WILDCLIFF PETER, RON, STEFAN, IAN & JENNY 13 TO 18 JANUARY 2009.

Wildcliff trip Ron, Stefan, Ian, Jenny & Peter.
Tuesday 14th to Sunday 18th January 2009

Stefan had said how keen he was for another Wildcliff trip and this is how we came to arrange this outing. Jacqui and her two children; Emily and Annabell were staying PE for two months and would be travelling to Cathy’s wedding on the 8th February. Ally had a week of intensive swim training and this is how I came to invite Ron to accompany me. I had planned to leave on Wednesday afternoon but Morkels head office called me to an urgent meeting regarding retrenchments in Johannesburg on the Friday 16th.

Ron & I managed to leave the office early on Tuesday afternoon and we were on the road to WC by about 15.00pm. We stopped off in Plett at Ena’s flat for tea and to collect some of Ena’s Rusks as well as her recipe for the Rusks. It was a brief stop and we headed off for Heidelberg where we filled up with Petrol. We reached WC by about 20.00pm.

Ian was not there as he was working in Johannesburg with Rand Merchant Bank and Standard Bank. Ian tells me that he works with Structured Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions. Jenny had made us some Spinach Pies but we had had a toasted sandwich in Heidelberg and were too tired to eat anything more.

Keith, Paula, Abigail and Bryce are the managing family for the next two years. Keith is ex US Air Force and has spent the past twenty years travelling all over the world including Texas, Afghanistan and Iraq. He is a practical person and runs the operations of WC. Paula is a researcher herself and spends time in the field. The two children are aged about 10 and 8 and Paula is home schooling them. Right now they are staying in the Weavers Nest but plan to move to the White House as soon as the cabinets have been built and the water solar heater is installed. The new name for the White house is Xairu. See the bottom of this story for an explanation of the word Xairu.

Wednesday morning Ron & I woke up early and packed some snacks in to the backpack. Peanut butter sandwiches, apples, bananas and crunchies. I like to be able to boost my sugar and energy level at fairly frequent intervals or else I find I become tired quickly. It looked like it would be cool and overcast today. We walked south along the South Ridge road with the Heron house on the right. We found the first tortoise that I have seen on WC. I phoned Jenny to find out if they had seen any Tortoises and she confirmed that they had found one and released it near to the Talari house. This tortoise must have walked all the way up the hill as, when I described the tortoise, she said that it sounded just like the one they had released.

Ron & I continued along the ridge road until we were almost at “Kallie’s” dairy farm. We then turned left following what looked like the spoor of two spooked buck. We entered Plattekloof at the end of the stream and then took a leisurely walk up the kloof. We stopped for a snack and continued up stream. I explained to Ron that we would be looking for a kloof coming into Plattekloof from the left.

After about 3 hours Ron spotted the inlet from what I believed to be the Peterkloof. I marked the entrance with bright orange tape. This section was very overgrown; however Ron used his machete to clear the entrance to the kloof. The Peterkloof starts off fairly narrow with lots of overgrowth but is easy to negotiate. We reached the waterfall where the kloof veers to the right. We had left a strapping here before and this made it easy for Ron & I climb up and above the falls.

A huge tree has fallen down and blocked off the stream. This fallen tree has taken a number of other trees and branches with it in its fall and this made climbing upstream quite tricky. As we reached the next waterfall I discovered a Baboon skeleton. I took out a plastic packet and gathered up as many of the bones that I could find. Bryce is in charge of the Bone collection and I thought that he could make use of this to add to his display.

Ron and I decided that the next waterfall was too tough to try to climb and headed off to the left. We rounded the boulders and hiked over and above the stream. At the top we were able to see into the kloof but not down to the top of the falls as the growth was too dense. We continued up until we came to a fence. At this stage we were now quite clear as to the source of the Peterkloof and decided to walk back to the Fynbos Road.

The Protea growth was thick and tall and we had difficulty in pushing our way through the brush and it was only by looking ahead to the Hammerkop that we were able to find our direction. However as we emerged from the really thick stuff we realised we had been looking at the wrong peak and had to head off to the west of the way that we had been heading. From here the route was not as difficult and we finally reached the Fynbos road.

Both of us were exhausted and the thought of a cup of tea and a sit down was quite inviting. Back at Talari we relaxed for an hour and then realised that the afternoon had plenty of daylight left so decided to walk up the Wilderkranz Kloof. This afternoon we met the team of Builders; Jackson and his son. They were busy in the house working in the chimney as well as building a trench for the flow of water at the back of Talari. There were a number of Baboons running around the Oak Tree Meadow but we walked past them and they carried on with their business and did not disturb us at all.

We walked along the old aquaduct and then past the pipe that crosses Wilderkranz stream and down into the Kloof. The water level was particularly low and it was relatively easy to stay on the left hand side. It seemed like a long walk up to the first little falls but when we reached the pool Ron spotted the webbing that Stefan & I had tied to the top of the falls some time ago. What Stefan had done was to tie the strapping to a log that was wedged into the rocks but a heavy rainfall must have dislodged the log and the webbing was still tied to the log.

We untied the webbing and I swam across the pool with it so that I could try to tie it to aid hikers in climbing to the top of this waterfall. I climbed up quite easily and forced the webbing under a rock and was able to secure it. Unfortunately the webbing was too short to reach the pool at the bottom. Ron had also swum across and was using the webbing that was still fastened to the left hand side of the falls to help him up. The webbing must have frayed and snapped as he was hauling himself up and he splashed backwards into the pool. Fortunately he was not hurt.

This gave me the opportunity to use this section of webbing for lengthening the strapping that I had just secured. When we were finished the webbing lay in the middle of the water flow. I am sure that this will not last as this nylon webbing is not strong enough to survive the constant battering of water. On our way back we filled the water bladder that I carry in my backpack from the spring that flows into the Wilderkranz stream. This water is, in my opinion, probably the best drinking water that you can find anywhere on WC.

This afternoon we had enjoyed two stunning walks and were really exhausted. Jenny made us a supper of turkey and vegetables. I added some sausage that I planned to use as fillers for the next days sandwiches. Jenny went out for supper (to Keith & Paula).

Thursday morning, after a really good night’s rest, we were a little more relaxed and left the house at about 08.00am. We walked straight up the Fynbos road and up to Ena’s Falls.

Keith and his team of Freek and Aubrey passed us as they were in the process of making repairs to the Fynbos Road where the road is a thin type of soil that does not bind and as soon as there is a rain the whole road just washes away. We suggested humps in place of troughs and Ron advocated the use of logs which are in abundance below where the pine forest has been cut. Aubrey has recently moved to Heidelberg to be with his family. He has been working in Cape Town where he was a Code 14 Heavy Duty driver doing both long and short distances. He had been introduced to Wildcliff by Jackson.

At the top of Ena’s falls we walked down to the pools and there had a swim. It was interesting to see all the little creatures in the pools. A researcher, Zolt, had given us a talk on the smallest of small creatures that live in the rivers. Today we had remembered to charge phones and were able to take a few pictures. I tried to send to Barbara but did not seem to have too much success. I need reading glasses to see small stuff and am not much good with a phone except for phoning. Having a phone is an advantage in some respects but Ron found himself being interrupted a number of times by calls from business partners. After this most refreshing swim (it was going to be a hot day) we carried on up onto Ackers farm and over to the Karoo Lookout ridge. It was becoming really hot and there was little or no breeze. Ferns seem to have overgrown on this jeep track and this is to me a clear indication that this area is no longer being harvested as it was two years ago when I first walked this road.

From the Karoo Lookout we could see for many kilometres to the north of the Langkloof both East and West and across to the mountain range in the north. After a short snack and some photography, we retraced our steps back to the neck at Ena’s Falls. As soon as we crested this neck we could feel the cool breeze coming from the West. I had a plan to map a trail from the sign leading to Ena’s Falls Viewpoint to the pools below the falls. I had orange tape and led a pathway down to the pools where I again had a swim.

This is not a difficult path but it will be made a little safer by adding some strapping to the section where the hiker has to clamber down some rocks. From here we had the task of finding a trail down to the Klipspringer Pools (Bumslide Pools) below where the water pipe had burst. We were tired and not keen for more rock climbing so avoided the rock face of the broken pipe and headed downwards in an easterly direction.

It was here that we found the “field of King Protea”. This field is West Facing, has lots of water in a sloot. At this time of year (January) it seems that the King Protea are in full bloom. As we descended into the kloof we came across a number of Pine Trees which we either cut down using a lopper or the Machete or else, if the tree was too strong, we Ring Barked the tree. The foliage is thick and it became difficult to see where we were going with rocks and vines impeding our progress.

Down in the kloof we wallowed in the cool stream, enjoying the refreshing break before our ascent back to the Fynbos road. We had one of our toughest climbs of the day out of the kloof. We did not hike up at an angle but rather straight up and I think that this was just too much for us. We walked down the Fynbos road to where there is a pathway down to Rain Frog dam. We walked this track to the end of the pipe where Ron filled his water bottle. We tried to find the trail leading down to Rain Frog dam but, while we did not have success in finding the actual trail, we kind of bundu bashed and made our way to the dam.

As we walked, I wondered to myself if the sloot to the right of us would have any water as an alternative source for Rain Frog dam. When we finally reached home that afternoon at about 16.00 we were both ready for our tea and a couch. Jenny suggested watering the chestnut trees and other plants on the dam wall. I was able to persuade her that we should do this when the sun had settled a bit more. By time the watering of the trees and garden had to be done we had had time to recover and the sun was not as fierce as it had been earlier.

We found the trees that had to watered and then decided, as the level of the pond had dropped quite considerably, to fill the pond with the garden hose. We left the hose running all Thursday night and by Friday evening it had filled to its optimum level. At the Weavers Nest we found Abigail and reminded her of her duty to water the Keurboom and Yellow Wood trees. The hose was just long enough to water the saplings around the house but the Gladioli that are now planted in the newly painted water trough need to be watered by bucket.

Jenny made us a supper of Roast Chicken and vegetables this was finished off with a desert of Christmas Pudding and Ice Cream. Simply delicious! Hanna (a GIS Mapping researcher) joined us for supper. Hanna is a Texan who will be at WC for another 6 months and then will be marrying her fiancé who is in the US army. I could not last out for much longer and excused myself for a good night’s rest.

Ron did not sleep well as he was suffering from a bit of heat exhaustion and dehydration. Stefan was on his way from Cape Town that afternoon and had agreed to pick up two volunteers; Diego from the Basque region of Spain and Elodie from France. http://wildcliff.org/research They had left CT airport at about 19.30 and only arrived at WC after 23.00. I was long fast asleep and did not hear Stefan come in.

Jenny & I had decided to leave for George at about 07.00am. I had to catch a flight to Johannesburg for the meeting regarding retrenchment of staff. We passed Albertina where I made my compulsory stop for Gekervde Biltong. Jenny dropped me off at the airport where I obtained my ticket and sat down for a meal at Dulce’s. I ordered a coffee and a Chicken Curry Tremezinne. This is a meal in a pita bread and quite delicious. Ally often orders this but always brings half of the meal home for a second helping later in the day. I was unable to finish my meal but did not have place for a take away box.

The flying time from George to Johannesburg is 1hour 40minutes. Dawn had given me a book voucher for my birthday and I had one of the books that I had bought with me. It was a book of short thriller stories and by the end of the flight I had slept and read the time away.

John Baatjies (also 25 years service with Morkels) collected me at the airport and we took a route through the city centre. I have not been through Johannesburg city for many years and could still recognise many places and street names from the time when we lived in Johannesburg and I worked in the family business at Gaynors which was a division of Giddy’s.

I was not a good student and when I failed my final year (B.Com) at Wits University, I started a part time job at Gaynors with the intention to study part time. I only completed my degree many years later. I first of all worked in Doornfontein where the warehousing and administration took place. Then later, as the Johannesburg branch of the business was shut down, I worked as a manager of the only remaining shop in Bree street.

This was a busy time of life as I would sell an appliance, load it up in the El Camino truck and whisk it off to the customer’s home. We also sold a variety of appliance spares. It was quite a good business but not what I saw as my future and so when the opportunity arose I accepted a position as accountant in Port Elizabeth where the head office of Giddy’s was located. Eventually; Gaynors, Bree Street, was sold to Richard Beukes who was the group accountant of Giddy’s in Port Elizabeth.

Shortly after moving to PE I was fortunate enough to meet Barbara. I and a few friends were living in a Communal house and Barbara needed a room. From this our romance blossomed and when I was called up to National Service for three months at the Namibian Border we decided to marry before I was killed in action. Barbara stayed at home with her parents until I returned.

We lived in a flat in Kabega for the first while, Nicci and then Jacqui came along and we decided to move to the beach where we found a flat in Cathcart road (Cathcart Gardens). We bought this two bedroom flat for R15 000. I had bought a motor Bike and used this to commute. Michael was born and when the opportunity came to move into the family home in Mill Park Road, we snapped it up. At about this time I left the family business of Giddy’s. I had spent the last number of years as a salesman in the Newton Park shop and was ready for something new.

My parents; Ena and Allan moved from their flat in Killarney, Johannesburg, to a home that they built next to the Anglican Church in Plettenberg Bay. My father continued with his interest in Giddy’s which was at that time being run by his partner and army buddy, Rocky Ridgeway. In the Mid ‘80’s the business was sold to Rusfurn and then later Rusfurn was taken over by the JD Group.

Barbara left SA Eagle insurance where she had been a secretary and found a new job as a PA at Blasting and Excavating where she worked for Basil Bartlet until she resigned in the late 1990’s. We have now lived in Mill Park for over 25 years. After leaving Giddy’s I spent a year as a “travelling salesman selling chemical products and then spent another year as a Regional Credit manager at Lewis Furnishers.

I had put an application in with Morkels and when they called me for a second interview I was delighted and accepted their offer without hesitation. I managed the Main Street shop for three years, the North End shop for a further three years and then moved to a regional position. I have now worked in a variety of regional positions at Morkels for 25 years.

Morkels has been through a management buy out from Federale Volksbeleggings, a take over by Profurn and then a take over by JDG. Right now I am in the process of moving from the Morkels brand to the JDG Financial services division and if all works out I will receive my first promotion in nearly 20 years. Barbara and I had decided to stay in PE rather than accept transfers and promotions.

Back to my meeting in Johannesburg: John drove me out to Hillfox in the West Rand, where the JDG training and meetings facilities are housed. We were handed the retrenchment letters that we had to take back with us on Monday and then Sue Lewis (HR Executive) explained how we were to handle the communication. After the meeting John drove me back to OR Tambo airport where I met up with Ian and we were able to sit together for the return flight home.

This kind of trip is exhausting to me and I had a bit of a dull headache. Jenny met us at the airport and we drove back to WC together. Jenny had spent a good day shopping in the George Mall where she had purchased a number of research books and some of the essentials for WC. Jenny had also bought us a supper of Sushi for the road. I think that Jenny enjoys spoiling “her men” with delights like this.

Stefan and Ron had made us a delicious Pootjie on the braai. It was late and while we had supper Stefan and Ron related their day’s activities. Ron had started off the day not been feeling that good but by about 09.00 had recovered enough to walk up the fynbos road.

Stefan wanted to explore the ridge which he and I had seen from the West side of the Wilderkranz Kloof. They walked up the Fynbos road and then down and along the ridge towards the Doghead Rock. They tell me that they marked the trail well and that Stefan had made liberal use of the Loppers. They finally reached the Wilderkranz stream and walked and swam down the valley until they reached what is now called Bryce Canyon. Here they walked up the hill and back to Fynbos road. I make this sound quick and easy but the day’s activity took them to 19.00pm. I think that this hiking trail should be called Stefan’s Loop. This had been a 10hour hike for them. Nevertheless they had waited up until we arrived back from our travels.

Saturday Morning. This would be our last day of the short holiday. We warmed up some of the Pootjie for our breakfast. I wanted to get going as soon as possible but Ian wanted to set out a planned route. We decided to find out if there was any water in the sloot that lies to the West of Rain Frog Dam. Ian then wanted to see the Wilderkranz Kloof at about the area where the first Little Falls were located from above on the East side of the kloof. Finally Ian wanted to find the water pipe on Fynbos Road where Freek and Aubrey were repairing a section of the road.

We set off at about 8 or 9am and walked up through the wattles to Rain Frog dam and over the dam wall to where we found these two sloots that would lead down to the Oak Tree Meadow. Both of them were dry and therefore this would not be an alternate source of water for the houses of WC. We then headed uphill through where Tom Ambrose’ teams had cut the pines and wattle and then over to the East of the Wilderkranz valley. As we walked this route we found a trap which we assumed to be a Leopard trap.

We continued down until we found what we thought to be a lookout point. From here we could see the top of Sunshine Falls. This is the second falls after the Little Falls as you work your way up from Oak Tree meadow. We could not see into the kloof itself as it is simply too dense with trees and foliage. We carried on up and found another lookout point. From this vantage point it appears that with some assistance from webbing we may be able to climb down into the kloof. Ian spotted a few Wattles below us. Ron immediately headed down into this valley and begun chopping the first of three trees down. I took an easy little tree and Stefan, being the youngest of us, was given the task of the biggest tree. Ron slung some of the webbing around a stump and this aided Stefan in his trip down and back up again. We should carry some Garlon poison with us to make these efforts of ours a permanent solution.

From here we walked up to the Fynbos road, found the pipe on the road and settled down to a snack. While we relaxed on the road we saw Diego and Elodie walking up towards us. We all greeted and introduced ourselves and then walked up to Ena’s Falls. At Ena’s Falls we made our way down to the Burst Pipe rocks and then down through this kloof to the bottom Klipspringer pools. Ian, Stefan & I had a swim. The weather was not that warm and the water quite brisk. Still a lovely swim.

Ron & Stefan had looped a section of webbing for the climb up. This certainly made this climb a lot easier and the researchers will have no trouble reaching these otherwise tough sections of the valley. By putting the webbing in place we also are able to save the grasses as we tend to pull on grasses to help us up the steep hills. Shortly after this Stefan and Ron headed down the fynbos road to Talari, following Diego and Elodie.

Hennie, the water pipe man from the Heidelberg coop arrived with Keith and surveyed the pipes to see how best the broken pipe could be mended. I also showed Hennie where there were other sections of broken and leaking pipes up above Ena’s falls. We located the source of the water where the pipe starts as well as the valve where the water can be turned off altogether. It is not advisable to turn the valve off completely as this could result in the PVC pipe collapsing and being destroyed in the process. The low water level means that only 1/3rd of the inlet pipe is being fed. Perhaps we should consider building a small weir here,

There was a brisk wind coming up the valley from the south west and Ian was able to find a sheltered spot behind a couple of huge boulders. He plans to ask one of the contractors if they will be able to build a small stone hut for overnight hikers. This will be a two man hut with the very minimum basics. It will have to survive storms, wind, fire and baboons. Hennie’s team fitted a new escape valve just above the broken pipe and he also fitted a tap just below where Ian is considering the stone hut.

Ian was due to give a presentation on Biodiversity and his guests were already there and waiting. The next day was Ian’s birthday and he had invited Bob & Wilma plus all the volunteers for a braai. Ian and I walked down at a brisk pace. We reached Talari at about 17.30 and after a shower and a cup of tea I was beginning to feel human again. This had been a long day’s hiking of 8 or 9 hours.

Jenny had set up a presentation area in the lounge which I almost destroyed when I walked past carrying my backpack in front of me and did not take enough care when walking over the wires. I tripped, the projector crashed down but fortunately did not break. Ian then gave us a very interesting presentation on the subject of Biodiversity and why it is of importance to study the biodiversity at both Cloudbridge and at Wildcliff and to monitor the changes.

Bob and I did the Braaiing while Jenny prepared vegetables. Paula had made a most delicious bread. I would have been happy to have this alone but all the food was so inviting that I could not resist sampling a bit of everything. We had a desert of mixed Melk Tert and Christmas pudding. While my birthday had been a few weeks earlier I was spoilt with gifts from both Jenny (a rechargeable torch) and from Paula a (home made braai sauce).

This was my 5th night away from home and I was looking forward to getting back to my family. There was such a festive and active conversation going on that after two attempts to interrupt and bid everyone a good night I finally went off to bed. I set the alarm for 04.00am and awoke just before that on Sunday Morning. Ron also woke up and we decided to pack and go. We were on the road at about 04.30 and made our first stop in Plett at the Shell garage where we bought a coffee and toasted sandwich. The road was relatively empty and we were back home before 10.00am. This is probably the quickest time that I have driven between WC and PE.

18TH January is Ian Giddy (079 538 2444) and Ian Spence (044 5333 1657) Birthday. I spoke to Patrick who was at the Hogsback for a three day conference. He told me of how he driven from Durban and taken the road from Kokstad to Matatielle to Queenstown and that this was a really easy tar road with no traffic and this avoided the congestion of places like Mthatha and Butterworth. I will probably take this route when we go to Durban for Nippers Nationals in April.

I phoned Ian Spence to wish him a happy 93rd birthday. While he had suffered a bit of a health setback recently, on his birthday he had a “drinks party” and was able to swim in the pool. Ian Giddy had also had recent health problems. He had discovered a cancer while being examined for a Kidney stone. Doctors have been able to remove the cancer and Ian is presently going for blood tests which should have been forwarded to his doctor in NY but this process seems to have been less then successful. However Ian seems to be very strong. He is back working as hard as ever at the operations of the two reserves, the consulting work that he does and was hugely active as we walked and climbed and swam in some difficult trails at WC this weekend.

Stefan had left WC at about 05.30. He travelled the on the N2 to about 10kays before Swellendam where he took a left turn to Barrydale. This may have been a bit of a mistake as the route was about 40kays longer then going through Swellendam and Ashton. Stefan reports it to be a stunning pass with deep cliffs and ridges. This road is tarred all the way to the N1. He saw little or no traffic and the drive took him about 30 minutes longer than normal.

It was good to be home. As soon as I had unpacked, I dressed for Nippers. Barbara, Ally & I drove down to Summerstrand. A strong west wind was blowing and there were some ultra huge swells that ended up crashing onto the shallows of the beach. The sand had begun to build up and there were not as many rocks as we have experienced over the past number of weeks.

After a short warm up run we took the U10’s through their paces in the water. First a swim and I was pleasantly surprised to see how many of the u10’s made it through the dumpers and swam out to where the coaches were waiting. We then put them on Body Boards and again a number of these youngsters braved the waves and paddled out to the coaches.

I have started to find a sense of team spirit developing in the U10’s. We now have more than a team of just one u10 girl. At the Plett carnival Marion was the only girl in the U10 Nippers team. And the boys are becoming more confident as they become used to the ocean. What really helps, at this level, is the increased number of parents who stay and contribute both in the water, on the beach and in other ways. We are very fortunate to have such a dedicated group.

The U10’s should be pleasantly surprised when they are at Kings Beach next week for the Carnival. The swell is not nearly as big and the waves are easier to negotiate. We ran though sprints and baton changing for team selection purposes. Lynne and I went through the criteria for the Nippers doing their first Level tests. We have a small group of u10’s going for a level test on Saturday and we should have over 20 X U10’s competing in the carnival next Sunday.


Xairu:
Dear Peter,

Thank you for visiting www.openafrica.org and posting your comment/request.
The information on the route, and thus the name can be found within the
route background information at the following link:
http://www.openafrica.org/route/xairu-blue-crane-route

But to answer your question directly I have copied the information, see
below:



"Xairu" (pronounced with the 'x' as a click sound made by flattening the
tongue on the roof of the mouth and then removing it) means "paradise" in
the old language of the San people who used to inhabit the area.


Please feel free to post any requests or comments on our site again. Thank
yoU!

Kind Regards
Jolene du Plessis

Open Africa
Tel: +27 21 683 9639
Fax: +27 21 683 8013
Cell: +27 72 015 9978
Email: jolene@openafrica.org
Website: www.openafrica.org