Quite a while ago, one of my much-younger climbing partners turned up at the crag with a new climbing rope. When I asked him how much it had cost, he said that he had pinched it from his father. His dad, he added, didn’t climb anymore. He went on to say that his parents were still quite active hikers, but “they only go out on prepared trails”. This last bit was loaded with something akin to contempt.

I was reminded of this the other day when, not only were we not going rock-climbing, we were actually going out on a “prepared trail”. The only thing that saves us from being totally busted down to rank of slack-packer or worse, is that the Arangieskop Trail is not your usual “prepared trail”.

The trail, situated in the Langeberg behind the town of Robertson, rises some 1150 metres on the first day, another 150 metres up to the summit on the second day, and then the whole 1300 metres back down again. It is all on a good, clear path, but it is very steep, especially down. The trail is managed by the Robertson Municipality and booking is easy, though getting a bit expensive at R352 each.

We spent the Friday night in the Dassieshoek House at the start, so that we could make an early start onthe trail. We left some clothes and food in the house, rather than in the cars, as we had heard that there had been some cars broken into. Reassuringly, there was no broken glass in the car-park and our cars were safe while we were away.

The top hut is superb, with fire-wood, water, a hot-water donkey, an external braai as well as an inside kaggel or braai. The only problem with the internal fire, as experienced on a previous occasion, is that the chimney rises through one of the bunk-rooms. The chimney leaks and gets very hot, so that room becomes a smoky sauna.

I had lectured everyone beforehand on the disadvantages of not having braai meat while everyone else did, but of course I had not taken my own advice. In the end it was only Ed who had brought meat, and he braaied it outside, so no one got really jealous.

There are two schools of thought about what is the right and proper time to have dinner in a mountain hut. There are the feed-your-facers who eat when they are hungry and for whom a dinner-hour is a mere construct. This group usually boil up a big pot of something and chow it down immediately. Then there are the fine-diners, who feel that one can’t eat before seven, or eight even. This lot cook up something fancy, with many courses, using lots of separately packed ingredients, such as a clove of garlic to fry in a pat of butter and a bit of milk to make a white sauce to go with the fried mushroom.

The split between the two groups is perfectly replicated at bed-time. The fine-diners are horrified at the idea of bed before 10 pm, as it’s “going to be a very long night”. Yes, it is going to be a very long night, all the more reason to get quickly into bed and spend the very long night in dreamland. Unfortunately there is always a third category, the faffers. This lot mean to eat and go to bed early, but by the time they have fiddled about it is actually quite late. So the top hut is a good place to observe mountain hut rituals, while being tired enough to go to sleep early and not mind the goings-on.

This is one of the best trails around, prepared or otherwise, and we really enjoyed doing it. Apart from a freezing wind on the summit, the weather was good and all went well.

The party consisted of Cheryl and me, Ed Shuttleworth, Karin van Niekerk, Joan Lourens, Maretha Alant, Derek Odendaal and Tony and Evie Bowen. The weather was fine and cool and we had a great hike.

Thanks to Ed Shuttleworth for photos.

Greg Devine – Meet Leader