We woke up to a perfect morning. It was my seventieth birthday and Marianne had pulled out all the stops to make it even more special in a special place. Croissants were warmed in foil on the gas and came out perfectly. And there were presents - McClelland's new book on Port Elizabeth history, chocolates and a big box that magically appeared. It was a metal detector! Socks from Paul and Petra and a card from Paul and Judy. But we had walking to do and playing with the presents would have to wait. We got going at 8h45 and walked down the jeep track to the east heading for Cardiac and Pelargonium caves. The jeep track was washed out in places. but was probably still drivable. But not for long. About 1 km along the track we came to an old ruin with stone walls about a meter high. There were also signs of old outbuildings. It must have really been isolated living here in the past. Continuing along the jeep track we started up the ridge to the caves, stopping for morning coffee where we turned off the jeep track. After retrieving Marianne's sunglasses we followed a path up to the level of the caves and then contoured around to Cardiac. This had a lot of remarkable paintings, some very clear and quite different from what we usually see in these parts. Also remarkable was the fact that cave was fairly loose conglomerate with the paintings being on individual rocks. Then we went to Pelargonium Cave along a bushed and quite steeply sloped approach.. This was similar conglomerate with fewer paintings, although there was a lion and a beautiful steenbokkie. Then it was up a long slope to the ridge where we had an early lunch. The views were spectacular with Smutsberg nearby to the north and a fantastic mix of valleys and hills stretching away to the full length of the Tsitsikamma mountains in the south. After lunch we walked west along the high ridge until we got to the ridge that dropped down to the campsite. A short diversion to the north provided wonderful views of the valley between us and Smutsberg. Then we dropped down to the camp getting back at 16h00. After getting rather low blood sugar sorted out, a quick wash was necessary and the fire was started at 17h00. Our timing was perfect and we again had a lovely braai, chicken wors and pork fillet being on the menu. Paul told the great story behind the camp's name- Dial's camp. It goes back to the early 1960's when a hobo named Dial walked into a Mountain Club camp on this site. After helping himself to food from the party, he said that he had been injured while working as a SAAF artificer in North Africa in WW2. It just so happened that he had been in the same unit as a member of the party's brother and had worked on his aircraft. Dial suddenly became a hero, but this quickly came to an end when it was realised that a member of the party, one Martin de Villiers, was missing and had transformed himself into Dial! Then we walked up the jeep track in the moonlight. Petra managed to get reception and speak to her daughter. Back at camp my blood sugar was a bit high so Marianne and I did the walk again - it was just so beautiful in the moonlight. A special end to a special day.

Geschreven door Leartravels