Report Back #31: of New Websites, the Tankwa, the Kromrivier oak et al ...

1. New website, new products

2. Tankwa

3. Kromrivier oak tree

4. Cederberg Touring map

5. Cape Leopard Trust

6. Cederberg Heritage Route

7. More about names

1. New website, new products

Big news from Slingsby Maps is that we have a brand new website. Three months in the making, it includes a revolving slide show of photos and maps that’s pretty enough to use as a screen saver – and we’ll be changing the pics from time to time, too. On a first time load, give it a chance – if your ADSL is slow it may take a moment, but once it is in your cache it’s plenty fast. Designed for all modern monitor sizes, tablets, smart phones, whatever gizmo takes your fancy.

With the new site comes a new map – a complete revamp of our Cape Point/Simon’s Town hiking map, now at a larger scale and with off-shore hydrographic info courtesy of the SA Navy, too! It’s A1 size and all copies are waterproof. Matches ‘Hike the Cederberg’, too.

And our final commercial – we’ve also imported a small range of ‘map gadgets’ as aids to hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts – magnifiers, little torches, compasses, etc. See new website!

2. Tankwa

Our fans voted overwhelmingly for our next map to be of the Tankwa, so we’ve been off there researching. If you’re fond of that area, we’ve written up the results of our bouncing around them many wonderful backroads at Maps for Afrika

Hannatjie Sieberhagen of Rooikloof, Sutherland, sent us this pic of her grandson driving sheep down the Ouberg Pass and into the Tankwa.
It’s an annual winter grazing migration

3. Kromrivier oak tree

Rudolf Andrag sent me a lekker article by Bobby Jordan of the Sunday Times, all about the old Kromrivier oak tree. I, too, remember that tree with great affection. I first met it when I was 15, on a hike with friends. There was no such thing as a foam hiking mattress in those faraway days, and I discovered that evening why you should never sleep under an oak tree without one. Talk about the princess and the pea – what about them zillions of ancient, knobbly acorns pressing into your back, your hips, your ...!
Bobby Jordan, however, is a journalist and thus could not help including this extraordinary sentence:  “It was here that a Khoisan painter was caught in the act [of painting a picture] and fled, leaving his tools behind. It is the only known encounter with a Khoisan painter in recorded history ...”
Violins heard offstage left. By the time the early colonists reached the Cederberg the local ‘Khoisan’ painters were only painting with their finger tips. However, there were several recorded encounters with San artists in the Drakensberg [quite far away, I think] including the only known precisely-dated painting – the artist was arrested while painting a record of a ‘Bushman’ cattle rustling that had happened on the day before – 13 December 1848.

Part of Townley-Johnson’s reproduction of the famous Bamboo Mountain painting. In this panel two ‘Bushmen’ lead horses carrying the skins of rustled cattle. Painted in December, 1848, the artist was arrested while still working on his painting.

4. Cederberg Touring map

We’re hard at work here extending the touring version of our Cederberg map to take in Nieuwoudtville, Loeriesfontein and Calvinia, to be published in time for the flowers later this year. To whet your appetite for the daisy-fields of the Agter-Pakhuis and the Biedouw, here’s CJ Opperman’s lovely little contribution:

Op die groot saaidag van die heelal
het reeds ’n entjie duskant Wupperthal
oor die kaal Noordweste
’n sakkie van die Heer se beste
saad per ongeluk gelek, gelek en uitgeval

5. Cape Leopard Trust

Quick congrats from us all to Quinton Martins and the Cape Leopard Trust for their tenth anniversary. Sadly we missed the party – we were over the hill in the Tankwa, admiring the long-term plan to link the Tankwa-Karoo National Park to Matjiesrivier and the Cederberg ... bring it on!

6. Cederberg Heritage Route

This received from Peter Hart, re the AGM of the Cederberg Heritage Route and plans for a bit of hiking at Rocklands and on the Pakhuisberg Day Walk. You can view a YouTube snip about the latter at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxdqZvAcj9g 

Annual General Meeting of the Cederberg Heritage Route: Wed 30th July 2014 in Wupperthal. We would like to take a group of Friends of the CHR up to the Cederberg a few days in advance to do some hiking, stay in the local accommodation and then attend our AGM.

The plan this year is to spend the nights of 27, 28 & 29 July in the newly refurbished self-catering cottages in the Kliphuis Campsite run by Cape Nature near the top of the Pakhuis Pass. The cottages cost R750 per night, so if we have six persons per cottage the cost is R125pppn, or if only four persons R188pppn. The cottages are fully equipped for self-catering and bedding is provided. We can make the self-catering arrangements later when we know who is coming. These cottages may be suitable as the first night's stop for our Pakhuis Trail and for the Cederberg 100 Trail, so we wish to check them out and check a slightly revised routing for the first day of these trails. 

On 28th we thought of a circular day walk ... towards Amon se Poort. At the path "crossroads" turn right again and take the Old Wagon Road path which ends up on the R364 opposite the grave of C.Louis Leipoldt, then walk about 1km back along the road to Kliphuis - about 11km in total according to Slingsby's new "Hike the Cederberg" map.

On 29th we could do the circular walk on the north side of the R364 marked on the map as the Pakhuisberg Day Walk - about 13km. Both of the proposed day walks are quite spectacular. They are both in the Cape Nature Cederberg Wilderness area, so we will need to get permits, which are available at the Kliphuis Campsite. For all who have Wild Cards the permits are free and we also don't pay the so-called Conservation Fee for staying at Kliphuis.

On Wed 30th July those attending the AGM need to be there by about 12 noon, in time to have coffee at the Lekkerbekkie Coffee Shop before the meeting.

I have already made a provisional reservation for these cottages, so please let me know as soon as possible whether you would like to participate in this trip.

Many thanks and best wishes,
Peter Hart.
Chairman/Hon.Sec.
CEDERBERG HERITAGE ROUTE
Tel/fax: (021) 794 6362.
Email: pmghart@iafrica.com
Website: www.cedheroute.co.za

Duiwel se Kruis, at Amon se Poort

7. More about names

Finally, many thanks to Dawie and Lizette Burger of Driehoek who have continued to send in info and alternative explanations for some of the Cederberg place names.