31 December 2006    to      01 January 2007

Click HERE for Bigger Map

Another year has come and gone! For us, and me in particular its been one of the most interesting years in my life. This year our New Year celebrations took us to just the other side of Middelburg where we first did the cycad trail and then had our celebrations at the overnight hut overlooking a beautiful valley below. The drive to Cycad from Johannesburg only took us two hours and we got there quite early. Petro and Kerneels had gone for a walk earlier on and Rob and Sue had also gone for a walk and promptly got lost....correction, took the whole day to get lost. They only somehow made it back to the base camp just before dark. It had rained incessantly on the way to Cycad and while we were waiting for the others it started raining again.

After the rain had stopped we started our Braai followed by our traditional Garlic snails.

Most of the stuff for the New Year celebrations where carted by Bakkie to the overnight hut, but some of the old die-hards like Petro, Kerneels, Rob, myself and Silvia took our backpacks along instead of just a daypack.

Its a beautiful trail and with all the rains in the area the bush was lush and green. Here are some of the Cycads along the trail from where it got its name.

Eventually we got to a point high above the Oliphants river. Across the valley on the other side high up on the cliff face we could see our hut.

Schnapps on the rocks.

After awhile the trails follows a gorge down along which there are many swimming spots. Kerneels promptly got into one of them to cool off.

It was not long before a whole lot more of us got in. It certainly was refreshing!

The trail heads down the gorge through a lot of indigenous forest.

At the bottom it follows the river for awhile.

Silvia and Heather.

We had lunch next to the river before attempting the steep long climb up to the Arendsnes overnight hut.

The river was in flood from the recent rains and would have made an ideal spot for some river-rafting.

After a long very hot climb we made it to the overnight hut at the top of the cliff.

The hut overlooks the spectular Oliphants river valley below.

The view from the hut.

After cooling down a bit Kerneels, Petro, Silvia and myself got busy making the Potjies. Kerneels and Petro made a Lamb neck Potjie and Silvia and myself a chicken Potjie. Sue made some delicious salads.

We ate like kings for new year! Here's some of us for our new year toast.

Next morning our group was very reluctant to leave such a beautiful place and the hike back to the base camp only took us about an hour. Cycad had been a great place to hold our New Year celebrations that turned into another memorable event enjoyed by all of us.