Cederberg Weekend

What an amazing week of hikes! It started on Wednesday when I took Kaitlin up Table Mountain. She hadn't been up yet and didn't want to leave without doing it so we started at UCT and spent the entire day on the mountain. Yet again I realise how out of hiking shape I am but the weather was perfect: sunny and clean but still cool and breezy. From the summit we decided to see if we could find the trail leading down into the saddle between Table Mountain and Devil's Peak (thereby cutting the total time of our hike by several hours) and ran into a couple of hikers coming up from that direction. After one of the most extensive trail descriptions ever we decided not to go for that route and joined these two guys. Given their impressive knowledge of the local hikes I asked about the Cederbergs and if there were a place they would recommend. One phonecall and they arranged a cabin on a farm for us. At this point however, I received notification that we had already found a place to stay so I didn't take them up on this impressive offer. We did take them up on the offer of a ride home and beers at the end of the hike. Great guys! Hopefully I'll have the chance to go hiking with them at a later date. But on to the weekend in the Cederbergs...

The Cederbergs are a couple of hours north of the city and are reminesant of Utah terrain: very arid looking with massive rock cliffs and pillars. At the last minute both cars were filled with an excellent mix of great people (Harald & Vegard representing Norway, Al & Tessa for South Africa, and Leah, Kaitlin & Diane from the States) and we loaded them to the max with gear, food and booze. After two hours we turn of the highway onto a gravel road for another half hour. The cabin was deluxe! Four bedrooms, a big kitchen & living room, an outdoor braai, a fireplace, hot water and electricity. Definitely roughing it! First thing we did was fire up the braai and I cooked up some burgers I made and we did a brief excursion to a nearby waterfall to do some scrambles and push rocks off of cliffs – it's good to be a guy! The remainder of the evening was spent drinking and socialising; for the first time in a while it was properly dark at night with stars spread across the sky and crisp mountain air. I woke up at eight and stood outside enjoying the frost on the ground and the oak trees in full autumn regalia as the sun touched the peaks of the mountains around me. After a leasurely breakfast we started the hike to Wolfberg Arch. Most amazing hike I have done in a long while! Massive rock towers, endless red cliffs and perpetually stunning vistas. A couple of hours nto the hike Tessa and Al headed back due to decidedly ill feelings. We carried on up the past and on the upper plateau had lunch at the arch. Big, stone arch; I'm sure you can picture it. Bouyed by new energy we continued on to the Wolfberg Cracks. The trail winds its way down through beautiful red canyons before emerging on the slopes above the valley. From there it was a typically painfully steep descent to the jeep track that took us back to the house. It was nice that the moon came out to light our way because the last two hours were done in the dark. After nine hours of hiking we returned to the house at shortly past eight. In an interesting turn of events I realised in the morning that I had accidently done my long-acting insulin twice the night before and spent the entire hike eating and drinking. By the end of the day the effects of being constantly low started to really take its toll and I had to stop half an hour from the house to half a snack or risk turning an ankle. The plus side was that I managed to maintain presence of mind and got someone else to lead for a while and then decided, despite being almost home, to stop to deal with it. All in all the effects were not as bad as I had expected. Dinner was ready when we got back (thank you Al and Tessa) so we broke into the beers and tucked in to roasted veggies and boerworst. Bedtime came fairly early that night as everyone was exhausted. Got up on the final morning and lit a roaring fire to warm the house up and made ommelettes and fruit salad for breakfast. Pretty damn good if I say so myself. An amazing weekend, great hiking, good food, fun parties and wonderful people. Price tag: R460 (92 Canadian dollars)! Now I am back in town and going for all-you-can eat Thai food. I love this country!