Hiking down the length of Elandspad

The warning bells were ringing when Rob and Richard voiced doubts about doing the trip in one day. Another warning was when we climbed the steep road to Agtertafelberg – the law of gravity and all that

We picked up Steve Wilson (of ‘secret kloof’ trolley fame) at the AGM, so that made four of us (lunatics) – Peter, Sandy, Steve and me. We drove out to the Du Toit’s Kloof Mountain Club Hut on Saturday afternoon after eliminating some of Peter’s fridge-and-stove packing. Because of the heat and with time to kill, Steve persuaded us to go for a swim – despite being a water baby he didn’t fancy the pool next to the hut.

Back at the hut, the guys talked of making a fire, but in the end I did it, and without blitz nogal, while the men talked!!! At the AGM Sandy won the hiker of the year award but, more importantly, also a bottle of wine for being runner-up in the hike leader of the year award. Naturally the rest of us helped him to celebrate by quickly helping downing it.

Next morning we were away by 6h40, clambering around or under barbed wire because the gate was shut before climbing up, down and up again on the boring jeep track.

Breakfast at Agtertafelberg hut and thoughts of lazing around the pools for the day, but no, I’d wanted to do Elandspad for years and had always missed it.

The climb into the river was dreadful – bl*^#y pines and hakeas and plenty of high scratchy vegetation. With the river just below, we found ourselves on a cliff-face, but eventually negotiated a way in. You should see my legs – scratched to ribbons.

The first section was tough, not very interesting and tough on the knees, hips, feet. You-name-it.

The middle section is fantastic with about five compulsory swims and steep cliffs. The water was clear and not cold, shimmering under a clear blue sky. I’d heard about two jumps but managed to find a way around the first one, with help from Steve. The second one was very short, more of a slide into the water.

Thankfully Peter was as clumsy and slow as me, while Steve hurtled along having plenty of time to swim, enjoy scenery and lie on rocks. Sandy also made the boulder-hopping look easy, but not the swims as he faffed with his lilo. I was very anxious about the time as we didn’t have much idea of the distance and what was to come. All the time bends in the river looked nearby but seemed to take ages as we negotiated wrong turns, dead ends and precipices.

Peter asked how Elandspad compares to ‘secret kloof’ (sk). Even with a heavy backpack I find sk easier, for the following reasons:

·        Most of the boulders in Elandspad are larger than in sk

·        The boulders are firmer than here, possibly because more people walk sk in season

·        There are cairns to guide you in sk, not here, only at the end

·        The boulder-hopping is broken by stretches of path in sk, not here, it’s all boulder-hopping until the section that the ‘plebs’ do.

“It’s not much further to the confluence,” said Sandy. Many times. We’d been promised a path once we reached the confluence. Steve and Sandy were on a roll, bouncing and gliding from one huge slimy-looking boulder to another. Peter was nowhere in sight. Suddenly, there was a voice from the bushes above.

“Why aren’t you walking on the path?” It was Peter.

When we eventually joined him and the promised path, he was nonchalantly drinking tea. Umph!

We had no idea of the time but with waning light we guessed that it was late. It was decision time. Should we take the route over the mountain to join up with the jeep track or continue along the path? Thankfully we chose the latter because we would have been bundu-bashing in the dark towards the end. As it was we did the last stretch of about 40min in the dark, at one stage finding ourselves on a cliff-face.

Steve and I hadn’t done Elandspad for 20-odd years but remembered parts of the last section. We were relieved to see the street light next to the tunnel just before reaching the last 1km stretch of tar road before the final stretch to the hut, reaching it at 8h30pm.

We enjoyed a lukewarm beer each before the ride back to Cape Town, weary, worn and hungry, at 10pm.

It’s a beautiful trip but long and tough. Thanks to the guys for their help and patience. And as for doing the river in one day, as opposed to spending the night at Agtertafelberg? I would do it this way again. I’m not keen to do all that boulder-hopping with an overnight pack.