Down in the Free State near Fouriesburg is Bosmanskrans. This time
most members made it, we were 20 altogether. The accommodation was
not to everyone's expectation, I think it was ok. The house most of
us stayed in was apparently from 188something. It served as a refuge
during the Boer war when some minister looked after the woman and
children of the area.
The hike on Saturday was lovely, all in
sandstone with lots of caves (overhangs). A couple of bushman
paintings were also in attendance. It was a windy route, wound such
that the 12 or so kilometers would fit onto the farm.
Some
excitement was had when we went up the tyre ladder, it must have been
an about 10m climb up the rock face, made more difficult by the
different sizes of tyres used. At places we had to heave ourselves up
by our arms in order to make the next rung of the tyre ladder. It
took a long time to get everybody up.
I always enjoy sandstone,
because one can see so much history in them, like ripples caused by
running water 200 million years ago, or the layering of the original
dunes just the same as we can observe them in present dunes. Its all
very fascinating, I think in my old age I will take a bit more
interest in sandstone (Roland, please help).
The
evening was different from our normal hiking evenings, first the
young ladies: Kelly and Joany, showed us their skill on the resident
piano. I must say, it may not have been perfect, but I enjoyed it. In
future we must only go hikes that also provide a piano. And the other
thing that was different was that the farmer cooked for us, we had a
sit down pootjie meal. This was certainly a good idea of Jenny to
organise this. That way we were able to socialise much more than we
normally do.
The Sunday hike, attended by only a few of us, was
down to the river, that is the Little Caledon River. A deep and
interesting ravine took us down to a lovely stretch of the river,
which I must say invited for a swim, but the water was far too
cold.