missions

GAIKA'S HUT

 ROADTRIP TO IKAPA (Cape Town) via JEFFREY'S BAY

OVERNIGHT MISSION ON ZINGCUKA TRAIL
We left early tuesday morning and hiked up through the forest and up over between hogs 1 and 2. We spent the night in our tent next to some amazing pools on the wolf river and continued the next day all the way around the back of hog 1 and onto the 4x4 track that runs past it. We were blessed with 2 glorious days and sunshine, and thoroughly enjoyed dipping into the cool rock pools along the way. What an epic mission! x

CHINTSA - BUCCANEERS BACKPACKERS
On Wednesday morning we set off for Chintsa (just outside East London) for a bit of ocean therapy and adventure. The sun wasn't around much while we were there but the beach was still great and pretty warm. We camped the night at Buccaneers backpackers, ate plenty of fish and chips (!) and drank down some great local golden ale. Thanks for having us Chintsa, short and sweet but we'll be back!

CAMPING AT MICROWAVE TOWER (more photos to follow)

28 November - full moon

KETTLESPOUT FALLS (we got lost) - WOLFRIDGE DAM - BUMPY RIDE HOME

27 November

PLATJIESKRAAL & MICROWAVE TOWER

23 November

TOR DOONE

14 November

SUNNY MONDAY PICNIC madonna & child

5 November

HOGSBACK MUNICIPAL DAM & SECRET WATERFALL

 

THE MOST EPIC HIKE EVER
4 days, 3 nights, 5 friends and a wolf

day 1: brandon and anne dropped us in the forrestry land and we set off over hog three. we went along a snow-capped ridge behind it and spent the night high up on a slope covered in pine trees with icy cool water in a stream below.

day 2: we packed up and set off along/down the wolf river where we stopped frequently to cool down and admire the views.. then we went deep down into the yellowood forests and spent the night on a big rock next to a most magnificent waterfall and pool.

day 3: we started on a faint trail which soon disappeared, which lead to us bushwhacking through the forest, along the river and we eventually popped out onto an old dirt road- which lead to an old abandoned hut above zingcuka village where we spent the night.

day 4: we hiked down from the hut over steep slopes and through whispering wailing valleys in strong winds into zingcuka village, where we hitched/walked the rest of the way along the back roads through to hogsback.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

FOREST
8 July

Louis took us on a beautiful walk through the forest, which joins up with the Bluff hiking trail- an alternative route to get home after a lift into town. It took about 2 hours for us to get home but the scenery was well worth the extra time.

BINFIELD DAM
1 July

On Sunday we and the MylifE team went fishing at the Binfield dam just a few km's away from home. Apparently there are bass there :) We had no luck with the fishing but had a lovely warm fun day in the sun after a week of hard work.

CLOUD NINE
29 May

We cycled up to the top of 'Cloud 9', the paragliding launch site in Sedgefield. The view from the top is super cool- you can see the layout of the town, its various water sources and the surrounding landmarks.

VIC BAY TRAIN TRACKS
and "the shell cave man"
22 May

BEST of the best of great and good hearted friendly souls, Ross Hillier, popped in for a sneaky visit. What a treat. So we planned a mission to make the most of his short time here with us: Vic Bay, and a walk along the old train tracks. There are some crazy things along this walk- a must see for the open-minded.
Enjoy the pics  :)

CHARLESFORD FARM

9-13 May

We left Sedgefield on our first 'real' bicycle mission, trailer and all, 25kms to mom's cousins Cathy's dairy farm just outside Knysna. We camped there for a couple days next to the river in the cow fields.

Day 1: We left home trailer packed full and set off along the N2, mainly uphill. The last part leading to the farm is a dirt road, which didn't agree too well with our trailer. This meant Jeff had to carry/drag is with a makeshift handle for the last 4kms down to our campsite. Needless to say the river was a treat when we finally arrived. We had swims, easy sarmie lunch and collected firewood. It gets sneakily cold and dark out there!

sweaty smiles at half way stop

oh skits.. broken down trailer

finally there :)

supper.. yum yum

home sweet home

jeff's pyromaniac mphephu burning session

Day 2: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF! We woke up early to the sound of egyptian geese squawking in the surrounding trees. We made a fire for tea and breakfast and then cruised on up the hill to say hello to the animals on the farm. Then we cycled on into Knysna, to see what’s going on and gather some more supplies. Then we decided to go and get mussels from Brenton-on-sea on our way home. Hell that was a trek. A good 8kms of pure sweaty uphill, followed by downhill to get to the sea. We grabbed some ice creams and our mussels, then cruised all the way up the downhill, to the lookout, and took an easy breeeezy cruise back to the farm road. When we got back we had swims and got things together for an early supper. Mussel DELIGHT!

view from the top of Belvediere hill

Day 3: Because of our broken trailer, we had to leave our camp set up for the night and head home to be back in Sedgefield for the market the following day. We planned to return with the car after market to pack things up. So we had oats with fresh creamy farm milk and set off back along the N2 to Sedgefield.. 8kms from home I managed to get a double puncture. Sweet. We tried numerous times to fix them but nothing worked so we started walking pushing bikes (not knowing how far we really were from home). A really nice guy called Mike in a little Nissan bakkie pulled over and gave us a ride home. Phew.

Day 4: After a rather quiet market day we climbed into the Tazz and set off back to the farm to find our camp sitting sweetly as we had left it. We had a quiet evening fire and early to bed.

Day 5: We woke up early thanks to our noisy goose neighbours again and started getting things together. We then took a walk up to the top of the river where the weir levels it out, and went for a paddle in Cathy’s canoe. We saw loads of wild Mallard ducks and many different kinds of water lilies. After that we went back to camp and packed our things, sad to have to go home.

Thanks to Cathy for letting us stay and for sharing your land so generously with us.. and for all the wonderful different parts of nature that made our mission so beautiful!

GEORGE PEAK
15 May

Nicky and Sean came up to George to visit Sean's parents for the long weekend, so we spent some time with them and did these two great walks:

GEORGE DAM

28 April

BROWN HOODED KINGFISHER - wilderness

29 April 

TIMBERLAKE

25 April

On Wednesday we missioned out for a couple hours to the Timberlake centre- on bicycles! The 24km round trip is the longest we’ve done so far.. and the hills didn’t take it easy on us, but we got there smoothly and the trip back was the best downhill ever. Just cruizin’. So it’s off the N2 between wilderness and sedgefield, and its a little ‘village’ type thing of wooden cabins with two sweet coffee shop/restaurants, a goats milk fudge factory, cheese shop, nursery, locally made crafts, ‘the fairy shop’ and a fairy garden. We had coffee and a piece of ‘Aiden’s famous cheesecake’, last years award winner... and it was heavenly. A right treat for cycling all that way. We also managed to get four of our  dream catchers into ‘the fairy shop’! So this was a very exciting visit. Go team!

Here are some pics:

On Saturday we went to the Wild Oats Farmer’s market.. I hope to write a longer piece on this sometime soon.. but here’s a sneak peak of whats to come: fresh greens and pesto infused cheese.. DELISH.

We popped in to Vic Bay on our way back from George on Friday. There wasn't much happening in wave world but we found this cute cat at Land's End.

We’ve been doing loads of cycling around to minimize petrol costs- and have found many hills in the area to puff up and zoom down. Lots of fun. We’ve made good use of jeffs 1 litre flask (thanks cheryne and steve!) and cycled to somewhere for an evening cuppa.

We went on one particularly long cycle to the Goukamma nature reserve, where me went for a lovely long walk along the beach. Unfortunately, being a nature reserve we couldn’t pick any mussels which was our main reason for taking that route. But the mission was still good use of a good day and a happy time.

BRENTON-ON-SEA

16 april

After attempting to catch our dinner in Sedgefield with little success, we cruised down to Brenton-on-sea 20 odd kilometres out of town in search of another source. Beautiful moody sky and a slight drizzle. We took a walk down to the over-hangs and rock pools down at the beach and collected our daily limit of 30 black mussels- what a treat- time to get cooking!

KALK BAY CAVES

4 april

NB: go with someone who knows the caves.. the tiny spaces you can actually squeeze through in these caves make the devils chimney at the Cango Caves seem pretty chilled. this was a super fun mission with great friends and family. AND- you don't need shoes! but old clothes are a must. the initial incline is fairly steep, but the path is made of big rocks and soft sand so it goes quite swiftly. it takes about 1 hour to get up to the top before you can start exploring.

the first cave we went to was the 'free drinks saloon', where there is natural water dripping inside. some legends have left containers there for catching the water, and when you go inside you can enjoy a sweet crispy cold free drink from mama nature! what a treat.

then we went on to the atrium which led us through to the starlight cave. this is really beautiful as there is a small hole at the top where the sun shines through into the cave. we took a detour and went through what is called 'the mole hole' which is a long and VERY narrow tunnel which you have to slither through on your stomach. not for the even slightly claustrophobic. this one definitely needs a guide!

then we went through the 'boomslang' cave, which is full of bats! so its a little stinky and a stray bat might just fly into your torchlight, but otherwise a really great experience to feel them swooping past you so quickly. and of course their squeaky noises.

altogether an AWESOME day mission- thanks so much to biggest cousin Daniel for taking us and getting us home all in one piece, and of course to mama Beard for coming with us right deep into the caves and for the delicious picnic lunch!

LLANDUDNO SUNDOWNERS

1 april

beautiful chilled sunday evening sunset mission.

TRANQUILITY CRACKS.. well, nearly

21 march

This is a really great hike, but you need to be relatively fit to do it. The starting point is at the veeeery top of Fiskaal Road in Camps Bay (it become Frankolin road, you'll see a gate that leads onto the mountain). The initial walk up the pipe track and eventually up towards the cracks is quite steep, so bring some extra breath with you! And the actual 'tranquility cracks' proved quite difficult to find.. so make sure you print a map with decent directions. Although we never found them, we did find an awesome little over-hang with a stunning view of the Atlantic side of town. Loads of beautiful flowers- check the pics! Thanks to Mark for organising the walk!

FLAMJANGLED TEA PARTY

16-18 march

sheeeeow- what a party! AND we won tickets which made it even more awesome.. but the best was just flamgingling away freely, not a care in the world, with friends and smiles and happy days. the music was great, the weather was a treat, the outfits were crazy, the whiskey and home-made iced tea went down far too easily and love was in the air and all around. boomshaka. here's a collection of photos from all over, and the official video. aaaah take us back there!

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