It took me awhile to distinguish between Bonnievale and Bonniedale, but when I did, I found the difference to be remarkable. Bonniedale is much closer to home and is a guest farm situated at the foot of the Attakwas mountains. It is fairly rustic camping with basic ablutions and a cool dam for swimming. One of its attractions is a small but quite exciting climbing crag, fully bolted and not as easy as it first appears.
So the plan was to arrive on Friday, pitch camp and do one of the shortish trails, have a swim and talk about the main event on the Saturday. The route to the peak we set out to climb had, to the best of my knowledge, only been explored on Google Earth, by me. It consisted of a start-out section on the farm’s 4 x 4 track and was to follow a ridge-line leading upwards past several peaks, culminating in the last big one.
Those of us that have been fortunate enough to spend time at Janet and the late Greg Moore’s farm will recognise the peak in question as Greg’s Peak, climbed and named in his honour some years ago. On the Saturday, a sturdy party set out early for the peak. The day was hot from the beginning and got much hotter later. The first part on the old wagon trail went well, but when we reached Sunbird camp at the end of the road, the bundu-bashing began.
The ridge was rocky but not usefully so. The strata stuck out at an angle and was too steep on one side and overhung on the other. The dense plant-life consisted mostly of metalasia. Progress was slow. It soon became obvious that no one was going to get anywhere near Greg’s peak. We adjusted the objective to the second-highest on the ridge which we dubbed Janet’s peak. People turned around at some point while some die-hards persevered.
By this time it was very hot indeed and we settled for a knoll on the ridge which we named Alice peak, Alice being Janet’s daughter. Getting back to camp was difficult, with dehydration nudging and the day wasting away. Our intended swim at camp was abandoned in favour of a long cold shower.
Thanks to Karin who led a small party of more sensible people on the very nice Grootkloof circuit walk. We braaied in the evening, thanks to the firemasters.
On the Sunday a group of climbers and would-be climbers walked the 1km to the climbing crag. This lies along the Kamma river. A lot of fun climbing was done, some on lead but also a lot on top-rope. Eventually heat and fatigue drove us off the crag and into the dam. We packed up in the late afternoon after a very pleasant and active weekend.
The meet was attended by Greg and Cheryl Devine, Gillian Forbes, Karin van Niekerk, Kenneth Willemse, Gary and Sandy Cundill, Werner Frei, Albert and Saartjie van der Merwe, Maretha Alant, Janet Moore and non-members Hanno, Nikki and Daniel Smit.
Meet Leaders ~ Greg and Cheryl Devine