Karrimor Jaguar 2 - gone to a new home

Saturday was a sad day. The top section of my wardrobe was getting out of hand and threatening to tumble out all over me, and it was time to donate my old backpack to a worthy cause.

Now this was a special bag. A Karrimor Jaguar 2, 65 litres, which I bought in December 1985 when I was a 12 year old Scout and just starting to do some real hiking. It cost R127.95 less 15% discount, plus 13% GST (I kept the receipt), money I got from Christmas presents and from a smallish cash prize I won at school. It came from a tiny but outstanding outdoor store called Camp and Climb in the basement of Cavendish Square, sadly long since closed.

Good design? Yes sir. Back then it was a new-generation internal frame bag that was comfortable as heck and seriously impressed the adults and older boys who I hiked with. It came in KS100E material with a lifetime guarantee, in an elegant shade of pale green. You could yank the straps while you wore it, which they called SAS, or the Self Adjusting System. I admit the last 24 years have seen some useful innovations in pack design (although I exclude those ridiculous bladder-water-pipe arrangements from that category), but nothing as revolutionary as the shift from external frames to comfortable, carry-able, packable-and-unpackable, adjustable, internal frame packs like this one. My 24 year old Jaguar 2 was still a match for most of today's packs.

Durable? Oh yes! 24 years later and the only damage was a small worn-through slit in a side pocket, where I once packed two gaz cylinders with metal rims which wore through the material when brushing against passing rocks. I learnt a small lesson about packing from that. The unbreakable hip belt buckle outlasted several buckles on my newer Backpacker bag. And I never did get to try out the lifetime guarantee, although later bags came in a material called Silvaguard with a 10 year guarantee which didn't last nearly as well. (Karrimor, to their credit, honoured that guarantee, but Silvaguard was never a match for KS100E).

Clean? Well, no longer. In 1989 a fellow Rayner Trophy teammate kindly packed a bottle full of cooking oil in my bag without telling me, and it popped open. 750 ml of sunflower oil left some interesting tie-dye patterns on my sleeping bag, and some stains on the bag, but actually seemed to increase the waterproofing. Yes, it was washable, in a big bath of warm water and a few days in the sun to dry out the capacious foam hipbelt, but the cooking oil pattern lived on.

Well used? Absolutely. From my early teens, through my Springbok Scout hike, down the Wit Els three times at least (soaking up most of the river in the foam padding along the way), four 10-day Cederberg Adventures, all over the Cape, in all weather. I used it exclusively for more than 10 years, then decided I needed a larger 75 litre bag, but the Jaguar 2 kept going, either to lend out (it probably did more Cederberg Adventures in that role than I did) or for hikes where a smaller or older bag was more appropriate. The last major outing I can remember taking it on was the Wit Els in 2001.

Why pass it on now? You know, I'm not sure. I could have kept it in reserve and lent it out a few more times, and maybe I'll do the Wit Els again one day. But to be fair, its time had passed, and even the bag I bought as its successor is now a 14-year-old well-worn, well-travelled pack, with more hiking (and more airline miles) behind it than most packs can dream of. I could have kept it another 10 years until the kids are big enough to use it, but to be honest, it would probably not inspire the same reverence in them that I felt it deserved.

I drove around with it in the boot of my car (an Opel Meriva - similarly functional but sadly less durable) for a while, putting off the moment, but eventually I just had to grit my teeth and hand it over as a donation, along with a few other lesser items to reduce the blow.

Miss it already? You bet. Oasis in Claremont - you don't realise that you just got one of your finest gifts yet.

The Jeep Track or Bridle Path

The Jeep Track or Bridle Path is the easiest route to the back table, i.e. the lower part of the range just south of Table Mountain. The route starts at Constantia Nek as a gravel road, and winds up the slopes above Cecilia Forest through what was until recently a commercial pine plantation and is now thankfully being allowed to return to the natural fynbos. Closer to the top, the road is concrete, with a few rock cuttings and a bridge. On the top, there is a fairly long stretch, more or less level, that passes the three smaller reservoirs and the former Wynberg overseer's hut (now part of the Hoeri Kwaggo Trail) and then ends at the Woodhead and Hely-Hutchison reservoirs.

Carrell's Ledge

Carrell's Ledge is one of the poorly-kept secrets of Table Mountain. It's an absurdly unlikely traverse across the cliff face at the top of Ascension Buttress, overlooking the Pulpit and Newlands Forest, which is where you would land up if you missed your footing on your way across. There are some breathless accounts on the web about how it's "only 20cm wide" (slightly wider than the white line in the middle of a road), which is a bit of an exaggeration, but nonetheless it is a spectacular crossing.

There's a rather overgrown path, not marked on the recent maps, and the start is fairly hard to find, and this is really not somewhere you'd like to get lost. So please don't try it unless you know what you're doing, and don't even think of trying it in bad weather.

Tips on setting up a new private hiking trail

There are hiking trails to suit all tastes, but to make its mark, a hike needs more than just good views, good paths and good overnight accommodation. That 'something extra' might be tractor transport to the start, a farm dog which accompanies the hikers, a real farm supper laid on, or an unusual overnight hut.

Of course the choice of route is vital. It needs available water, great views, good places to stop, not too much unnecessary uphill, and above all a route with a purpose. That purpose may be the views, a particular destination like a nek, peak or waterfall, or it may be getting from A to B along an interesting route. Most hikers like variation, so try to include a variety of terrains. Circular routes are usually more popular than ones where you end far away from the carpark at the start.

Related to the route, you need a decent map and route description, and well signposted paths. Local municipalities, the Forestry Department or one of several conservation agencies may be able to help with technical issues like maps and path construction.

To publicise the hike, your first prize would be to get a popular author of hiking books to review your hike, or to include it in a hiking column in a weekend newspaper. Another option would be an article about your trail in Getaway magazine, but that isn't easy to achieve - something in the letters page may be easier. Also check if SAFM has a slot for outdoor adventure in one of its magazine programmes.

Olifantskop trail

"What makes this Olifantskop trail in the Hexrivier, Western Cederberg, very special is that you are in regular contact with the river. It is a fairly leisurly walk to the cave, so that there is time for swims and exploration of the old farmstead halfway to the cave."

http://home.mweb.co.za/vi/vism/tours.html

(Sent in by Martha & Reinhardt Slabber in 2001)

Gansbaai to Betty's Bay

Start at the Western end of Gansbaai, known as Die Kelders, and hike along the beach across Walker Bay towards the mouth of Hermanus Lagoon. This should take you till the evening, unless you made a really early start from Cape Town. You can either camp at a campsite or holiday house in Hermanus, or risk a large fine and unpleasant awakening by sleeping on the beach or the shores of the lagoon. Not really worth it. The next day, take the beach paths through Hermanus - a surprisingly long hike, with many welcome distractions of beaches and holiday life. You should be able to get past Onrus by the late afternoon - it's probably not such a good idea to trespass on the reserve at Hoek van die Berg, with the vearious perlemoen wars in this area. There is a campsite at Hawston. From Hawston, you again hit a long beach passing Bot River mouth and the lagoon and ending at Kleinmond.

Well, here my description of the hike ends because we hitched from Kleinmond to our next night stop at Palmiet river mouth (a short hike, anyway) and then got rained on. After trying to take shelter in some municipal restrooms we chickened out and hitched to Betty's Bay.

If anyone knows anything about beach routes anywhere along the South coast between Mossel Bay and Pringle Bay, please let me know. Or along False Bay from Muizenburg to Gordons Bay - It would be an epic hike from Muizenburg to Agulhas, and I'd like to hear more about the route.

Kouebokkeveld

The Kouebokkeveld mountains here are largely privately owned so access is pretty exclusive unless you know the right person or belong to the right hiking club.

The Olifants River Dome (1621m) is a spectacular peak which is very hard to get to, along a tortuous traverse and a huge descent and ascent just when you thought you were there. The summit log shows it was climbed in 1991 (for the MCSA centenary), and next by the SMC in 1994. The peak is an 8-hour round trip from base camp at the top of Naauwkloof (where a shepherd's hut provides shelter if not warmth for 3 to 4 people, or 15 in a storm), and from the farm Schoongezicht to the camp takes 2 hours.

Another nice peak with a spectacular nek is Driekoppe (1760m?). (Spectacular is a word which you will probably use often in the Kouebokkeveld.) Unlike the Dome, Driekoppe is an easy climb and is reached in about 2 hours hiking from the campsite and about one hour back down. You can see Table Mountain easily on a clear day and all the major peaks from Sneeuberg and Tafelberg to Groot Winterhoek.

Then somewhere out there is an old shepherd's cave which has been visited maybe two or three times in a few decades. It still has the original kettle, potjie and firewood supply, and a few tins of coffee. It also has some old bushman paintings, very faint, and a magnificent view. Well worth the slog through unmarked mountains, but only a few people know where it is, and it's not a location I would want to geocache or blog about!