Great Hikes in 1999

Ian Webb, Cape Town, South Africa

A list of my hikes in 1999.

1999

• From November 1999 until June 2000 I lived and worked in Switzerland, and I didn't add any hikes to this page
• 10 October: Cape Times Big Walk, the 36km version from Simon's Town to Cape Town, in a time of 4:51:56 and 186th position. Not my best, but still OK..
• 30 September: Drakensberg - my first visit, but only for a day walk below the Amphitheatre in Royal Natal National Park. We hiked up Tugela Gorge, then up the slope to Policeman's Helmet (why don't they build a path here? It would make a nice circular route.) Then down past Vemvaan and Devil's Hoek rivers, ending eventually at Mahai campsite.
• 12 and 15 September: Two biking trips around Cape Town. Both were circular routes starting and ending in Rondebosch. One followed the Two Oceans Marathon route (Main Road to Fish Hoek, then Noordhoek, Chapmans Peak, Hout Bay, Constantia Nek - 56km in total). The second went via Constantia Nek and Hout Bay to Suikerbossie, Camps Bay, Kloof Nek, Signal Hill road to the lookout, then to the lower Cable Station and along Tafelberg Road, ending with a downhill mountain bike trip to Rhodes Memorial - about 40km, but fairly tough.
• 7-8 September: Groot Winterhoek, including De Hel. We cut the trip short by one day because the rain came in, heavily.
• 5 September: India Venster, with a visitor from Switzerland. The same person who showed me Jungfraujoch a few weeks earlier!
• 24 August: Jungfraujoch, in the Alps! Well, it was a bit short to qualify as a real hike, but it was certainly fun, hiking for an hour in real snow.
• 2-4 July: A hike to Sleeppad Hut in the Cedarberg, starting at Welbedacht and ending at Algeria.
• 27 April: Kloof Corner, another slighty more difficult route on Table Mountain.
• 2 April: a night hike up Skeleton Gorge to enjoy the Easter full moon, but we missed it in the clouds.
• 21 March: Up India Venster at a leisurely pace with some English visitors, who then came down the cableway while we made our way across Right face - Arrow face traverse (you know, the one which crosses an impossible cliff face by going through a cave).
• 14 March: Baviaanskloof, a kloofing trip down a tributary of Bains Kloof.
• 27-28 February: An overnight tour of the Karbonkelberg range above Hout Bay, on the scout Rayner Trophy competition.
• 25 February: Night hike from Rhodes Memorial to Newlands Forest via the contour path.
• 14 February: With my dad up Skeleton Gorge to the Scout Hut, through the Valley of the Red Gods, Valley of Isolation and Echo Valley, then down Disa River to the aqueduct where we saw hundreds of disas. Back down Skeleton Gorge - welcome shade from the heat.
• 7 February: A scout hike to the Kalk Bay Caves. Including all the classics - Boomslang, Oread, Robin Hood and White Dome, and a first time visit to Avernus - very wet, very nice.
• 16 January: Elandspad Kloof. A very pleasant day in the river.

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