We all arrived bright and bushy tailed, with the heat of the day not yet fully established! Stefan Braun (recovering from shoulder op, lovely to see him) and his trusty dog, Cane, ‘escourted’ us to the end of ‘Rocket Road’ up above Sandy Bay (so good to see evidence of the Sugarbird Trust’s recent invasive clearing project ). We then descended slightly to traverse above Maori Bay (through dreadful invasive rooikrantz thickets … fortunately quite a lot of it has been infected by the bio-control gall specific to Acacia cyclops) to the wreck of the BOS 400. The Maori was wrecked on 5 August 1909, whereas the BOS 400 ran aground 26 June 1994, both victims of our wild winter seas! From the BOS we climbed Duiker Ridge with glorious views in all directions, having tea en route. From the ‘nek’ we tackled the final ascent (slog) to the World War II Radar Station ruins … quite a challenge in the heat of the day, but we were again rewarded with the views from the old radar platform, and from the cliffs not far below the nearby Trig Beacon! Next we descended to, and crossed, the ‘vlakte’ to the little afrotemperate forest just below Suther Peak for lunch in the coolth of the trees! After climbing the nearby Suther Peak, we made our way down Suther Ridge via the sand dunes to the awaiting cars, having completed the morning in 7 hours.
