Arangieskop hike near Robertson

 In keeping with the recent trend of being out-and-about on weekends, I accepted an invitation from a friend to join a group hike to Arangieskop, a two-day hike in the mountains overlooking Robertson. Carine has so kindly invited me on a bunch of outings over the last two years and I've never been able to attend any of them. So when this invitation came up a week before, I said yes.

No Speed Limit gives a detailed account of this hike with distance and elevation breakdowns and good photos. It is a good reference if you're interested in doing it.

This hike was a coming together of two groups. Carine moved to Cape Town a year ago. She and a CT friend arranged the hike and were allowed to invite four friends each to make up a group. Four of us travelled from George on Friday afternoon to meet up with the five, including Carine, from Cape Town. There is a 20-sleeper hiking cottage at the start of the route, which is where we slept on Friday night. A group of 10 from the Berg-en-Dal George-based hiking club were also booked, so there was good comraderie in the cottage. 

This hike is known for its unrelenting ascent on Day 1 and unrelenting descent on Day 2. Day 1 climbs around 1300m over 9km to the overnight hut. On Day 2 you climb about 200m to the summit of Arangieskop and then descend 1500m over 10km to get back to the cottage. I had my trekking poles with me.

With sunrise after 07h30, we were out hiking only from 08h45 with the sun only just coming into the valley.

What struck me most about the first part of the hike were the proteas. Thousands of them. Mostly blousuikerbos (P. neriifolia) but also gems like this aptly named Shuttlecock Sugarbush

We stopped at a stream for munchies. The coffee lovers in our group (of which there were many) made coffee.

Janie and Welme

Stream crossing an steep ascent

Water pouring from the mountain after recent rains.

With Hans, Janie, Welme and Carine. That's the Arangieskop summit up above us.

The route is rugged and well marked.

Toad skin lichen

The town of Robertson visible from the saddle. That dam down below... We started from there.

Carine on the jeep track leading to the cottage - just visible in the picture.

View from my bunkbed looking north and down on the KOO valley and the abundance of mountains.

Catching the sunset. It was cold and very windy.

The 10 from the hiking club were with us in the hut so we had an afternoon and night of hot showers (donkey boiler), good conversations, card games and hanging out in front of the kagel fireplace, which warmed the hut up nicely. The wind did not relent all night. I had a good, long sleep, rising with the rest a bit after 7am.

We were out of the hut and on the way to the summit by 08h30.

What goes up... must come down.

A long way down. Start of the decent.

Going down involved some ups too.

Some of the hiking club people.

After the coffee bunch in our group decided to stop by a stream to make coffee, I chose to go on with two of the guys. We were together for a bit and then split up when I got behind taking photos of flowers and proteas. It was actually good to be on my own knowing that the rest of our group was at least 20 minutes behind, the hikers were close and the guys were ahead. I could stop as much as I wanted to without delaying the group. I was after some observations to log on iNaturalist.

This is a forest of proteas. Mostly P. neriifolia (blousuikerbos)

Protea aurea aurea - Common shuttlecock sugarbush

No points for guessing how Protea aurea aurea - Common shuttlecock sugarbush -
got its common name.

Lots and lots of Protea neriifolia - blousuikerbos

Also P. neriifolia, which also comes in white. Apparently it is normal for protea populations to have pink and white - much like our eye colours and hair colours. An identifier on iNaturalist suggested note to be taken of the ratio of pink to white (or any other colours) and for this to be recorded. I would guess that some populations have greater ratios than others. Pink definitely dominated here with very few white. 

Love this one - Protea nitida. Wagon Tree.

Now to try to remember these names and observations for the future!

I'm under correction but it took us around 4.5hrs to get up the mountain and maybe 4hrs to get down. Now Tuesday, I'm feeling my calves and quads from the descent. Knees are great.

We didn't hang around for long. A quick facecloth wipe down and clean clothes before hitting the road for the four-hour drive back to George.

It was an excellent weekend with good company, perfect weather and spectacular scenery to make for a great hiking experience.