The third weekend – Hiking in Cederberg

This was a surprise weekend. A few days ago we got an invitation from Bischops School for a weekend hiking, climbing, swimming and sleeping under the stars in Cederberg. This is all so exciting that we could not refuse the invitation. Elise said to me that Cederberg is one of the most beautiful hiking areas in South Africa. Saturday morning I was very busy to pack all necessary things into my bag. I got lots of warnings: “Please do not forget your sun cream!” “Make lots of photo's!”

Start at Bischops

Around 12 o’clock we met with the other exchange students and Mr Court at Bischops. Cederberg region is about a two hours’ drive from Cape Town. He explained to us that it is a fantastic hiking place. This area is named after the famous Ceder tree. In the last century these trees were used to make furniture. Nowadays this tree is protected. The closer we came to Cederberg, the more the landscape was changing. It was completely different from the Cape Town area.  Here everything was wilder and the colours warmer. We were dropped somewhere and we just had to follow the river to find the spot where we could spend the night. Next to the river were many picnic spots with wonderful little waterfalls and very deep rock pools for swimming. Our main activity was swimming. It was spectacular to see so many different rock formations and with many different varieties of plants. I most liked the deep purple-blue flowering plants. Later I found out it is called “Ridderspoor”.   The plants and the rocks were so sharp that my legs were full with little damages.

On top of the cliff

The group

The sunset was an unforgettable moment! Incredible formation of rocks, brilliant purple, orange and blue colour combinations in the sky.  We had a pleasant evening together around the open fire. We also roasted marsh mellows. Maxime and Cemmie laid next to me and we admired the beauiful stars in the sky. It was such a special feeling to sleep somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Africa under the sky full of stars. 

Incredible colours during sunset

The night was quite cold but I could sleep well. Although before sleeping there were some stories about baboons which are common here. But I was most happy that we did not see a rain spider.

Next morning after breakfast we walked through the bush to find the best place to swim and to do cliff jumping in the water. This place was really so beautiful that I cannot describe with words. It looked like that we were standing in front of a painting. But this was not a painting! This was real and I was there! It was an amazing feeling to jump off an eight meters high cliff. I am happy that my mother did not see it, she would be scared to death. All together it was an awesome fantastic weekend.

Swimming and cliff jumping