An Autumnal Meander in the Misty Mountains of the Klein Swartberg.
Growing up with the Yorkshire Dales in my backyard, my childhood sympathies were not spared on the four-legged blobs of wool stuck to the precipitous hill side at risk of permanent disfigurement caused by the severe incline. Rumour or fact, the local belief or myth was that they adapted to the incline by growing longer legs on one side than the other. True or not, their predicament was put to the test recently by four members of the South Cape section who struck out on the second day of the meet in search of Skull cave in the Klein Swartberg mountains.
Our first night on the mountain was in Nels cave which to those familiar with Towerkop needs little introduction. Skull cave lying about 10 Kms to the East of Nels is somewhat less well known and less frequently visited and is likely encountered only by those brave souls undertaking the four-day Klein Swartberg traverse from Seweweekspoort Peak to Towerkop.
Even before our planned group of six had assembled on the Sunday afternoon it started to splinter into fragments. Two members opted for an early start and an extra night under the stars courtesy of the tin shelter halfway up the mountain. Three members arrived in Ladismith during the afternoon but one was carrying some lurgi that had been donated to him along the route between first evening’s sunset from Nels cave.
Cape Town and the Eastern Cape and unfortunately never made the starting gates the next morning. The sixth member was expected to RV with the others in the Towerkop car park on the Monday morning but was delayed and only caught up with the others at Nels cave.
The walk up to the tin shelter by the leader and his companion was made in thick mist with very little visibility, sufficient though to recognise three other descending South Cape members who had made their own two-day excursion to Nels cave. After exchange of greetings and a brief update on the water situation we continued up to the shelter where we rested for an hour and filled our water bottles. At this point the mist started to clear and our destination towering (no pun intended) above us declared its hand.
Upon arrival at Nels in the early afternoon and united with the other two already there and the one following the rest of the day was spent basking in the sun just around the corner from the cave. Recovery after a hard long day was appreciated in the understanding that what was to come over the following days would make the first day look like an hors d’ouevre. Having briefly united and increased to five, one of our group then decided day one was enough punishment and opted to sit it out at Nels Cave until the other four returned from Skull Cave on day three.
Day two dawned a white out, and confirmed our fears that navigation was going to be tricky with visibility reduced to 100 metres at best. Our first task was to stock up with water as we had to anticipate finding none for the next two days. This endeavour required climbing up and down a perilous scree slope, followed by a Houdini style body contortion and then armed with a small drinking cup invited the possibility of repetitive strain injury moving the water into larger containers cup by cup.
This unenviable task complete we then bid farewell to our Home Alone companion and launched ourselves gingerly into the mist in search of Toorkop. The area between Nels Cave and Toorkop is all about levels and its important to get the right one. No easy feat in the mist. The Yellow Garmin Etrex comes into its own here but even that can easily be thrown off course by the cliffs which interfere with the satellite signal which, relying on triangulation, is difficult when 180 degrees of the surrounds are blanked off by towering 100 metre walls of rock. Having located Toorkop and decided not to summit it on the way out we then turned 90 degrees to the East and set off on what we hoped was the ridge that would lead us to Skull cave.
The weather closed in even more and a gentle drizzle ensued. Had this continued for long we would surely have put discretion before valour, tucked our tails between our legs and made an about turn. Fortunately, it wasn’t long lasting or sufficiently hard enough to permeate our outer layers. The next six hours was unforgiving and resuscitated my childhood memories of those poor lopsided sheep in the Yorkshire Dales. The trail we followed was slightly below the ridge line allowing no relief from the slope, scattered with large rocks that require circumnavigation and smaller rocks that make every footstep a gamble. We stopped, we started, we paused, we persisted and finally through the mist we saw a black hole that was a very welcome sight. Arriving separately in two groups we collapsed on the floor after not surprisingly confirming the water source within the cave was bone dry.
Skull cave is flat and big enough for a small army – the night was surprisingly less cold than feared and we awoke the next morning to face the return. Mist persisted and the first three hours or so of day three were made with eyes glued to the Garmin. By midmorning however, the mist was burning off and we were rewarded with the magnificent views that we could only imagine the previous day. As the weather cleared it also allowed us to pick a much better line, and we were able to navigate the ridge line without fear of walking off the edge. This was much flatter than traversing along the slope and we made faster and more comfortable progress.
Upon arriving at Toorkop with Nels cave around the corner, so to speak, several members made the short 10-minute climb to the summit whilst others explored the surrounding area slightly to the North. We were back in Nels cave and reunited with our fifth member in good time and settled in for a cool night.
Day four dawned with not a hint of mist or a cloud in the sky and we again splintered into several groups with some heading straight down, another making a detour across the plateau and two opting for another night in the tin shelter.
It had been decided after the trials and tribulations of the previous two days that the proposed Buffelskloof arch visit would be saved for another meet.
All in all, in summary, a difficult but ultimately very rewarding outing in the glorious Klein Swartberg.
Meet Leader ~ Ed Kay-Shuttleworth