On Tuesday 20 December, 17 members managed to tear themselves away from the frantic Christmas shopping to participate in a relaxed hike from the base of Chapman’s Peak to the East Fort Ruins. The weather was perfect, with a little refreshing sea-breeze, and we walked through amazing fields of flowers: masses of Roellas, hundreds of Tritoniopsis and so on.
A shady kloof served as an ideal tea break, while Klaus Minges demonstrated his skills in hacking invasive stinkbean. It was very pleasing to notice that on the rest of the walk very little alien vegetation was to be seen.
The stars of the hike were regular Tuesday walkers June Good and Neil Brathwaite who announced their upcoming wedding on 12 January 2017. Congratulations to them! It shows that the Tuesday meets are not without danger.
Towards the end of the hike we took a shortcut from the jeep track via an ancient mule track, rediscovered after the 2015 fire, and cleared and cairned by Klaus Minges.
The Christmas party was held on the grassy slopes by the East Fort Ruins, where two members (Kate McCallum and Neil Van der Spuy) joined us. The Club generously supplied us with bubbly and mince pies, while members piled in with quiches, dips, chips, all sort of biscuits and much more. A great time was had by all.
Jos De Gendt
Photos courtesy of Mike Scott
