Month: January 2016

Virgin Kite Surfing Armada, new World Records – 415 kiters

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On 30 January 2016 an attemp was made to break the Kite Surfing world record that was held by Spain at Blouberg Beach, Cape Town.  The previous record was 353 kiters which was broken with the new record now standing at 415 kitters.

It was a perfect sunny windy day with perfect conditions for the kitters.
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At 1pm the 400 plus kitters set off from the beach in front of Dophin Beach hotel up to Doodles restuarant, a stretch of about 1km.  When all was counted and verified, 415 kitters were in the air/on the water at the same time.

Photo Gallery:

More abour the event and the world record can be read on News24 and Traveller24.

Walk: Majik Forest and back

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I was off sick for the past week so weekend and Saturday hiking had to take a back seat.  Having sort of recovered I took a short 5km walk from my home down to Majik Forest and back.  If you stay in the area and have not visited Majik Forest then do yourself the favour and spend some time there.  It is Majik 🙂

I also started to use Wikiloc to track and record the route that I walk/hike. It is an ideal tool if and when you want to share a route with somebody else or finding a new route to walk/hike.  Here is the route for my walk:
Wikiloc_-_Majik_Forrest_trail - 20160123

The link to the route in Wikiloc:  http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=12034718

Hike: Newlands Forrest and Rhodes Memorial – 9 Jan 2016

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On the morning of 9 January 2016, a group of 16 of us from the Gantouw Hiking Club hiked from the Newlands Fire Station in the Newlands Forrest on a circular route past Rhodes Memorial that brought us back to the Fire Station.

As can be seen from the route board there is various routes one can take:
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After some deliberation, a route was picked and we set off.
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The route was about 10km which took us about 3 hours to walk.  The start was at 96m and the highest point that we reached was 470m.  The hike is mostly in the shade under the forrest trees.  It is a very gentle hike.  Here is the route from Runkeeper that we completed.
Newlands Forrest Station

After the hike we went to the Rhodes Memorial Restaurant for some well deserved drinks.  Photagraphs taken with my Canon Powershot SX20 IS.

Hike up to Thomas Hut – Hexrivier Mountains – 31 Dec 2015

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I greeted 2016 on the top of the Hexrivier Mountains at the Thomas Hut that belongs to the Worcester section of the Mountain Club of South Africa. Here is it on Google Maps:

Access to the hut is through the Fairy Glen Nature Reserve where we arrived at the car park just after 8am on the morning of the 31st.  Access must be pre-arranged through the Nature Reserve.  On the drive through the park we saw some wild life:

We started our hike up the mountain at 8:45am on a very hot day, around 35 degrees celcius for most of the hike. In hindsight, this was way to late and the ideal time to start would have been before 6am. Here is the route map of the just over 7km hike rising from 444m to just short of 1400m.
Thomas Hut - 31 Des 2015

Normally the hike should be taking around 3.5 – 4 hours but for us it took just short of 6 hours due to the heat and lots of stops along the way.  Our first stop was about a hour in when we found this pool for a dip.
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When we arrived at the top, we were greeted by this outside shower.  Heaven on earth to have a cool down shower with probably the most perfect view one can find anywhere in the world.
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Our home for 2 nights.
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On the morning of 2 Jan 2016 we started at 6am with our way down and was back at our car before 9am, less than 3 hours for the hike down and that included a swim in the same pool we swam in on our way up.

Here are some of the photos I took with beautifull flowers, visitors that came to visit and a view of the clouds from atop.  Enjoy and would love your comments.

Hike — Kromrivier Hut — 28 Des 2015

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Spend the laast couple of days of 2015 in the mountains at a hut belonging to the Paarl/Wellington section of the Mountain Club of South Africa.

To get there one take the old Du Toitskloof pass and just after the highest point take the turnoff to the Telkom tower. One has to pre-arrange access through the Telkom gate and after that drive for about 3km to a parking area to leave one’s car.  Then it is a fairly easy walk of 2.2km down to to the hut. See Google map:

Here is a view of the hike as tracked by Runkeeper:
Hike in to Hut - 28 Des

All the ammenities like toilet, running water and even gas is available. Close to the hut is a pool to cool off in the December heat. It was such a peacefull and beautifull place so see out 2015.  We stayed their 2 nights and walked out on the morning of the 31st again.  Enjoy the photos.