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Rock Climbing in South AfricaThis stage has finished. Click on the silk road or arc of asia trips for up-to-date expedition information |
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Those starting where every trip should start – at the beginning – will fly to South Africa, the first country on this amazing 2-year journey the length of Africa and breadth of Asia. Without doubt, South Africa is home to some of the best climbing in the world and, since the end of the apartheid, is fast becoming a leading climbing destination, We may even find the crags a little crowded compared to what the big red truck is used to - there may be two or three other people there.
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The
trip will start in Cape Town, where we'll prepare the truck for its voyage
North and get to know each other. Decisions about how long to stay in climbing
places are mostly debated around the map in some far-flung campsite or other
but everyone will be keen to get on the road quickly, so our first climbing
destination in Africa will be Table Mountain.
Made famous by its location in central Cape Town, Table Mountain is traddies paradise. Routes vary from 3 to 21 pitches, and the walk ins can be as little as half an hour from the top of the cable car. Routes from VDiff to E5, including the world famous juggy “Jacobs Ladder” at VS. What’s more, there’s a bar on the top. Enjoy it, but don’t get too used to it. The trip will get a little wilder than this…
(Roll cursor over left for dan's dino).
Climbing, surfing, sky-diving and mountain biking, shark dives, bars, restaurants and museums. With its painful history and turbulent politics, but undeniable atmosphere of optimism, growing tolerance and vitality, Cape Town will assault all your senses.
The amount of time spent at different crags will be decided in what will become regular post meal votes. The expedition itinerary is very flexible and is ultimately decided upon by you. If people want to spend a few days longer (perhaps to work a project) or leave earlier than planned to get to another area, then this is always taken into account. Of course, by the time this trip is underway, another Hot Rock trip will have crossed Africa so the Hot Rock new routes book will hopefully be fatter than ever.
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From Cape Town a short drive will take us to Paarl Rocks; dramatic granite domes perched above vineyards in the heart of the wine producing Cape Province. With bold face routes, beautiful crack lines, and a few bolted offerings of up to four pitches long, we can spend a great day or two climbing here, enjoying braais high up on the hillside at night. We might have the option of visiting the Klein Winterhoek cliffs, but if it's picking season we will stay clear as the guidebook warns that 'the farmer Frank Zeeman does not allow climbers on his land then and he will "beat you up" if you do venture there'. Now that's what I call an access problem.
We
then drive northwards, to the world renowned Rocklands sports climbing and
bouldering area. As Nigel Shepard described somewhat poetically in 'On the
Edge' about his visit,
"Rocklands is an ancient landscape beyond the realms of imagination, carved and sculpted by the elements over countless millennia, this wondrous place is a paradise of boulders, towers and crags. There is hectare upon hectare upon hectare of the most wondrous sandstone, solid and alluringly reddened. Wandering about its labyrinth ways each corner turned, each passageway explored yields yet more rock, perfectly arranged to climb. In its solitude and silences it is enough simply to be there and gaze in wonder at the legacy of the earth's creator".
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After Todd Skinner's visit for a month bouldering to Rocklands he commented that this one area alone would be enough to swallow up 400 Hueco Tank! We will meet up with some local climbers for a braai (BBQ) and a boulder as we explore the boulder fields until folks can't climb any more. And then ... we will go and climb some more. 100km South lies the Wolfberg and Tafelberg ranges that boast some of the best mid grade multi pitch routes in Africa. Based at the beautiful Kromriver campsite / vineyard next to the river we will have plenty of time in the area. Paul Williams described the area: "Imagine a valley about 30km long, cover its floor with thousands of weirdly eroded pinnacles and boulders (a sort of a mega Brimham), put a few 200-300m cliffs of impeccable rock on the hilltops, sire a vineyard selling cheap wine within a mile of the campsite, arrange for the sun to shine every day and enjoy Braais every night - that sums up the Cederbergs." |
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Some of the classic rock climbing routes such as 'Energy Crisis' as featured on 'the face'(the three photos at the top of the page)TV series (E2 5.10d), 'Celestial Journey' (E3) 'Knobless Robot' (H.V.S) or 'Lost in Space' (E3) can all be reached easily from the campsite. As can the top drawer bouldering compiled into a guidebook. And the single pitch crack and face climbs like 'Human Highway' (E1) or the 8 pitch 'Tafleberg Frontal' (H.S 5.5) not to mention some top-drawer bouldering for those wanting more gymnastic challenges and less height.
From the Cedarberg region, we drive east (past more sky-diving opportunities
at Citrusdal) to Montagu, probably the most developed of all South African
climbing areas. It lies on the Garden Route, which
winds its way through the scenic villages and vineyards or South Africa's
wine growing regions.
We will base ourselves in Montagu village, nestled at the base of the valley carved out by the Hex River. In keeping with the rest of the garden route, the village is home to a very good vineyard, and is also home to 'De Bos', a true climbers campsite complete with horse-riding school, some pet ostriches and a swimming pool.
If
you can drag yourself away from the pool, or out of the nearby hot springs,
a world of climbing awaits on the hard metamorphic sandstone. The climbing
is mainly intricate face climbing like that found at Smiths Rocks in the USA;
technical, balancy climbing on square cut and sloping holds. The valley is
probably most famous for its hundreds of single-pitch bolted routes that range
from f2(!) to f8s, but there are also multi-pitch routes to go at, and trad
routes such as 'November Afternoon' or 'Stealing'. 
From Montagu, we'll be heading off to have a very different climbing experience in the Drakensbergs. Late winter in the Drax means ice climbing - or even skiing - and this area has been compared to the European Alps on a smaller scale for the quality of its ice routes. The main difference is - there's still vast new routing opportunity for those that want to. Ski touring is also an option we can explore nearer the time.
If people want to, on the way to the Drakensbergs we can stop off at Storm River to do the largest commercial bungee jump in the World at 220m. Manne from Sweden can be seen doing this cloth touching jump on the Hot Rock Africa video filmed in 2002.
Drakensberg means 'dragon mountains', and this dramatic basalt escarpment has been inhabited for thousands of years as can be seen by the ancient rock paintings. The Zulu called the escarpment 'The Battlement of Spears', as the steep faces rise sheer from the foothills. Early climbing activity was undertaken by the Reverend Stocker climbing Champagne Castle (3,375m) in 1888. Many of the previously thought impregnable peaks were not scaled until the later half of the last century with outstanding climbs to be found on the Sentinel and Devils Tooth. We will have a couple of days here to attempt these peaks as well as to explore the bouldering and cragging which abound.
From
the Drakensbergs we can head to the small mountain kingdom of Lesotho where
some people may want a couple of rest days perhaps pony trekking through the
rugged interior. There are a couple of stunning waterfalls to camp by as we
have a look at loads of the unexplored climbing potential. The last time Hot
Rock were there Dave wrote;
“A month or two ago I was put in touch with guy called Paul Middleton. He lives in Lesotho but is only a 20min drive from the pleasant town known as Ladybrand. He expressed great enthusiasm for us to come down and join him to help bolt and develop a local crag. Changing plans and traveling to where the new climbing takes us is something that Hot Rock does well, so we jumped at the chance and joined Paul in the very quaint town of Ladybrand.
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The
climbing was on very compact featured sandstone varying from 10m to 25m in
height. Having the whole area to ourselves was great and having only 5 existing
routes there meant there was endless new routes for us to do. The type of
climbing was not everybody's cup of tea, so the truck drove on 250km round
to the northern tip of Lesotho to the Mt Everest area. Myself and 4 others
stayed behind to carry on new routing and to document the whole area. The
local tourist info bod was so pleased with what we were doing he gave us free
accommodation and organized free flights for us to take aerial shots of the
area. In total we put up 14 new routes varying from F5+ to F7b+. “
After Lesotho we will drive to the nearby Mt.Everest game reserve, (you can
even buy the I've climbed Mt. Everest T-shirt). Near Harrismith, this safari
lodge is a small private reserve that also boasts some of the best and most
scenic climbing in South Africa, from un-paralleled campsites you can spend
all day on the 300 or so bolted routes from 5 pitch VS (5.6) to desperate
short test pieces. Some of the best routes are the exposed 2 pitch 'Cyclops'
(E2 5.10b) or the ‘Eagles head’ of the same grade but 5 pitches
longer.
There
is loads of potential for new routes as the amount of rock is simply vast.
The rock is well featured sandstone and the walk to the crags or the game
park restaurant frequently passes the wild animals that roam the park at will.
From Everest we take the five hour drive to South Africa's premier sports climbing venue, 'The Restaurant at the end of the Universe' where we will spend the next week in rock climbing heaven. Can you imagine a better situation than this for the road-trip weary climber?
400
climbs, all unique, on highly featured rock with something to suit you whatever
you feel like, a slab for breakfast, crimpy wall for lunch and obscene overhang
for supper. Staying in the climbers' hostel, we'll be able to chat to climbers
of many different nationalities and dream of and plan future expeditions.
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The guidebook covers the seven main crag areas including 'The Foundry' (no,
not that one), 'He-Man Wall', 'The Beach,' 'Wonderland' and 'Sports 
Valley'.
The climbs spread throughout the grades with class acts at any difficulty.
Try 'Jump in the Fire' at E2 or the desperately daft 'Jaberwocky' (33 or French
8b-ish). Again there is still plenty of potential so we can add our own lines
before we leave. The first time Hot Rock were there all 25 of us stayed with
a local climber in his house and developed a new crag. Whatever grade you
climb ‘the restaurant’ is a truly memorable place to climb for
the week with all the lines having distinctly different characters.
Whilst at 'The Restaurant' we have a choice. Anybody that wants to can head to the nearby Kruger game park for a couple of days safari. Africa's biggest park, it boasts all the big 5 in large quantities.
Then we'll be heading to Magaliesberg and Blouberg. Magaliesberg lies to the North of Johannesburg and the climbing is situated in a series of Kloofs or gorges. Stephen Venables described one: "Tonquani kloof was a magical World of crystal rock pools and dappled light with red and gold cliffs soaring nearby a hundred meters on either side... I have rarely had such a good days climbing in such great surroundings."
After Magaliesberg we continue North to Blouberg where the rarely visited
300m sandstone walls give some real adventure routes after the sports climbing
'fest' of the last few weeks. Little is known about the area besides a few
references in old SAMC journals that we can get from Jo'berg, plus whatever
the previous Hot Rock expedition will have found. At this point we'll have
travelled the breadth of South Africa and experienced the very best climbing
that the country has to offer.
So now its time for some completely new ground for Hot Rock: Botswana
(For hundreds of fantastic photos on South African rock climbing look at the South African MC's website which is in the links page.)
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