25 September 2010 - Silvermine East : Three Valleys

A spontaneous route change was the order of the day.  With only Peter, Greg and I pitching up for the run the guys graciously agreed to use the opportunity to explore a new route that I have been wanting to try for some time.  

We headed off up the jeep track and took the right fork, we carried on along the jeep track until we reached the path leading to the right, the one that heads in the direction of Clovelly ridge.  Up Spitskop valley to cave peak, down echo valley as far as Willy’s then up again until we reached dog rock.  At this point we made a right onto the Cliff top path and ran all the way along the cliff top until we reached Baily’s Kloof.  At the junction on top of Baily’s we turned left and headed up Mimetes valley until we met with the jeep track once again.  We then decided to take the shorter route down and headed for Junction Pool and home along the single track running parallel to the jeep track.  Just short of 13km’s in 2h37, a great day, a great run.

Higher Steenberg Peak



Chicken soup for the soul, brilliant run.  We started out in cold misty conditions. Peter led the way past Wolfkop and up the climb to Steenberg Peak.  Some of us gasped and gagged at the back but we all made to the top – eventually.   Once over the initial climb the mist started to clear and a beautiful day promised to follow.  Down off the peak we took a sharp left and did a loop past the radio mast.  The frog calls ringing louder than those of the birds.  Just stunning!  A short stop at the top of Farmer Pecks Valley to take some photos and enjoy the view then we set off at a nice steady trot round to St James Peak and then back past Muizenberg cave, onto the gravel track and up the drag to Junction Pool.   A bit of single track (the one running parallel to the jeep track) took us most of the way back to the car park, but there was no escaping the last bit of uphill on the jeep track to the finish.  (9.5kms, just under 2 hours)



Misty Ridge



Steenberg Ridge

Summer is here! What a glorious day on Saturday.

There was a bit of a bugger up with times and notices for Saturday’s Walk/Run Trail group and I believe some newbies set off with Tims group at 7:15. Well done to you for keeping up. The rest of us met at 7:30 and trotted off for a great run. We set a good pace up to the lookout – stopping about a zillion times to look at the view from the ridge. Jellies at the look out and we were off again. Down the short cut to skip the zig zag, round the dam and then down the alternative path that runs next to the river walk. The chief navigator (yours truly) causing one or two back tracks before we found the way down. All done we covered about 10kms in just on 2 hours. A bit pooped at the end but everyone agreed that there are worse ways to spend a Saturday morning.

Houtbay - Manganese Mine

Only three takers this week. Peter, Sandy and Veronica. We set of at a brisk walking pace up Chapies to the Old fort sign. From that point on we did our best to run (walked moslty) up to the contour path. Once we reached the old mine dump we had a good run to our turning point at 4.1kms (the little waterfall on the way to Vlakkenberg). A gentle jog down had us back at our cars in no time at all.

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Trusty group leader and chief navigator: Peter