Youth Fountain

Times are heavy. Entering the final month of my tertiary education and the pressure has never been higher. I have a thesis that is hopefully falling together so that I can be finished by November and be graduating in December. Unfortunately this does not mark complete freedom as my wrist is in a poor state of health so I will be imprisoned by a physical disability until further notice. Oh no no no!

On a more positive note, I had a mind opening hike into the Jonkershoek waterfall gorge yesterday. That place is wild and it is a challenging hike as well. Here are some photos from the walk on the wild side.

Russian Roulette one fine windy afternoon

Strange Rumblings

That marks the end of my final recess period and the start of my final formal term of academics (hopefully) for the rest of my life. This is momentous! It is easy to get caught up in the technicalities of the working environment but it is very important to take sufficient time off to keep your mind set on the greater scope of things.

It was hardly a recess period as the full week was spent in Stellenbosch being studious, but here and there I got to the mountain and ended off the weekend getting salted and sun crusted at the watering hole. 

Here are some cruising photos from the second half of my one week recess.

Good lines

Vertical limits

Hmmmm good morning

Blood diamond

Shroomie

This place is delightful

Donkey Kong Island

The summer sun has shown its face and with it was a weekend full of intense adventure.

On Friday late afternoon myself and Don left the village with hiking boots, sleeping bags, an inflatable ferry vessel, a fine herb selection, and many kilojoules worth of sweets. The hike up in the heat of the day made me a young bit useless but we arrived on sunset and over the great strait we kicked. I do believe I had the most impressive sunrise on Saterday morning too ;)

The Traverse

On Saterday morning myself and Don Marx performed an extremely groovy mountain traverse up a short and technical Rooi Els peak. We had both wanted to climb the mountain for a while but its one of those you would probably just drive past until someone convinces you to join them. Luckily we both were amped on a hike and this particular morning we were both strapped for time so decided to hit it.

On the way up we were undersold by the angle of the face making it a very interesting ascent especially in the wet conditions. Challenging hikes are of the best kind, when they according to plan.

We found some sweet zones on the way up that are definitely worth revisiting. It took about 2 hours to reach the summit including one large break under an overhang while it was raining and then we started the descent down the back, less serious, side of the mountain. 

Will definitely be back because there is a young ridge aching to be explored.

Young mist making its presence known

At the tippy top

Ridge rat

That way

Fair is fair