FYNBOS TRAIL
Hikers: Phil, Tony, Pat, Arabel, Geoff, Lynette, Carol, Marjolein, Mervyn, Debbie, Julie &Gesine
After a very pleasant drive, our group of 12 met up at the Birkenhead Brewery in Stanford for an early lunch & a few Honey blondes (beers).Suitably replenished, the convoy madethe short drive from there to our start point, Growing the futures.This NGO trains women in food production & life skills thereby encouraging them to become self-sufficient.
All 12 of us then busied ourselves getting the right packs into the right vehicles for the next 3 days.Finally, Geoff, Mervyn& I set off for the hour’s drive around to drop off 1 vehicle at the Fynbos Retreat & another at Witkrans, our 2 overnight stops.
Our first section hiked was through Steynsbos forest, 1 of only 8 ancient milkwood forests in the area & hundreds of years old. After about an hour, we came out at a small dam which offered a perfect spot for tea & a cooling swim for some.Refreshed, we continued our slow walk up the steady incline to reach the day’s peak at 384m. The fynbosen route was varied with plenty of pretty deep red Proteas& colorful Mimetes.
From there, we made the slow decline to the beautiful valley below where the Fynbos Retreat is set complete with a lovely dam & our comfortable farmhouse.While some of our group used the jetty for another swim & sundowners, Tony & I got a fire going for the evening meal.The huge kitchen offered lots of room for us all to prepare the mix of treats for our evening meal. This was followed by Mervyn’s surprise of chocolate &Madeira cake – in celebration of his birthday earlier that week.Thereafter, some of us viewed Mervyn’s 2 eBooks on his tablet on walks in the Swiss alps while Debbie & Pat got to test out the indoor pool table.
The group was up bright & early to prepare for Saturday’s longer stretch of 14 kms to Witkrans.Sadly, only on leaving, we noticed the board games supplied including one called “Midlife crisis”. We may need to add this to our usual Uno or 30 seconds.
Our guide, Billy Robertson, joined us for Saturday & provided much insight en route on the Fynbos, birdlife, history of the area and other entertaining facts.Having grown up in the area, Billy’s love for the environment was very genuine & added another dimension to our appreciation.
Our lunch stop in a shady forest again offered another dam nearby for a cooling dip before the short walk on to our day’s destination.
We arrived at Witkrans at around 3 & after a quick swim in the dam, settled down to watch SA beat Italy. However, unbeknown to us, Eskom had sadlypicked a most inconvenient time to “shed our load” & even when they pitched, neither Debbie, Geoff nor I could crack the system combination to watch the game.Geoff & Tony eventually reverted to the audio coverage of a narrow victory.
Early evening saw a gathering of our group on the comfortable patio to prepare dinner. After another tasty braai, we all eagerly awaited the opening of Mervyn’s 2 “mystery balls”. Eventually these were unwrapped to reveal 2 baked apples – good idea for an easy desert on your next hike.
After dinner, the Fynbos trail founder, Sean Privett, & his son joined us for a drink. We were entertained by his modest account of his recent sporting achievements, encouraged by young Matthew.This was triggered by a photo in our house of Sean with a cup. Immediately after completing Comrades, Sean went on to the Freedom tour - a cycle race from Durban back to CT over the next 20 days (& 11 kgslighter ) !
Early on Sunday morning, Marjolein nearly found her prince. Having left her boots outside for the night, a leopard frog took up residence therein! The frog did not seem too upset when ejected – perhaps he was awaiting a taker to try the kiss test.
Our pleasant morning path lead through an adjoining farm with much evidence of invasive species then on past the green Buddhist retreat at BodiKhaya. Then it was up the ridge through 3 lovely patches of indigenous forest & to the top of ‘Ben Nevis”. The area has a fascinating history with some Scottish links rom the early survivors of the Birkenhead shipwreck to Italian prisoners of war in WW2.The area around the peak was covered with beautiful mountain dahlias, bright yellow floweringRestios& other floral rewards.
With the wind at our backs & a few drops from the gathering black clouds, we rolled downhill and back to our start point.
All in all, the trail was a great weekend break with a jovial bunch of hikers.
Like the PerlemoenTraiI, there were also nearly enough reserves to fill another trail so if anyone fancies leading this again, please let me know soon.
We may even join you!