Adventures through the Cederberg

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yeah food for 120 boys, getting teachers there and back so they could take hikes and then go back to mark exams, getting people to hospital (14 boys this year), you get the point, its a big deal

[Aiel Heart]

at least the routes probably don't change much from year to year

[Smiley73]

No, not really unless of course something weird happens, like if a couple rivers run dry

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I've actually been trying to find a mao show I can show you guys what I've done

[Aiel Heart]

*map?

[Smiley73]

yes a map

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A friend of mine, Max Herbestein, made a couple videos on his camera while on epic. He wasn;t in my group but this is just for some more perspective, cool music and topless teen-age boys

 

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(Firstly some things I forgot to say in the last day’s entry) Oliver Belcher and Damon Lurie were sleeping next to each other. First Belcher tries to clean his toothbrush by pouring water on it, which would be fine but he was pouring the water on his sleeping bag, Damon then went into a little tangent about how stupid Belcher was being, then about 5 minutes later Belcher was cooking something in his pot and stood up and turned around. His pot then fell over; pouring its contents on his and Damon’s sleeping things. Were not completely sure what made the pot fall over, Belcher insists it was the wind or anything besides him, some people say his foot knocked over the gas cooker. Damon of course went absolutely batshit-crazy shouting out into the orange evening sky, “BELCHER!!!! HOW STUPID ARE YOU” or some other similar rant, yes the rest of us laughed, HARD

 

Then just as a small side not, Dirk Kotze can sleep with his eyes open, we know this because he got in his sleeping bag really early and then he started awake shouting about having a toe cramp, so yeah, cramps strike again.

 

Day 6

 

So apparently Guy has a serious phobia of large ants (like a couple centimetres big) which is a problem because Guy was sleeping a little way above ground with a couple other guys when he saw a couple ants walk past last night he absolutely FREAKED out and went like, “kill it, kill it, kill it” and then I think he dropped a rock on them and spent the rest of the night in fitful sleeping.

 

This is the last day of proper hiking for now; tomorrow we get into Algeria (where we were first dropped off by the bus) early in the morning and then cycle to Waterbase. So like the other days I had a quick breakfast before we left and then we had a nice walk along the Jeep track to our breakfast spot for that day that was on this very long rock slabs next to a river. After I had a couple snacks there and everyone else was ready we went up Sneeukop which was more or less exactly where we stopped for breakfast, just a big upclimb. The entire slope was covered with biggish rocks and there was no path up so you just had to slog through, unfortunately I fell behind here to maybe I just don’t move too fast when I can fall, I don’t know, but when Damon got to the top he shouted “DECEPTION!”, and my heart filled with fear, well that is how the rest of the peaking went, a pretty slow pace, discovering that you had come another false horizon. The first part and the part after the first horizon were pretty similar territory, a steep slope punctuated with lots of rocks, then the landscape turned mostly rocky but with bushes where soil broke through, and then the last part was a plateau-like area. All-in-all I think there were five false horizons. Our group sheltered in a dip in the ground that was filled with small rocks that were probably put there by some other hikers. Sneeukop is the third highest peak in the Cederberg. Note Sneeukop means Snow hill (hill isn’t exactly right, I get a Wikipedia link going).

 

The walk down, took me a while, and I was at the back, but at least some guys stayed back to make sure I didn’t get myself killed while everyone waited for me. We went down a very different route to the way we came, up but I ‘m not complaining because it was easier. I didn’t bring a water bottle up with me and had only had a little water at the top which I was regretting now, because I was getting pretty thirsty. I did get down in one piece though and when I got back to my pack I sat down and drank an entire litre of Game in short order (Game is a powder that you mix with water to make a sports drink, it’s really good). Apparently the guys had tried to spot me and failed because I blended in pretty well wearing a slightly green top and light beige pants, that are now covered in dust. Mr. Court says I look like someone out of the French Foreign Legion, which can’t be a bad thing.

 

From there till lunch we went down a place called Engelsmans Kloof (Englishman’s Cleft [as in cleft in the mountain]) that was just zig-zagging downwards, I wasn’t at the back this time because one boy had to go back to check he didn’t leave anything behind and Mr. Court hike with him. I just followed the obvious path and kept going at my own pace, Court and Belcher did eventually catch up but by then we were mostly done with Engelsmans Kloof and were on a more or less level path to Crystal Pools, a place refuted for its Ice cold water. We had Lunch nearby and I just basically sat and ate droëwors and biltong and sipped melon flavoured Game for half an hour.

 

Our next challenge was Klein and Groot Hartseer and I didn’ t realise how bad that might be until I translated Groot Hartseer into English for Ozzie, Groot Hartseer means Great Sorrow, so that didn’t bode well. At least we were going down Groot Hartseer and up Klein Hartseer. Again I wasn;t all the way at the back, I had Damon and Dayne behind me and going at my own pace, this wasn’t a problem. I actually managed to catch up to Guy and Stephen, which must have meant I was making good time. Soon after I caught up with Guy we came to a stream so I filled up and kept on going and eventually ended up out of the Hartseers into a green and beautiful valley just a little further from Sneeukop than we had been, I even spotted a tree Mr. Court had pointed out. We waited here for the guys at the back to catch up. We get on going for a bit to a where the path was flanked by Clanwilliam cedar trees to each side (ie. the tree that gives this place its name), where we waited for Ozzie who complety ran out of energy doing the Hartseers, which was quite funny to see, seeing that he usually is running off trying to keep up with Josh.

 

We continued on a level path the rest of the way to where we were supposed to sleep. Unfortunately, when we got there we found another group that had gotten there before lunch-time and had not moved since. Apparently they had a really hard day of hiking the previous day or something, but the guys in our group weren’t keen to keep walking, well I was fine but most people weren’t. So we kept walking for another hour to get to a nice campsite, right next to a waterfall. I got my stuff done quickly before the sun set and my last sleep out before my next hike.

 

Endnote: talking to everyone later they said the Hartseers were terrible for them, which I just can’t understand, maybe because they were doing it faster than they should have? Well whatever the reason I found it pretty easy.

 

 

[Aiel Heart]

Maybe you're just fitter or more adjusted to this sort of thing than they are?

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

slow and steady may not win the race but it gets you there in one piece

[Smiley73]

Okay here a wikipedia link with something that will give more meaning to "kop"

 

Now PICTURES:

 

Both of these are at the top of Sneeukop, they are also the only ones I can find right now:

 

 

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

at what point did they not have the watermelon to tote?

[Smiley73]

I am definitely not fitter than these guys, trust me

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

smarters just as good

[Smiley73]

there was no watermelon that I am aware of, alcohol, though, and cigarettes were probably quite common, more on that later

[Aiel Heart]

Better adjusted then perhaps

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if that means less whiney, then maybe. Maybe I'm just more able to carry my bag

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I'm used to carrying a lot more weight than my backpack actually weighed

[mmeeshal]

This is pretty amazing!! Keeping up on this from now on.

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yay positive comments! I'm glad you're enjoying this

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

enjoying it very much. never did as much of this kind of thing as i wanted to. never did any of this kind of thing.

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what is specifically this kind of thing?

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

epic. specifically.

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Epic as in the noun or the adjective, because epic as an adjective got used on Epic and people got bleak

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

as in grand and wonderful.