Thirty-one of us spent four days at De Mond in Tankwa Karoo, and each of us were enriched in some way – be it by the peaceful wide open spaces, good company, different flora, or the activities that were on offer.
The photos tell some of the story.
Pitching camp on Monday afternoon was very windy, but we had time for a shortish walk to nearby Elephant Cave with large San paintings and a recce of the rock climbing walls along that bank.
Tuesday morning dawned serenely with beautiful reflections of the opposite bank in the calm river. The group split into the selected activities: the majority on the 8 km river walk on the opposite bank, some to mountain biking and others to the rock pitches. The river walk in the outbound direction was mostly in the shade from the 20 m almost sheer rock walls alongside, and gave us the pleasure of San paintings, spoor of water mongoose, buck and leopard in the damp sand.
The return route took us along the top of the cliffs, across very stony terrain which included several different floral species, some endemic to that area. The afternoon was ‘free’, with some kayaking, others braving a swim in the very cold, snow-melt water! End of day get-together required a short, rough ride to a viewpoint overlooking our earlier walk, giving a panoramic view which included the confluence of the Groot and Matjies Rivers.
Wednesday morning brought another serene dawn, followed by the group splitting into their activity choices. The hikers took the circular route of 13 kms past Aspoort Dam, with lunch on a different section of the Groot River, near an impressive field of basalt ‘lumps’, overlooking rapids. The bikers headed off on 3 different routes and the rock climbers had such a good day on the new pitches that they only returned at 16:30!!
End of day get-together was at a totally different viewpoint, again giving views of our walk that day, but also an uninterrupted view across to distant Cederberg mountains.
Thursday morning brought packing-up activity, with a staying-in-our-going atmosphere.
Camp and hike leader: Suzanne Smith
MTB leader: Hambly Quantrill
Rock climbing leader: Charles Edelstein
Photos: various members