Hiking the Tradouw Traverse

TRADOUW TRAVERSE (working title only – please note that this trail is not officially open yet)

Fri 29 Dec to Mon 1 Jan 2007

A New Year of carousing and debauchery

Leader: Sandy McDonald

Grace, Jaco, Julia, June (all the way from Oman), Kagi, Karen, Louis, Lucia, Maré, Melany, Nini, Pauls, Peter, Rob, Ron, Serena

I wasn’t planning to write this but have changed my mind.

A number of years ago Tony Burton of Trails’s Club found the farmhouse at Barrydale. In August 2003 a weekend was organised by myself for Meridian when a large group did some of the day hikes around the town and explored a few of the Route 62 delights. While there I heard about a group of Barrydale volunteers who had started to build a trail across the Langerberg Mountains from Barrydale into Boosmansbos Wilderness Area. The New Year event was organised in order to christen this trail.

Over the past two years I’d been in touch with Pierre of Boosmansbos and Peter Naryshkine of Barrydale to offer whatever help I could with the building of the trail, such as moral support and the to advertise for funds. Having booked to hike in Grootvadersbos, there were a few anxious moments because the trail wasn’t ready, however it’s almost complete and ready for the nitty-gritty test of being walked by half a dozen hikers. Having approached Tony Burton with the honour of christening the trail he later pulled out and Sandy MacDonald stepped in, with Lucia offering to be events coordinator. Having booked six places for the Grootvadersbos trail and the farmhouse sleeping 10 and with almost zero marketing from Meridian, it was touch-and-go as to whether the weekend could take place or be cancelled, otherwise the Club would lose out financially. To cut a long frustrating story short, it was a miracle that 11 booked for the trail and three for the farmhouse.

And after all this effort the weather forecast was dreadful! Sat with tent-abolishing strong westerly winds, cloudy and 60% possibility of rain overnight. Sun strong wind with rain expected in the morning but clearing in the afternoon.

FRIDAY Everyone came in dribs and drabs but cars had been shuffled and RobandNini’s bakkie was left at Boosmansbos Nature Reserve. Four of us had decided to opted to be lazy and eat out, leaving the others to a windy braai. Lucia, Peter, Ron and I ate at Bistro Blue which according to the staff at the Pumpkin Restaurant, “would be humming”. Well, if a few tables and a kitchen staff of people aged 100-in-the-shade is the prerequisite of “humming”, they surely were. But at R22 for a bottle of “Decent Red” or “Decent White wine, we weren’t complaining and were soon tucking into a few bottles and some good grub.

Back at the farmhouse we went to bed at a decent time after much debate of a starting time of 8am next morning.

SATURDAY Blue sky, no wind – perfect. “Looks like the weather report was wrong,” gloated Ron. “We’ll see,” said me, remembering when a group of eight of us were planning to do the Hex River Traverse and a meteorologist had predicted a weather report of thunder and lightning. Having started out in perfect conditions some of us were left brain-dead and possibly infertile from being ‘almost’ struck by lightning – ha!

From the farmhouse at 400m, the path was clear, the wind increased and the view of Barrydale became more blurred the higher we climbed. Lucia, Rob and I consulted on the renosterveld vegetation – not as well known to us compared to the more familiar TM fynbos.

Eventually, just after the 3km sign, we reached a signpost pointing upwards towards Grootvadersbos and a strategically placed waterfall for a tea-break, at 820m and a mere 4.25km from the start.

After tea as the route continued to zigzag up the mountain, members of the party appreciated all the work that had gone into building the path as we noticed how it had been built up with rocks on the outer edge. Some of the rocks had probably been carried from other areas of the mountain.

Thankfully the path levelled out and contoured higher through dense vegetation of colourful plants with our goal in sight – the nek at 1085m and the 8,5km mark. By this time the wind had increased and the path had died out, as we’d been warned, but we followed the flags through calf-length vegetation.

Sheltered behind a rock we enjoyed lunch and views across to Heidelberg and the wide dry Duiwenhoksrivier broken by tall strawberry helichrysum’sHelichrysum felinum,standing like sentinels in the foreground.

Continuing along the flagged route we passed the 8, 9, 10km points – flags which will eventually be positioned along the trail, as we circumnavigated an unnamed peak of 1508m. We christened this long, unending stretch the Triffid Traverse because of the tall, strong daisy-type plants that tried to knock us off the path, certainly tripping up a few members of the group in the process.

Eventually we reached the watershed and a large stand of two species of protea, one probably P. speciosa, as well as the peak-bagging path taken to bag Grootberg at 1637m - the highest in the area. But with a strong wind and clouds rolling in, we were thankful to reach the overnight, basic shelters the larger of the two with a concrete floor and the smaller with a wooden floor. Louis and Sandy pitched tents but I ended up sleeping in Sandy’s Bibler because he was ‘pooped’ (I don’t think people realise how emotionally draining leading can be).

In the wooden-floor hut were June, Lucia, Ron and Sandy, with Peter and I constant visitors because this was where our food was. We all had lots of fun drinking and watching Lucia cook our cordon-bleu hiking dinner of rice, mushrooms, peppers, onion, parmesan and a million-and-one herbs and spices. Watered down sherry was also supposed to be included but Lucia ran out of booze and tucked in – ha! Puffer and Lucia had a beef patty as well and there was so much food that Ron had a treat compared to his tinned peaches and two-dozen ham rolls. Can you believe it, this guy carried about four litres (4kg) of bottled water because he doesn’t like the look of our pure brown (plant-stained) river water – argh!!!!!!! And another thing – Lucia asked Puffer to collect water from the stream where the most beautiful amazing red disa was growing.

“He’s a botanical philistine,” said Lucia as we watched him trampling along the riverbank with his enormous boots.

“What disas?” said Puffer when questioned about the plants on his return – argh!!!!!!

Leaving June, Lucia, Ron and Sandy I made a brief visit to the concrete-floored hut before climbing into the tent at about 22h00. I hadn’t been in it long before hearing a few drops of rain which eventually turned into a downpour and carried on throughout the night.

SUNDAY We set off between nine and 10 walking along what started out as a road but ended up being very overgrown with bushes above our heads and eroded path below our feet. As we lost more height we also lost the cloud and as the weather report predicted, it certainly cleared later in the day.

The most beautiful and interesting part of the trail is where the route turns off onto a path and descends to a gorge and river. Peter was the only person brave enough to plunge into the plant-stained water before joining the other seven of us for lunch.

The climb out is not nearly as daunting as it looks and we quickly reached the main forestry roads, these in better condition than higher up, and half an hour later we reached the office, campsite and RobandNini plus Louis. With Rob on top and Louis and the others helping to haul packs onto the roof, it didn’t take long before we climbed into the back of Rob’s bakkie and were off on the 45-min drive along the magnificent Tradouw Pass. Historically 'Tradouw' means the footpath of the women and this path was used by the Khoisan people to get from the little Karoo to Swellendam and back.

What a nice surprise awaited us back at the farmhouse – Grace, Jaco and three year-old Julia. Most of the hiker’s enjoyed a drink while some headed for the showers or dried out hiking gear.

The party started at around 6pm with plenty of booze rapidly disappearing - sparkling wine, beers, breezers soaked up with chips ‘n dips. Lucia was in charge of the getto-blaster only to find there was zero reception. This turned out to be a good thing because we had live music when Rob brought out his guitar and everyone sang along (or just made a noise!). Later Paula surprised us by taking over from Rob and despite not having played for many years, she was very good.

People gradually disappeared and one male was dragged out of bed by two females to join the carousing but couldn’t take the pace, although he later got up and proceeded to dance on the table along with a female as well as mooning everyone. I’m glad I wasn’t there to see the sorry sight.

Despite all the wild debauchery and carousing, only one glass was broken and thankfully no furniture.

MONDAY A bright, clear, sunny day but not so with the hiker’s. You don’t want to know what they looked like and certainly not how they felt. Clearing up and packing was done in slow motion by most but eight of us managed to meet up in Robertson for a feast before the long hot drive home.

Despite all the hiccups in getting this event off the ground, it was a brilliant success enjoyed by all and even encouraging Kagi and Serena to join the Club. It would also appear that the advertising is working because Ron joined the Club before he did a hike. His first hike was Hiddingh/Ascension with Sandy, the highest ascent on Table Mountain – and he walked in his boots. His first trail was this one.

Many thanks to Sandy for leading the trail and taking over from Tony.

N.B. Cape Nature Conservation is in a bad way and Boosmansboss Nature Reserve is 44 000 hectares and manned by only five staff. The reserve desperately needs volunteers and offers accommodation in return for slashing vegetation on paths and clearing of alien vegetation. Serena and peter expressed interest in organising a weekend so watch the Meridian Calendar for details and go along and help in this beautiful part of the world.