Mountains and Mountaineering

Mountains and Mountaineering.

In January 1996 I became a mountaineer (by default).

I inherited a mountain peak! The Cockscomb. At 5 700 ft it is the highest summit in the immediate Port Elizabeth region. The mountain lies some 80 kilos North of St Francis Bay, and forms part of the Groot Winterhoek range. It borders on the the Baviaans Kloof.

Look at the full picture of the mountain:

The view is from the North, looking South towards the coast. My piece of solid African rock starts on the saddle on the left, stretches to the right to include the tip of the mountain peak, and then comes North towards you to include the ridges just in front of the summit. The two peaks on the left, the Little Cockscomb and The Pimple are also on my 54 hectares of mountain land.

At 4 500 ft, tucked into one of the ridges is Echo cave. Complete with rudimentary mountain hut, ice cold shower and flushing loo with the best view in Africa.

To summit, we climb from the North, starting out from the neighbouring farm just off the Steytlerville road.

To get to my piece of Africa you have to first embark on a three and a half our, unrelentless climb of 2 500 ft. It's a bit like cruising long distance to windward on a heavy keelboat. It is zig-zag, slow going, up and down, but always climbing. Every now and then you hove- to for a break. Eventually you see your destination but the last little bit takes forever.

Coming down is like running down wind. It's good to start off with, but like sailing, eventually the constant rolling gets to you. Your knees get sore, your toes hurt. And the ice cold beers you left in the car down on Hannes's farm will be luke warm by now after a few days in the hot Karoo sun.

But up there you would have had a nice total relax, enjoyed the challenges of the high ledges, steep chimneys and awesome drops while slowly working your way to the summit and then the views.

If you don't climb the mountain, you cannot enjoy the view.