We arrived at Rudi’s farm, 30 kilometres outside of Ladismith, near the entrance to poort on Friday afternoon and enjoyed a braai under the afdak, watching gentle rain fall all around us.
The final plan was to hike through the poort on Saturday, camp at the exit point of the poort and return to the farm on Sunday by climbing out of the canyon and walking over the top, then back down to the farm in time for a late lunch.
We split into two groups, the day hikers were Bill and Di Turner, Tony and Evie Bowen, Fred and Nicky van Berkel and Joan Louwrens. The overnighters were Greg and Cheryl Devine, Werner Frei, Ed Shuttleworth and Estelle Muller (non -member).
The conditions were perfect for a successful hike through the poort with blue skies, no rain, good company and best of all very little water in the river.
We all started out together with Bill and Di in front, hunting for elusive plants and Nicky at the tail end, also botanizing. Due to lack of water in the river we were able to walk in the sandy and rocky river bed for some way then climb out onto the bank and continue with very little vegetation to impede our progress. At the first “puddle” of water, where wading was necessary the day hikers, except Joan, decided to turn around and head back. The best was yet to come! The poort soon turned a corner and all the splendour of the kloof was revealed. The side walls narrowed and we were able to examine, up close, the incredible rock folds and enjoy the changing colour scheme of rock before us from gold to rust to red.
Joan turned back soon after as a few pools of water were now appearing. We spent a bit of time navigating around water, over steep rocky hills to avoid avoid water and not having to take off our boots again. We set up camp on a sandy bank at the end of the poort. Total time 7 hours, total distance 14.6 kilometres. There were lots and lots of animal tracks and spoor but not one sighting.
Sunday the happy campers were on their way back to the farm, a mere 6 kilometres away. We found a good line to climb out of the poort, it was little steep and had bit of loose rock at the beginning but then we were on a smooth, clean rock scramble to the top. Of course, the top is never is never the true top, so after climbing a few more “tops” we flattened out on plateau before hitting the first of several gullies, big and small before reaching the final steep, rock-sided kloof. It took us a few false starts before we found a safe way in and out of the kloof. The final ascent was to a ridge overlooking the poort, before Greg guided us expertly down a few more gullies, then the final, final descent to the farm via a steep, vegetated, thorny cliff.
A very relieved Rudi was there to welcome a tired, scratched and bleeding, successful party back after a wonderful weekend in the Klein Swartberg. Total distance 10.2 kilometres. Total time, a very underestimated 8 hours.
It is very hard to grade an exploratory meet. I would grade this as 4, but conditions in the poort are always changing.
Meet Convener’s grading:
Day 1: 2+M, the M is allocated because half the hike a recce
Day 2: 3H, the H is allocated because all of this day’s hike is a recce.
Cheryl Devine – meet leader