CATHEDRAL PEAK MOUNTAIN SPLENDOUR
- Thursday, 5 April to Tuesday, 10 April 2007
Five days of sheer blending with nature and soul nourishment. Yes that is our 5-day Cathedral Peak escape, in a nutshell.
The fact that we saw the sun on Thursday till lunch time and only again on Monday afternoon, would have been a drastic damper on the spirits of most people, but the Fouries tend to thrive in cool, cozy, wet weather conveniently accompanied by a honeymoon suite.
For me Easter Weekend has always been marked by a change from warmer to cooler weather i.e. autumn flowing into winter and this year it has been no different. We mostly doodled along in tracksuits keeping our bodies snug. There were daily downpours and evening thunderstorms, which by the time we departed on Tuesday morning, resulted in slow flowing streams turning into strong running rivers.
Friday, Sunday and Monday was mostly spent keeping snug in the lounge area looking out onto the verandah and the splendour of numerous mountain peaks i.e. the Bell Tower, Cathedral Peak, etc., whilst yours truly got going on some brainstorming the scrapbooking way and Conroy doing some management research whilst keeping one eye peeled on World Cup Cricket and Super 14 Rugby scores. My next SCRAPBOOKING GETAWAY weekend’s layouts are amongst those layouts I created this weekend.
(Keep your eyes peeled on DOING LIFE for more info on this scrapbooking/photographic weekend!!)
Friday afternoon, we did manage to visit the vitality centre (gym) for a one hour cession on the equipment. I did a 7.4km on the treadmill which must have had the most spectacular view of all treadmills in the country. I did not even realise the km’s were ticking by as the beautiful scenery were flying past me through huge open sliding windows i.e. ‘flying’ is no reference to the speed I was plodding along on the treadmill.
We set off at 8am on Saturday, tummies filled to the brim with Maize Porridge, accompanied by our guide called Wiseman, on a brand new hike to Xeni Cave. We were the first hotel guests venturing on this new hike. Wiseman had his hands full with a family of four, clearly not kitted out for mountain hiking including an eight year old girl, who joined us on the hike. We were informed by the resident activities Manager, Errol that the hike was approximately 11km and that five hours was the estimated time for us to complete it. The weather was cool and very misty – ideal for hiking.
The progress, needless to say was slower than that of ‘Mr and Mrs Tortoise’ and the Fouries had their brakes activated for most of the journey. The first km or so went relatively smoothly until we hit annoying wet, tall grass next to the river bank. Wiseman eagerly attempted to part the grass for us, but we still got hit from the face downwards and soon were soaking wet of all the dew on the grass. The thought of ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume…’ flashed in front of me, and I expected us to stumble upon Dr Livingstone any moment.
The tall grass conquered, we could breathe and relax again, but only for a brief moment, after which the route took a 90 degree bend and we staggered and stumbled right slam dunk into the middle of the Xeni River. The second half of the route to
Xeni Cave was earmarked by continuous boulder hopping stretching concentration spans to the limit because falling into the shallow water and getting (egos) wet by accident, was not an option at all.
As we were nearing the end of our boulder hopping exercise, which we got quite accustomed to, Conroy lost his balance on top of an embankment and all I could see was arms and legs belonging to a nearly 2m frame getting entangled whilst his body went down sideways hitting the water with his right hand side. All this seemed to happen in slow motion right in front of me, making me feel totally helpless. For a fleeting moment my tummy took a 360 degree summersault as I envisaged broken limbs, concussion, etc. He gathered his arms, legs and walking stick and got up very slowly in it was then that I saw blood streaming down the right hand side of his head and stitches was an immediate thought. He had fell with the right hand side of his head on a rock under the water.
Wiseman was very concerned and quickly had his emergency kit out and passing the cotton wool and bandages for me to play nurse. It’s a well known fact that nursing is not one of yours truly‘s exceptional skills. The patient ignored Wiseman and looked the other way when the nurse wanted to assist. I managed to wipe some of the blood with tissues just to have a quick glimpse of how deep the wound was, but it seemed to be only skin deep. The dripping wet patient fortunately did not seem to have anything broken, except for a sprained wrist and serious bruises, which came to light later on. We moved on swiftly, without the rest of the party who was still negotiating some boulder hopping.
We could see the steep contour path leading up to the cave from where Conroy purchased himself a piece of pristine mountain land. So we tackled the last stretch to Xeni cave with hearts beating a bit faster and reached the cave without any further hiccups. Conroy quickly changed into a dry shirt (which he fortunately had packed) and I dashed around taking some shots of the cave with my new Canon flash. I had the flash angled 130 degrees so that the flash light could reflect of the ceiling of the cave and light up the rest of the cave area. I think it worked quite well.
We enjoyed our picnic lunch packed by the hotel and set of on our journey back, this time without a guide and the rest of the party, so no breaks needed this time. Our feedback to Errol the events manager, was that the route could be comfortably completed in 4 hours and that perhaps they must not allow any children under the age of 16 on this hike.
One more major happening of our Easter Breakaway was my second surprise early birthday present – my new Tamron Telephoto Lens being the first.
A well-known wild bird artist, Penny Meakin, was running an art exhibition at Cathedral Peak for the duration of the Easter weekend and we popped in to have a look at the paintings she had on display. It is funny how a specific subject would just draw you to it. We both fell in love with the ‘Guinea fowl at the Waterhole’. Early the next morning we revisited the exhibition and our painting was still on display and Conroy decided that I deserved another birthday present – now don’t’ get any ideas that it is a big number this year, I am not getting older that fast. I must say that this is really an awesome painting with vivid colours, lots of movement, character and reflections. It is now proudly hanging in our entrance passage. So to the regular blue room visitors – keep an eye out for the ‘Guinea fowl at the Waterhole’ when arriving for your next scrapbooking lesson.
Get to know Penny Meakin here:
http://www.gamebirdart.co.za/
Monday afternoon being the first day that we saw sun, we rushed off to the golf course – about 1.5km away to take some sunset pictures alongside the various pools on the golf course. I managed to capture these.
Having to leave our favourite get/hide-way, our moods were hitting an all time low on Tuesday morning when we left for Coghill Avenue, Kloof. But our batteries were recharged and the souls were nourished ready to tackle life with gust.
- Signing off - Guinea fowl at Coghill Avenue
The green protea is apparently a new variety which has been cultivated for the export market. Must say the pastel colour combination of the green and pink proteas really appeal to me. This bunch of proteas is so beautiful it deserves to be featured on a layout. So watch out for the layout coming up soon.