Cederberg in one day, all you can see!

Cederberg Hiking Trail 7 – 9 August 2009

Base camp: Driehoek Camping Site
Group: Dennis Cupido, William Fick, Shaun Hector and Donavan Jacobs
We arrived at Driehoek Camping Site at around 21h00 on the Friday 7 August 2009. Even at the reception we were given a glimpse of what is to be expected. Stories were told of the presence of leopards in the area combined with pictures to back up the stories.

I noticed a picture on the wall of a Sheep type dog, which is especially bred to protect the sheep from these leopards. That night we slept with one eye open not knowing what to expect.

At the crack of dawn the next morning we enjoyed, what has now become the norm...a traditional Farmhouse breakfast, excluding the baked beans for obvious reasons. We don’t make the same mistake twice.

We started our hike to Tafelberg mountain, (not Table Mountain), at around 08h00 with the vivid memories of the previous night’s discussion of Leopards and other wild in the area. It was not even 10mins and we were joined by I recognised to be the sheep dog in the picture on the wall. As the story goes his name was Tabs. He stands about 2m tall on his hind legs.

What was interesting is the mannerism Tabs displayed. He would keep a comfortable distance as not to upset us or disturb our walk. As soon as he would detect any other movement in the area he would sprint ahead to survey the surroundings and make his presence known by standing head and shoulders above the tall grass.

This behaviour brought about a sense of security for now we had a protector from the wild. On a number of occasions he would position himself between the many troops of baboons in the area and us.

After about 3 hours we realised that we missed what we told is a pile of stones that will indicate the turnoff for Tafelberg. After heavy debate and agreeing to disagree we started up a mountain slope with no tracks to follow, putting ourselves a great risk. Now an hour has passed and still no clear track towards Tafelberg whilst negotiating treacherous rocks and doggy vegetation. By this time tempers were flaring and not a lot of talking occurred.

A autocratic decision was made to turn back and attempt another route towards what deemed Tafelberg at the back of this mountain we were trying to scale.

The day was drawing to an end. The sun was casting long shadows behind us. Now we were walking with absolutely no direction. Given the number of kilometres completed, we also realised that we needed to find our way back to the camp site. At this point we still depended on the angel in the form of Tabs to keep us safe from what out there and the silly decisions we made. At one occasion we crossed a gorge, which Tabs refused to cross and we persisted. In hind sight we should not have.

Darkness had now fallen...the headlamps were now in full use. The previous night’s discussions became more and more real. The only lights that were visible were the headlamps of the cars on the dirt road kilometres away and between us and the road laid the Breekrans rivier. At this time a certain degree of panic has crept in. We then decision to stick on the jeep track in the direction of Sanddrif 21km in the opposite direction of Driehoek farm.

Approximate arrival time at Sanddrif, 21h00. To make things worse, our Angel had left us at the point that we decided to walk further away from his home. We learnt the following day that he arrived back at the camp around 22h00 that evening.

Arriving at Sanddrif opened itself to new possibilities. At the first sign of civilisation, the eternal optimist in me made a bee line to the nearest chalet to beg for help. A gentleman opened the door wearing a Springbok rugby shirt...and my first words after greeting him were, ”did we win? “ We played Australia in the Tri-Nations that day.

I then laid our sad story in front of him...Telling how we just walked more than 30km in 1 day. He then informed me how he can’t help us for a number of reasons. We then fell back into the road to walk another 5km to the admin building. Not even 5 minutes later the head lights of a fully loaded bakkie lit the dirt road.

This stranger became our saviour. With just enough space for one person in his bakkie, he drove 21km to Driehoek farm where Shaun could collect his vehicle and drive 21km back to Sanddrif so could get back to camp to rest our then exhausted bodies.

Needles to say that the hike to the Arch the next day did not transpire as planned. The next day is still just a blurr.