Feedback Sat 28th January 2012

We had a good turn-out of 36 for the “Veronica’s Secrets” run through Kirstenbosch Gardens and along the adjacent Newlands Forest trails.  Briefly the route she chose took us through the gardens and along the lower paths though Lubbert’s Gift passed the ruins of Lady Anne Barnard’s cottage and then veering left and upwards to the contour path. Meanwhile Fay’s group took a shorter route and we met up with them on the contour path.




From here it was a pleasant shady run along the trail and board-walk to the foot of Fernwood Buttress. Being a warm humid morning most elected for the slightly shorter route back down to the gardens but a group of crazies led by Adrian who felt under- exercised, charged off up the 365 steps and continued along the contour path to return to “top gate”.
Altogether 10.5 Kms with a running time of 2hrs and 4 mins.


A noteworthy aspect of the route was than we seemed to have gone up or down all the steps in the area!   For those of you contemplating the upcoming St Valentine’s Day run in Kirstenbosch we probably covered much of that route.  Anyway a big thanks to Veronica for planning the sortie and surprisingly no one got lost!


We had four newbies James, Kelly, Elisabeth and Kenneth and we hope you will join us again 
Congratulations to Sammy Brinkman who completed her tenth run and so joins the Decurions.  This means that she no longer has to fill in the register as her name now appears in the speed check-in section with all the other decurions

Feedback Saturday 21 January 2012

TABLE MOUNTAIN NORTH FACE CONTOUR TRAIL  TO OPPELSKOP


All the early-morning indications were that we were in for a warm humid morning as twenty seven turned up at the start by the Cableway station. 
Fortunately the bulk of Devils Peak shaded us from the rising sun for the first part of the run as we followed the contour trail across the North face of the mountain and up to the saddle between Table Mountain and Devil's Peak.


At this point our intrepid "fearsome foursome" of Veronica, Elaine, Jane and Leigh had to breakaway due to other commitments and made their way back down to Talelberg Rd and their car. 

From here Neil led the front runners along the upper traverse which precipitously hugs the steep rocky flanks of Devils peak and around past Oppelskop and Blockhouse ridge which overlooks Woodstock.   Then down the steep zig-zaging path to intersect the lower traverse and all the way back to Platterklip Gorge.
We the tail-enders however continued down to the disused part of Tafelberg road and followed it back to the foot of Platterklip gorge.

Although not as much up and down hill work as we sometimes encounter much of the single trail is overgrown, rough and uneven making for tough going.  Altogether 12.2 Kms taking us 3hrs 10 mins.


Most came well supplied with liquids/water but a few had run-dry  by the end.  Just emphasizing the need to start out with at least 1litre of water during our summer runs.

Group Photo taken during our regroup on the saddle

Congratulations to Sandy who completed her 25th sortie this morning and now has the right to wear our  Red Tee!  She tells me she intends to wear it during her forthcoming Andean Mountain Marathon at the end of the month.

Feedback Tokai Forest Run 14 Jan 2012

We had a turnout of twenty runners including 3 newbies for our first sortie of the New Year.  After the usual preliminaries Neil led us out from the parking area into a warm yet crisp morning following on Friday’s rain.

Altogether a good yet uneventful run if we exclude the minor bush-bashing excursion we had shortly after we started but soon all was well as we picked up the right path and by taking broad zig-zags along the so-called levels we made our way up to Level 3.  If you take a look at the route profile it seems the Forestry Board had a warped sense of humour by naming these series of trails “Levels”.  Fortunately we were able to share the trails amicably with the mountain cyclists and enjoyed some good views over the Cape Flats and False Bay.

We covered 12.5 Kms taking us 2hrs 11 mins with our actual moving time being 120 mins.  Not bad for the season's starter and well done to the three newcomers who kept up with us.

Congratulations to one of our stalwart runners Gaeleen who turned 50 last week and to Neil and Felicity Garbers who are about to celebrate their 30^th wedding anniversary. Neil is our trusty leader and Felicity assists me with sweep duties at the back of the pack.