STEFAN STEENKAMP EXPLORING THE WILDERKRANS 17 MAY 2008.

Exploring the Wildekrantz kloof – 17-18 May 08

We had decided on the spur of the moment on the Tuesday before the weekend that we would go to Wildcliff. We hadn’t been there for about 2 months and were very jealous on the Peter, Ian and the family for having been there just the weekend before.

It is about a 3.5-hour drive from Durbanville to Wildcliff. We left Durbanville on Friday the 16th and met up with some friends we had invited to Wildcliff, at Heidelberg, to show them the way to the reserve.

Niki invited Christina Collett, one of her long time friends. Christina brought along her roommate Liesl. I also invited Ian Mitchinson, a photographer friend of mine, but he would only come the next morning.

The last bit of road to Wildcliff is still quite bad, but does not seem worse than before. We reached Talari at 8pm, quite dark already. After a few slices of homemade bread and a few glasses of wine, we went to sleep.

We woke up at about 7:30 only on Saturday. Because Wildcliff is facing west, and lies on the dark side of the hill, it becomes light a bit later than everywhere else. Ian arrived at 10am and at about 11am all of us walked down to Oaktree meadow. Niki and the kids were going to spend some time under the Magic Oak Tree at the stream. The rest of us, myself, Ian, Christina and Liesl decided to see how far we could go up the Wildekrantz kloof.

The water level seemed to be slightly lower and the going was easy. We reached the rock pool below the 1st waterfall in under an hour. On arrival we discovered that the safety belt webbing that we had fixed in the waterfall to assist with climbing up it, had been worn down by the constant flowing water and that it was broken in half. The webbing we had fixed on the side of the waterfall, however, was still in tact. I do think we have to make a more permanent fixture here if we can, as I am scared that the nails we used to fix the webbing, would rust in time. We were contemplating on whether we should swim through the cold water to get to the waterfall. I had brought along Jenny’s inflatable boat to ferry our equipment across. We tied a rope to it and one by one paddled across. Ian has a Yorkshire terrier (Simba) and a Border collie (Oscar). They came with us all the way to the rock pool and we were not sure whether we should try getting them up the waterfall as well.

Ian went first and with the grace of a Spiderman he scaled the rocks next to the waterfall and within a minute he was up and safe. I think this gave all of us a lot of confidence that we could make it as well. I was next and also found it quite easy. We discovered that to go up there, with bare feet, was a lot safer and you could also get more grip and toe holds than with shoes on. Surprisingly, the girls also made it up fine. Ian went back for the dogs and ferried them across with the boat. With a bit of help from myself, we managed to get them both up the waterfall. I think they will go down in history as the first dogs ever to have gone up there!

The second stage of this hike is far more physical than the part up to the first waterfall. There are a lot of big boulders to climb up, but nothing too dangerous or difficult. The most difficult part was the waterfall that we had now already negotiated. There was only one other pool we had to swim through on the way to the 4th waterfall. On the return I found a dry route hanging on the the rocks on the side of this pool, but it was touch and go or I was in the water. As Peter and myself found the first time we did this hike, it is definitely safer to go through the water, than to try and stay dry all the time. We reached the 4th waterfall (we have to name this one) 1h30 after we left the meadow. It was the first time I had come right up to the pool beneath it. The last time, Peter and myself turned around once we saw it from a distance. I would estimate it to be between 20 and 25 meters high. It is definitely not possible to scale it without proper abseiling gear. It is absolutely beautiful! The going back part was as easy as getting there. We thought that getting down the waterfall was going to be difficult, but we found a relatively safe route on the right side (opposite from the climbing up side) to get down. Unfortunately you cannot get away without getting wet. By this time the dogs were also very confident in jumping from rock to rock, so much so that the Border Collie, Oscar, just ran down this waterfall, without hesitating for a moment. Luckily he did not get hurt, but the was surely a risk – or maybe he remembered that the pool down below is quite deep.

The last stage back to Talari was also easy and fast. We got back home at 2:30ish. I would say, that anyone can make this hike in 4 hours (including stopping at pools)

Recommendations for this Hike:
Good “Wet shoes” - I bought myself a pair of Hi Tech shoes, made of wetsuit material and mesh. It has holes in the sole to allow for good drainage.
Small backpack for some snacks, towel and warm top. No Water bottle is needed as you can drink from the stream the whole way.
Swimming costume – there is no avoiding getting wet.
GPS equipment – we would like to map the coordinates better. Also in case where someone would get hurt, we can notify the rescue teams of the exact spot.
Camera with a waterproof housing
Two way Radio with at least a 2km range. If the other unit is left at Talari, we can stay in touch with people the whole time. We found that is almost always take longer than you anticipate and the people do get worried when there is no communication.

That night we made a potjie and drank some red wine. We were the first to use the new Braai area – It was great! The evening was quite cold and we had to wear Ski jackets to stay warm. Brett, Emily and Njal joined us as we had a very enjoyable night. It was great to spend some time with Brett, to find out more about what was going on at Wildcliff. Christina made some Mielie Pap to go with the potjie. It was very tasty and filling and everyone including myself was impressed at my cooking skills.

We all were in bed by 11pm. The night was quite windy and a few doors slammed in the night. You definitely have to check that no windows are open when the wind blows like this. We woke up at about 7:30am and had a coffee, while watching the baboons play with Aaron’s ball. He left it on the grass in front of the stoep and, being bright orange, it must have seemed like a very interesting object to them. One of the young ones threw it up in the air and when it came down tried to catch it again. It was hilarious. When they left they took the ball with and we later found it in tack on the way to rainfrog dam. It must have lost it’s appeal…

At about 11am, Brett took Niki and the girls up to Ena’s Falls, with the Bush Pig. Ian and myself and the 3 dogs decided to go on foot and meet them up there. I took Ian past Rainfrog dam and then up to the Pine plantations. The dogs went for a dip in the dam, including our dog, Star. Star is a Maltese and Yorkie cross and she is about 4 months old now. I was surprised at her endurance. She made the 3.5km trip up to Ena’s Falls without moaning or stopping.

Ian and myself decided to go and explore the section of the kloof that myself and Andre previously did. I wanted to see the 3rd waterfall from the bottom. I have seen it from the top already. We discovered with the other Waterfalls that you could only really see the extent of it from the bottom. When I did this hike in March, we went downriver to reach the 4th waterfall. This time around, the plan was to go upstream to reach the bottom of the 3rd Waterfall. We left the 4x4 track (that goes up to Ena’s Falls, just below (Talari side) the Fern Kloof. The Fern kloof is just too thick to go through, so there is a more rocky part with less dense Protea and other fynbos next to it. The vegetation here is about 1.3 m high and that thorny bush that grows at the bottom of Protea is everywhere. We had shorts on and it was quite painful to make our way through here. Next time, I would definitely wear long sleeve pants for this section.

It was the first time I walked through this part, It is not was dense as the bush in other places. If we were to make a trail down to the river, this would be a good spot to start. This section is quite flat, but before you know it, You reach a very steep gradient. Once we reached these cliffs, I saw the top of a tree that I recognized from the last hike we did. By this time, Ian questioned the safety of this trip and he was especially weary of the fact that there might be snakes. He also expressed his concern about the fact that you could not see very far in front of you and that If you are not careful might fall 2 or 3 meters.

When we reached this tree we used as a beacon before, I was surprised to find a beaten path to the bottom. We had stumbled across the path Andre and myself had beaten 2 months before. It was interesting that the bush had not recovered and made me realize how easily we can damage the environment if not cautious. The beaten path was though fern mainly – it looks like it stays down once stepped on. The good thing was that we now trotted on the same route again and this would mean this path would be even more established and surely be there for at least a year. Once we reached this path, our going was much easier and we were down on the riverbed in 15 minutes. Upstream from where you enter, there is a very recognizable tree that had fallen right across the river. I used this as a beacon for our exit point later.

I wanted to show Ian the top of the 4th waterfall first, so we made our way down stream. Getting there, you have to swim through 2 pools and down 2 smaller waterfalls. After taking some photos here, we made our way back, with the mission to reach the bottom of the 3rd waterfalls. We encountered a small green/brown snake swimming in the second pool on the way back. We think that this is either a Herald snake or a green water snake (leaning more towards the Herald snake). I took a picture of it and later Njal and myself tried to identify it with about 3 snake books as reference.

Of the whole Wildekrantz kloof, I would say this part is the toughest going. You have to be fit and physically able, as you have to swim through 10 pools to get from one waterfall to the next. You also have to scale some rocks on the side of small waterfalls and constantly push yourself up rocks etc. The water was cold, but not freezing as I expected and as soon as you have done one pool, you are used to the cold and we no longer hesitated about getting in. It took us well over an hour to do about 500meters going up the kloof. In between, we again had to get rid of our shoes to climb up a smaller waterfall. This is probably the most dangerous part of this section. If you would slip, you would injure yourself badly on rocks below. This is not for the fainthearted and I think it might be wise to do this section with a good climbing helmet next time. We reached, what I thought to be the 3rd waterfalls, but it was in fact another waterfall of about 10 to 13 meters high. It had a big pool below. About 5 meters above the waterfall, on the side of the cliff, there was also a very interesting protruding rock that looked like the head of a dog. It almost looked like this “statue” was protecting or watching over these falls.

There is a dangerous route on the right of these falls to scale up and we decided against it to go up there. We headed back instead. In all we had to go through 20 pools that day. Most of them are at least waist deep.

We really have to name the waterfalls properly as it can become confusing if we refer to them by numbers only. Especially if we discover more, like we did this time

It took us 30 minutes of hard climbing uphill before we reached the road. We had easily found the path up to the tree we used as a beacon. This trail through the ferns is now very visible. Even the section from the tree up to the road is visible, but to a lesser extent. My aim is to cut down a clear path from the road to the tree next time I go to Wildcliff. This will enable more people to get down to the river bed. Hopefully Peter and Saul will help with this when we are there in the middle of June.

Once up at the road, it took us about 20 minutes to get home. It was now already 4:45pm and the sun had disappeared behind the mountain.

Recommendations for this hike:

Long sleeve pants to make the first section of protea less painful.
Good hiking shoes for the first section down to the riverbed and then a pair of wet shoes for going through the pools and rocks.
Once down in the riverbed, a wetsuit will be great as you are more in the water than on dry ground. If you do not get cold easily, a swimming costume can also work, but definitely not in the winter.
A good waterproof bag of some sorts for cameras and other stuff. The smaller this bag the better. You can leave a lot of your supplies like food etc where you enter the riverbed.
A two-way radio with at least 3km range – for emergencies and also just to keep in contact with people at Talari.
GPS mapping equipment
Climbing Helmet for rock climbing sections.
Water bottle for section coming down and up mountain.

When we got to Talari, Niki and the girls had already cleaned and packed and were ready to go. But then we all decided to stay another night. Before I left, I started another potjie and Christina finished it for me. She also baked an awesome olive and onion bread and we feasted like kings on this.


We left the next morning just after 8:30am and had a good drive back to Durbanville