BERGFREE ADVENTURES NEWSLETTER NUMBER 90 6 April 2010 Devil’s Knuckles or The 3 Bushmen Southern Berg American Hikers 27 – 28 March 2010 On a cold, drizzly and uninviting morning I met Jonathan and Alex in Himeville. Our plan was to hike to, and overnight at Tarn Cave, then the next morning climb the South Devil’s Knuckle and get back to the car in the late afternoon. They say the “Southern Drakensberg” of the great uKhahlamba Drakensberg Range of mountains is “not for Sissey’s” . The weather to our south indicated that we could be tested on our way to our objective. On arriving at Bushman’s Nek, the weather appeared to have cleared a bit. The local Game ranger hinted that it might rain again later that afternoon. So we decided to speed walk where we could , push steadily up and over the steep places, cut lunch down , and hopefully get to the cave in a dry state. However, the stopping to look at the scenery, and taking of pictures would not be compromised. If you see a good picture, take the shot!, you won’t come this way again. The weather held, and the views were great We came across probably one of the hardest working insects of the insect world – the Dung Beetle. There was some horse droppings in the sunken path, and a number of Dung Beetles were busy rolling their balls of dung away to be buried with an egg , so that the future generation starts with a good source of food at hand. These beetles are fascinating to watch, and show great determination and mind set in their task. Nearer our cave , we passed the tarn where we would get our water for the night. As the weather had cleared, and we were ahead of time, we decided to stop a while, and fill our drinking containers now, instead of coming back later. It would mean carrying a bit more weight in the form of litres of water to the cave, however it made sense to do that. Alex had brought a special water filtration, bacteria killing pump from the US with him, it was now unpacked and put to use to get good clear drinking water. Unfortunately the pump did not live up to its “ selling blab”. It took forever to fill the water bags . Meanwhile the view down the valley from the top was great. Tarn cave is a large cave, with spectacular views of the Devil’s Knuckles , and high ridges and great valleys to the north. The moving sun constantly changes the views from the cave as shadows change in the valleys, and the afternoon light gets softer. One can just feel the day coming to an end sitting in the cave with a good cup of coffee and rusk in hand. Sunrise is a special time in the new day. It is always well worth the effort to get out of a warm sleeping bag, and get to a good vantage point to see the new day in. One never knows how it will pan out, but great sunrises are always a great pleasure to behold. Sometimes if there is a pool or Tarn around, and you are in the right place , incredible reflections can be witnessed, be in the wrong place , and you miss a moment of your life. Watching the sunrise took longer than I had anticipated, with the result that we started our hike to the Knuckles an hour later than projected - funny - one never makes this time up during the day. The climb is long , and fairly hard – here fitness and altitude will play a part in how you feel at the top of the Knuckle. With a long pull up a steep valley, one cannot always see what the weather ahead is doing, so when you get to the top , the view may not be what you may have been anticipating. In our case masses of heavy white clouds covered the entire lowland area. No view except cloud. A bit of a let down as far as that was concerned , but there on the flip side , there is something to be said for being “above the rest” for a short space of time The trip back to the car is long and arduous, long steep down hills with a heavy backpack put strain on knees and legs. The long flat final “walk in” to the car never seems to come to an end. Reliving the last 2 days experience does help to ease the pain. In our case , a very angry, rather large puff adder took exception to our presence around it. Rather than being the usual slow snake that one expects, this one reared up , hissed and puffed loudly, and seemed to hurl itself at us. What a cross , irritable puffy that turned out to be. Needless to say, we sped on our way at a much more agile pace than before the encounter. To Jonathan and Alex, hope that you enjoyed the 2 days. We had great weather and great walking. Bergfree Adventures www.bergfree.co.za ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~