On Sunday, 21 December a small group of us (6 in total) decided to go Kloofing in Suicide Gorge (Grabbow, Western Cape).Cape Nature, who we booked through gave us very thorough instructions on what to do, what to take, what to expect. We glanced over the lists and thought, "hey, it'll be fine!" and off we went.
One particular thing they mentioned was:
"First time hikers for the kloofing routes must be guided by an experienced kloofer."
Of course none of us had been before, but we all knew someone who had and despite the odd story here and there of people getting suck, the whole day seemed to be about who would have the biggest balls to jump off Suicide Gorge.
For those of you who don't know: Kloofing involves following a trail for a few hours hike into the mountains. You eventually come to a little river which waterfalls into a little pool.
The idea is that you jump into the pool and make your way down river to the next one. From there the jumps get increasingly bigger - a lot of them (for the chickens!) you can get around without jumping.
HOWEVER, the last jump is a MUST DO. Its slippery and very high - reports vary and its hard to judge when you're jumping (it always seems so much higher!) But I think you're looking in the region on 15 meters. (Corrections welcome!)
If you have any issues with heights, this is probably not the place you want to learn to over come them.
Our day out started with taking a 2 hour detour (missing the turn off for Suicide Gorge completely) This set back in time didn't really register. We were just happy to find the correct trail and off we went.
The hike itself is beautiful and we had a wonderful time making our way down to the gorge. Finding the water pools was a relief (it seemed to take forever to get there.) The water is a dark brown colour but perfectly clean and safe and warm (we went in December).
Our second delay (sorry Robs!) was on our last jump, where all but one of us had made the final jump into the pool. We had one person who froze in fear of the height and it took all of our positive thoughts and positive reinforcements and all the bravery in the world for our last jumper to make it down.
By that time, we decided to do a time check - it was 7pm and only then did we realise we still had hours worth of hiking ahead of us.
At this point our unreliable maps were soaking (after a day's worth of kloofing not many waterproof bags were still waterproof!) We weren't sure what to do next. There were no path ways, no signs, no nothing. We were trapped in a ravine with no inkling of where to go.
This is where we all remember the advice: "First time hikers for the kloofing routes must be guided by an experienced kloofer." Oops!
And this is also where we start cussing the accuracy of their maps and lack of sign-boards...
Going down river was no option as we couldn't see the next pool and to slide down at speed to land on who knows what, was absolutely out. With no path, we decided to bundubash up the ravine through the bush. We moved up, past the last pool and down to the river again.
Let me just say - this was hectic. We're talking an almost vertical climb up a ravine through sharp pointy bushes to hold onto, slippery sand underfoot. We found routes, decided they were not safe. Backtracked to find the other option even less safe and coming back to the one we'd abandoned and just pushed on through. We were getting tired and moody, a little scared and its a miracle not one of us got hurt!
At this point the light was starting to wane. There was still no sign of a real path and we began thinking that getting home was probably not going to be an option.
Nevertheless - optimistic as we were, we hiked up and down the riverbed for another hour. Disputing routes and directions to go in, splitting up in the hopes of finding the way out.
With about 10 mins of light left, we found the 'escape route'. With no torches and no idea of where we were going, we decided to use the rest of the light to collect wood and set up camp on the pebble riverbed for the night.
PS: No cellphone reception at the bottom of the ravine!
Anyway - we were very lucky, we found enough wood to last the night (thanks guys for collecting the second batch in complete darkness). We had lighters to make fire. My brother had bought rope which we used as a clothes line over the fire to dry out our wet towels and clothes (which would be desperately needed later in the night). My dear hubby collected leaves and small branches and stuffed them in my back pack to make a 'mattress / thermal layer' to lie on.
We had enough snacks to keep us going and first aid kits which helped for aches and pains all around.
As mentioned before the water was perfectly safe, so we were lucky to be able to drink directly from the river (and I can tell you that no one got sick from it later on)
We still had bin bags (which could have been put to better use actually keeping our stuff dry) but the spare bags doubled up as sleeping bags for some. (Even for the one who had a space blanket and forgot about it!)
We settled in for a night of very uncomfortable rest. Aside from the sound of baboons nearby and the glow of (wild cats?) eyes from across the river, we were entirely safe. The only other noise was my snoring from blocked sinuses inhaling buckets full of smoke from our little fire (sorry guys!)
The morning was cold and we waiting an hour into sun-up before heading up the ravine and off to the comfort of food, coffee and all things clean and soft!
About 2 hours into our hike we came across an angel in the form of John & his 4X4. Bless him, he'd waited for us late into the night and again first thing in the morning worrying about what may have happened to this little group of intrepid hikers. Thanks to John our hike back to our cars was cut in 1/2.
This meant that we could get to the nearby farm restaurant for a scrumptious breakfast in no time.
And not a moment too soon!!
There are so many survival techniques we learnt and talked about from this little experience that it's made us a lot more careful about going out. I've blogged a hikers guide for tourists to Cape Town based on a lot of what I learnt here.
More importantly for Marco & I, from a Kili perspective, we're paying very careful attention to what we'd need in order to keep safe on the mountain in the event we are injured or separated from our group. Lots to think about...
