Hiking on Stellenboschberg

Almost finished and a rabbit (pic by Katja)
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“Nothing on this earth would make me go on a hike with Sandy and Peter, you deserve to feel run over!”

That’s the sympathy I get from one of my ‘normal’ friends.

You deserve to feel like you've been run over

“Some might think Sandy and I are weird with the hikes we lead, but we're in a league of our own,” Peter’s response.

Lower slopes (pic by Katja)
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“I'll bet you that person is secretly envious, but won't admit it,” from Sandy!

The smirk on their (Sandy and Peter) faces after the hike was the same expression on my face when I read, next morning, that Peter (Puffer named after the annual Cape Point to Waterfront race) emailed me and said he felt like a zombie. He also said that I passed! Passed what, I don’t know, but I passed.

Sunday morning 08h15 at Coetzenberg Stadium in Stellenbosch.

“It’s a 1050m climb, the equivalent of climbing Table Mountain from Camp’s Bay beach,” said Sandy by way of introducing the full day’s hike.

That's not the peak behind us, ours is much higher
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“What can I do in Stellenbosch all day?” thought I looking for an excuse to opt out. My hip. After all, I hadn’t been able to climb mountains since mid-June.

Somehow I felt myself caught up in the flow of other endorphin-crazed hikers, the likes of Katja and Piet, Rob K and Lucia. There were also unknown hikers – De Wet, Jaco and Freda, ten in all, not bad for a Sandy-hike.

We’d been promised a shady start, and it was, not helped by the towering peak displaying herself to us at every step, initially climbable until we realised that what we saw wasn’t the top. I thought we were crazy until we came across a bakkie full of padded and lycra-clad cyclists who had laid out a death-defying course incorporating jumps through trees on a narrow path.

Just before the breakfast stop and the start of our ascent
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The veld was magnificent with dew-glistened gladioli, sapphire aristea’s, yellow pea-flowers, Wachendorphia’s and so much more. We stopped for breakfast under a line of gums before the dreaded steep slog to the nek, stopping occasionally for a breather and to collect water. The predicted CT temp was about 25 deg, but here in Stellenbosch it must have been 30 or more. That’s my excuse for being at the rear end.

At the nek we saw the other side of the mountain, Sandy pointing out the vertiginous descent from the enticing Valley of the Flying Ants, a forthcoming attraction on Nov 25/26, and the main reason why I was here today and not on TM.

Thank goodness there was water in the stream
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The final climb was short and steep with Piet spotting a bokkie who darted between huge boulders not far from the beacon and lunch (1175m).

Knowing how slow my descent would be, I continued and stopped at the lower beacon, actually Stellenboschberg itself, 10m lower than the other. TM poked its head through a blanket and Helderberg and False Bay was to the left with Jonkershoek and Stellenbosch below and to the right. I’ve climbed all these peaks in the past and Stellenboschberg was the final one in the range, for me anyway.

Zoom to the rest of the group having lunch on the 10m higher peak
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The descent was a series of vertiginous cliffs and vlaktes covered with fynbos species not seen on the ascent. While drinking coffee I watched the group off-path (*head shake*) join me for the final onslaught, an awful steep, loose, dusty, sun-in-the-eyes, bushy section joining the jeep track. I could almost taste of beer, the only thing keeping me from sitting down and going on strike.

Throbbing feet, aching legs, sunburnt arms and 16.5km later, I wondered why the rest of the group (except for Rob, who definitely had more sense), were lying on the grass next to the cars, when they could be drinking beer!

View of TM from Stellenboschberg (my lunch spot)
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DROS and a well-earned beer, what a good way to end an agonising full day in the hills. May Valley of the Flying Ants not be as painful.