Klein Drakensteinkop in morning light with Paarl Valley in the background
Link to detailed route page and map click on route title. Please note the first link is the trail to my camping area and the second to the summit.[route-snippet id=”1093″ featured=”image”][route-snippet id=”1078″ featured=”image”]Several years back we purchased bivvy bags for use down here, unfortunately we had never got round to testing them out. Mike had been invited to the Pearl Valley Golf Day at Clovelly and so I decided that this would be a good opportunity (esp as the weather was set fair) to head into the mountains for an overnight ‘test’ of bivouacking. Must admit I kept this a bit under my hat, but when Mike mentioned it to the guys they thought in polite terms I had taken leave of my senses. Probably it was a tad daft to go up into the mountains on my own with only sporadic mobile reception – but I had a great time!
Fish Eagle
Took our familiar route up to Vaalkop peak junction and on the way very excited to see a large fish eagle perched on a dead protea bough, he then took off and circled round me so I could have an even better view. Made my day.
Next thing to make my day was finding running water at a suitable camping location by the saddle. The place I camped was great – sandy and flat (no stones) sheltered by a tree and reasonably close to water. Dumped my kit and then as I still had plenty of time kept with my original plan to hike up to Klein Drakensteinkop (KD) which towers over my camp area and is also very visible from the valley below. Great when I am on my way to Paarl Mall for groceries to think I was camping up there a little while back!
The hike up to the summit was fun, lots of flowers, false summits to keep me guessing when I would get to the top – then I found that there were 2 summits for the price of one as they were basically at the same height with only a small drop between them) and not too hot to boot. The path(s) was easy to follow as the area is reasonably heavily used by trail bikes – a mixed blessing as they stop the trails from becoming overgrown and falling into disuse but at the same time cause quite a lot of erosion. I was just happy to be able to get into the mountains and up my peak.
Had an excellent night, no wind saw the stars come out as I was listening to Enya (Memory of Trees) on my headphones with the odd plane disrupting the peace and felt very happy. The bivvy experience was good but not sure how keen I would be to do it in wet or windy conditions!
The next morning headed back out and regaled Mike with stories of my adventures. Was so happy and full of camping up there that we agreed to go back up in a weeks time to try and hike up to the Middagberg summit which is the next one along in the range and slightly higher than what I climbed. I was surprised at the abundance of flowers, but guess that this is the last hurrah before summer sets in.
NB. Mike identified the yellow ‘star’ flowers in the slideshow below as Finica radiata.
Click on the link to see some photos of my trip to the mountains Photo slideshow link. Below is a 360 video taken from the summit
