01 April 2006    to      02 April 2006

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After quite a long break in hiking, Stamvrug was the perfect hike to get back into things again. With all the rain that we have had recently the road there was not in the best shape. So once we left the tar road, it took us another hour traveling on these washed out roads to get to the Stamvrug base camp. Markus and Petro also made it there before dark...Petro just barely! The Stamvrug hiking trail is in the Bateleur Nature Reserve just west of Warmbaths (Bela Bela).

Having a sundowner!

A great social evening followed around the camp fire.

Next morning we hit the trail. The trail mainly follows along the top of a ridge through bush terrain...

with some grassland thrown in. Its quite rocky with small rocks all over, mainly of a sandstone type. Occasionally one could see ripples in the rocks indicating that the rocks once formed part of an ancient inland lake bed. If I remember correctly this ancient lake once stretched from the Magaliesberg right up to Pietersburg.

Time for a water break! At this point the trail drops gently.

Eventually you head down a small gorge. Here a dam had been built. With all the rain it was overflowing. This was a great place to have lunch and cool off.

Petro was the brave one in the group and went for a swim in the cool water.

From here its some thick bush hiking.

Finally we got to the Kloof hut. Its really well equipped and quite spacious. Petro and Markus found a nice swimming spot close by and cooled off there. Silvia and myself slept outside on the veranda that evening. This was actually the first time in quite awhile that we had such great weather!

The second day was longer and tougher than the first.

After crossing a dam, the trails winds its way up a hill and follows it for quite a distance.

You leave the first lot of hills and then climb up the next lot. These are mainly covered in grassland. From here the trail generally follows the ridge...

with a few ups and downs thrown in.

At one point one can take a short cut back to the Stamvrug camp, but we decided to do the full route. After the turnoff the trail heads down a gorge for awhile. A few years ago (during the days of the Roses and Thorns :-) ) we all stopped over at this spot as well. Some of the branch managers where still the same!

From here the trail winds its way mainly along the back of the hills where there is quite a bit of bush. Here we can see the base camp again far in the distance after crossing the hills.