1995
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Connection Cave - Ronan's Wells to Robin Hood cavern, Kalk Bay with Bruce
Dixie and Kirstin Lewis - a tight squeeze but well worth it.
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Baviaanskloof river, Bains Kloof, with the Scout Mountain Club, where an
11 year old Scout nearly killed himself by falling 6m into a puddle.
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Skeleton gorge up and down in a hurry on a hot day to inspect the Scout Hut
on Table Mountain.
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Constantia Corner up in the rain, down Disa Gorge and Orange Kloof,
with the Scout Mountain Club and Terence Timoney, the curator of the
waterworks museum on the Mountain.
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Kouebokkeveld Easter Meet with the Scout Mountain Club, including a hike to
Olifantsriver Dome and Driekoppe - both seldom climbed and very spectacular.
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Skeleton gorge up and down in a hurry on a cold day to unblock the toilet
of the Scout Hut. With Bruce Dixie who likes to be mentioned on my web pages.
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Up Skeleton gorge and down the Bridle Path the next day with some friends
for fun, and to fetch the drain-unblocking device left behind at the Hut.
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Up India Venster with two Scouts in the mist, via Echo Valley, Valley of
Isolation and Valley of the Red Gods to the Scout Hut. Returned the
drain-unblocking device to the cupboard in the Hut for future use.
Then via the aqueduct (now apparently not a restricted area) to Carrel's
Ledge, Maclear's Beacon and down Platteklip, passing about 200 other
hikers on the way down. Mayday is a bad day for mountain solitude.
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Dassieshoek Trail near Robertson from 1 to 3 June: Not a really exciting
trail, with day 1 being 23 km in the foothills (part Karoo and part Fynbos),
and then a hut which slept 35 although there were about 45 there. Day 2
was much the same. Mildly pleasant in parts but often tedious.
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Up and down the Bridle Path in thick mist to the Scout Hut to repair
a cupboard and some brooms.
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Up Kasteels Poort after sunset (no torches) to the Scout Hut, carrying half
a sack of firewood, lots of tinned food and my overnight kit. Slept over
and came down KP again before sunrise. Craziness.
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Up KP to the Scout Hut carrying more firewood. Then tumbling down Diagonal
Route with a large party from Herzlia high school.
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Up the Cableway (scandalous!) to see the snow on the top - well worth
the trip. Snow all the way down to the dams. And we all got our photos in
the Argus, Sat and Mercury.
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Up Kasteelspoort in thick mist at 11 p.m. (sic) to the Scout Hut with
visibility about 2 metres on top. Got there in 1 hour 5 minutes. Slept
warm and well. The next day did a work party and then back down KP in
about 55 minutes. New Dachstein boots, hence a blister.
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Kalk Bay Caves: Boomslang, White Dome (quite far in), Lower Aladdin, Oread
(too wet) and Robin Hood (ditto). Will be back soon.
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Back to the Hut, with a Scout party. Went up Woody Ravine (beautiful) and
photographed some spectacular late evening cloud/landscapes. Tried to go
down Disa Gorge but the Woodhead overflow was in spate and the route was
blocked. So we took the jeeptrack instead.
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Swellendam Trail, 27 September - 1 October, with 4 Scouts - the weather
was cool and overcast, so the flowers stayed shut, but the rain only rained
on the huts and not on us. I damaged my knee on the downhill bits, and it
was too stormy to do the Vensterbank route.
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Cape Times Big Walk (36km) from Simonstown
to Cape Town, 8 October - I managed 4h28:55 and came 79th out of 4000.
Yeeah!
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Jonkershoek Panorama in wonderful, overcast weather. The best for strenuous
hiking.
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Three days in the Kouebokkeveld with Bruce looking (successfully) for a
long-lost shepherd's cave, and some bushman paintings.
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Amatola Trail, Eastern Cape (near King William's Town). Six days of the
toughest trail hiking I've done so far. Very worthwhile, although next
time I'll skip the rain on the day with all the nicest pools.
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