to Castle Gorge to have some fun for the day. We arrived at the parking area early and left soon after packing some abseil gear and lunch. It was steep but short climb to the summit of the Magaliesberg from where we easily descended to Castle Gorge. There were a number of other people around but we enjoyed ourselves abseiling and swimming. Just before lunch the sky darkened and heavy rain soon poured down. We tried to hide underneath an overhang but eventually got fairly wet anyway. The rain stopped but heavy clouds were still pushing from the south so we decided to head back. The last 200m to the car it came down in torrents and we had to run for it. The drive back on the dirt road was interesting as rather large puddles had started to form. We made it home safely though after a fun day in the hills.