Accommodation for the Fish River Canyon

We have booked our roadtrip to the Richtersveld and Kgalagadi , but I have a problem finding accommodation for the Fish river canyon.

All we want is a reasonably priced chalet to put our heads down en route from the Richtersveld to Kgalagadi. We are even happy to camp, but would like the chalet option - since we are spending only 1 night in a place.

The reason for my asking this too is that when we went to Addo, we had no idea there were SO MANY Bed and Breakfast spots just outside the park... as we had to plan our whole holiday around the few days they had spare for us inside the park... had we only known.

any suggestions (other than the Canon spots and the Ais-Ais) will be great, thank you.

My Cape Town "I just want to be like you" video by I Scream and Chocolote Stix

There is nothing like a little more genius coming from our locals.  What a fun video about how it really is here right now.



"My Cape Town" by I Scream and the Chocolate Stix - Music Video directed by Porteus Xandou. The Emergency Hours. from Mannequin Pictures on Vimeo.

Fatality in Skeleton Gorge onTable Mountain

I think this is where it happened and would like to remind all visitors to Table Mountain to please be very careful.  This mountain has 4 seasons in 1 day.  The rain makes is extremely vulnerable for rockfalls and creates very slippery surfaces.  My sincere condolences to the American family. 

IOL.com News Article of this sad incident.

Hiking Smuts Track on Table Mountain

Hiking Smuts Track was not a another walk in the park.  Again, another breathtaking walk - famously known to have been the route of General Jan Smuts which he walked up to the age of his mid eighties.

I had my heart rate monitor on, and burnt 1680 calories from start to end.  Had we not done the cable way down, Im sure I could have added another 400 calories to this figure.

The route starts at the foot of the mountain by Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden.  It cost us R35 each to get through the gates and onto the route, which is via Skeleton Gorge.

Follow the Skeleton Gorge signs inside the Botanical gardens.

Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens is also a very popular venue for Concerts in the Park.

The path going up varies between wooden foot steps and well placed rocks.

This route is a difficult and potentially dangerous climb, particularly in wet weather.

A good 30 minute walk from the TOP Entrance gate in Kirstenbosch, will take you to cross over the Contour Path and a small sign indicating the start of Smuts Track (there is no confusion as to which way it is, but only up)

The path zig-zags its way up the steep stone steps into the gorge. During winter this is the main flow down for the Liesbeeck river. I particularly love this section of this route the most. Its not often that one can see so much green moss covering the rocks in such a condensed area.

About two thirds of the way up Skelleton gorge, we reached a few wooden ladders (and gladly no chains as the sign indicates).  These wooden ladders are a real welcome!  Usually by now we've had our second break, but today was one of my stronger days for climbing and we went up in one go all the way to the top.

Looking at these pictures, Im very sad to say that my new Blackberry 9700 Bold takes very poor pictures compared to my Nokia N82.  Dont get me wrong, I just love the Blackberry for what it has to offer for business etc, but for taking photo's it gets a thumbs down. Had I not dropped my Nokia so many times (on my hikes!) and it was still working, I would have used it hands down as my main source for taking my pictures.

Once we emmerged from the Gorge and its dense forest below, the view of False Bay and the Helderberg is clearly seen.  During a cold winters day, the rays of the sun is also a warm welcome.

From here, we walked another 20min up the steep incline before we reached our next crossroad.

At the first crossroad once we reached the top, we turned right to follow the path hugging the side of the mountain overlooking Kirstenbosch and surrounds.

The good news is we reached to top of Skeleton Gorge, the bad news was... the 'mountain' ahead of us.

Its very disheartening if you think you have reached the top, when you see another monster hill in front of you.

Our GPS indicated that we were on about 800m from here, and we had another 280m to go before we reached our peak... MacClears Beacon.

The climb to the top of the beacon was actually a beautiful walk and fairly easy to walk in about 1 hour from the top of Skeleton Gorge.

At the top of the fabulous walk we were again blessed with a near 360 degree view of the Cape!  This is for sure a must do walk if you have not done it.

MacClears beacon marks the highest point on Table Mountain of 1080m.  We started walking at an altitude of 50m, so a 1km climb over about 4.5km is not too bad for one to consider it a good walk for the day.

We found a comfy spot on the rocks at MacClears Beacon to have our halfway mark lunch break.  Looking down onto our route of last week - Devils Peak.  Im still keen to find a way from Devils Peak to MacClears... not sure if there is one?  Have seen a few faint paths on Google Earth, but Im going to have to set out on a mission to find this one.

Due to our respect for this majestic mountain, we are very careful to not just go wandering off onto some route into the unknown...

After a short break, we ventured on - heading directly for the cable way.  This path follows a almost flat path all along the face of Table Mountain.  I just love it here, and would recommend it to anyone to come and see the views this fairly easy and flat section has to offer.

The path literally hugs the cliff face for us to enjoy looking down onto Lions Head and the city of Cape Town almost all the way back to the Cable Station.

Thissection is us looking at Platteklip Gorge from an angle we are not too familiar with.  Platteklip Gorge is the easier route to walk up to the top of Table Mountain if you do not wish to take the cable way.  Be sure to remember that Plattes (as known by the locals) has no mercy for the unfit either. 

The Upper Cable Station is very well equipped - the walkways are also made for easy access for disabled persons - and there is a rather pricey restaurant / coffee shop at the top.

 Ha ha, this is Alex - DONE!!!  I dont often find him chillaxing like this after a walk...  blaming it on a weak stomach - I told him to ease off on the italian salami he had the day before :)

We remembered to take the Wild Cards, which eased off on the price tag of taking the Cable Car down.

Normal price is about R85pp one way, but it cost us R68pp as South African Citizens we had the Wild Cards which helped us get it at a more discounted rate.

You can also buy tickets online if you dont feel like standing in the queue. Note: This queue for the cable way coming up is often over an hour long.

This is a snap that I captured as the cable car started moving down - with the lower Cable Station in sight.

Here is the view from the cable car, looking at the point of mountain we had just come from... I just love staring at the mountain after a walk... trying to see if I can recognise our path we had just done.

Another favourite thing of mine to do, is to draw our route of the day off Google Earth map.

Before I got the Garmin eTrex Legend, I used to do this type of picture manually.  Now the GPS does it for me automatically.  Love it!


Costs of route:
R35pp entrance fee to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
R68pp down the cable way with a Wild Card.

Distance: 8.5km
Altitude: start 50m to 1080m at MacClears Beacon
Calories: 1680
Time: 4 hours



What a walk!  We did this walk just over a year ago, but forgot to take pictures (it was raining and we had a white-out on the day - loved that toooooo!), but at that time we were focusing on staying on the track. Great walk, great workout and good all round fun as part of living the life that our environment has to offer us.

Blog Header Image Karoo National Park

I have found another favourite image for the blog, so sadly, this one is now also going to have to go...

Alex and I visited the Karoo National Park during 2010 Easter.  Wow, again, what a stunning National Park this is!  We just loved it here. There was so much variety to see, but we were both very happy to squeeze in some time for a hike up this mountain.  To be able to see the park from here was so beautiful.  We had been all over the park, and now had the opportunity to view some our tracks from above.

I loved the mini 4x4 route that we went on... much to Alex's dismay... he kept on wanting his car back, but I was having way too much fun behind the wheel.  And tracking the animals in the dry river beds was taking me back to my childhood days of growing up next to Kruger National Park where my dad was forever showing me animal tracks.  I was almost certain I saw the tracks of a baby black rhino! Well, this I will just never know for sure.  Whether true or not, in my heart, and at that moment, I believed it 100%.

A visit to the Fossil Trail was mind blowing!  ... have you ever seen fossil remains of animals that were considered extinct 30 million years before the dinosaurs roamed the earth?  This park has them a dime a dozen!

I can talk about this park forever, but for now, this park comes highly recommended and can be covered comfortably with a 4x2 high clearance vehicle over a 3 day period.  Enjoy!

Devils Peak from Google Earth via my Garmin GPS

Alex dragged me up Devils yesterday, and oh boy, am I feeling it today!  When I said Devils Peak The Easy Route... I did not mean its easy, I meant "the easy route" as in there are way more difficult / hard routes that can take you up to 6 hours just going up.

Having hiked this route so many times before, I must say that this time I was very exhausted at the end.  (Burnt 1200 calories - not too bad for 'just a hike') I guess its been a while since we have been hiking good routes again.  

Above is the reading that our Garmin eTrex Legend produced for us on my computer.The above vertical profile shows that we climbed 610m over a distance of 2.76km.

Remember that you can read more about this routes and its details in other posts of ours: Hiking Devils Peak

I dont normally re-write about a route that I have been on (blogging is very hard work - just in case you dont know it yet!), but this one deserved some more attention as I had a reader from Germany who asked me some questions which I thought I would answer via this blog entry.

The first thing that is important is that we have noted that Table Mountain National Park have changed all the signs on the mountain.  Thank you guys!

On the 2 signs that we did come across, some of the information was incorrect and the suggested changes were made with red indicators as you will see when you read on.

To get there take the Tafelberg Road which runs past the Lower Cable Station of Table Mountain Cable Way.  About 3 km from the Cable Station, the path starts to the right (and opposite a car park) as indicated in the image below (or read my other posts of Devils Peak).

Soon you will be climbing steep steps that zigzag their way up the mountain towards the Contour Path.

As you see in the image below, when you cross over the contour path, the sign is easily misleading, so focus on the path going more upwards than the one flattening out (Contour path / Oppelskop).  You should be heading towards the Saddle (but the arrow is wrong), so focus on going upwards.

After the above, crossing the path continues to zig zag its way up.  Again, if you see other paths, continue to follow the one that is going up, until the path flattens out and heads towards the saddle.

A brisk 10 minute walk on a semi flat route, will take you to a T-junction by the Saddle.

Notice a large rock on the left and a small stream flowing on the right. This is where you turn right.

After your right turn at the T-junction by the Saddle and the big rock, follow your nose and the stream for another 10 minutes.

Soon you will reach another sign, showing Devils peak is the way back. That is wrong. This is your mark where you do not go back to where you came from, but rather do you turn left and head up the steep slate and rather loose rocks to slog your way all the way to the top.  They have upgraded this path about a year ago, but the rocks are still fairly loose and slippery.

Once we reached the top of Devils Peak, we headed for a spot away from the wind (the wind is always blowing up here!) and had our well deserved cuppa Nescafe Cuppachino :)

The view from here never seizes to amaze us.  So relaxing and so beautiful!

On our way down, we came upon a group of people who were putting up this flag and banner.

We asked them what they were up to and they explained to us that they are protesting and trying to get the name of Devils peak to be changed to Windberg or Duiweberg as it was originally known to be. 

The Legend has it that the devil disappeared onto this mountain 300 years ago, hence the name Devils Peak.  There are other stories about where its name originated from, but a name change will be great.

The coloured flag was a prayer and the other the symbol of the cross.

More information and pictures about this hike can be found here.

Warning Attacks on Table Mountain

Hi all,

I have just received a message from Table Mountain Safety Action Group via Cape Town Hiking Club.  Looks like these guys / criminals need to get nabbed asap.  Its likely that they are the same 2 people attacking hikers.  Please do not walk alone.  Im always so frustrated when I hear about the hikers that venture off into the hills on their own.  Apart from being a perfect target for abuse by a potential criminal, if a snake bites you or you twist your ankle, you put yourself into great danger. Spending the night alone on the mountain can almost predict certain death.

The idea is to join a hiking group that will suite your hiking style. There are hiking groups being created all the time.  Some people like to walk fast, others like walking slower (sometimes avid photographers), others like talking, some dont... find your perfect hiking partner/s and go out and enjoy the mountain.  Never think you are safe, always make sure you know how to defend yourself when approached or attacked.  Best thing is to try and run away of course, but if that is not possible, try to at least prepare yourself for if it happens to you.  Good luck friends!  and hope to run into you sometime on the mountain too :)

OK, im done moaning.  Im really sorry to hear of this terrible experience that these people endured and hope they catch the criminals soon.  We always carry a shocker and a mace spray on us... you just never know.

Regards, Juanita

Just a warning notice that there have been two attacks in this area over the past 10 days or so.  Not much detail is available but we understand that the more recent attack (last day or two?) was particularly nasty.  We are going to ask TMNP for more detail on this one.  It may also have been picked up by the press so check the Cape Times today / yesterday. More on this one later, hopefully.

The other attack occurred in Newlands Forest specifically - about 10 days ago or so.  Here is the text we received with regards that one:

From a Facebook entry:  is traumatised after being attacked in Newlands Forest yesterday by two men with bottles that they broke on a stone and used as weapons. After that spent whole day looking for Josie (the dog) who ran off scared as a mouse, shame, found her again with the help of amazing friends. Such is life in South Africa. But South African men must be applauded for the way they step up in a crisis!

If anyone knows more, plllleeasse let us know.  This way we can get the facts out soonest to warn others.  Especially with the weekend coming up.  We need locations and any form of description.

Regards Andre TMSAG

I get to meet Zakumi, our famous FIFA 2010 mascot

Zakumi is a leopard, a common animal found in South Africa, with green hair wearing a shirt saying South Africa 2010.

Zakumi's green and gold colors represents South African national sports' teams colors. He is the South African mascot for the FIFA 2010 coming up in June and July this year.

His name comes from "ZA", the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for South Africa, and "kumi", a word that means "ten" in various African languages.

Keep your eyes out for Zakumi when you come to hike in our mountains when you visit our beautiful country :)

Hyena Trap Karoo National Park

The Hyena Trap: Early stock farmers of the Karoo Area built these traps in their attempt to eliminate the brown hyena, jackal and leopards in the area.

I think it was a very cruel thing that they did, but we cant change history, and hopefully only learn from these mistakes of the past.

The Brown Hyena is now sadly extinct from this area.

Even though this is not a hike as such, its one of the many interesting places you can visit when you go to the Karoo National Park.  Its within walking distance from the main reception, but there are also other traps similar to this located all over the park and can be seen if you go for a drive around.

Contact Information: Karoo National Park

Main Camp Phone: 023 415 2828 / karooreservations@sanparks.org

SANPARKS Reservation Phone: 012 428 9111 Pretoria / 021 422 2816 Cape Town
reservations@sanparks.org
www.sanparks.org