Trail Log 1995-1997 - Lamar at Colorado State University

65
the trashiest of all.
Afternoon. Wilderness workshop with Ian Player, Bill Bainbridge, Alex Weaver, Bun Booyens,
Bruce Dell, Rudi Bigalke, Andrew Muir, and others. About 20 participants in the workshop, by
invitation only.
August 12, Saturday.
Tea with Nicholas J. Slabbert, who arranges joint ventures in business, also runs a foundation for
Laurens van der Post. He has set up a Center for International Business, University of
Stellenbosch. He now lives in Maine. He is interested in the possibility of some endowed chair that
would be a joint appointment between some school in the U.S. and the University of Stellenbosch.
Afternoon: we drove out to some farms on the "wine route"; then to Somerset West shopping mall,
then to the Strand and its beach on False Bay. Marvelous day.
Evening: a fine choral concert by the University of Stellenbosch choir, and reception with the rector,
Andreas van Wyk; his field was law. Vice-rector, Walter Classen was in Hebrew, used John Bright
as his text.
August 13, Sunday.
I hiked up Witteberge mountain with Peter Blignaut and his wife, Jill. (Blignaut and Rommelaere,
P. O. Box 334, Parow 7500, South Africa. Phone 930-2313/4. Home: 794 4836. He is town
planner and land surveyor, finishing a Ph.D. degree in planning at University of Cape Town,
Framework for a Socio-Resource Zoning Management Policy for the Conservation and Sustainable
Utilisation of the Mountainous Areas of South Africa. University of Cape Town, Department of
Environmental and Geographical Science, Ph.D. Dissertation, April 1994. She did an M.A. in
environmental management in the same department. He has been long active in the Mountain Club
of South Africa, a big mountain hiker. They have climbed Long's Peak in U.S and tried Mt. Rainier,
but too much snow. Also they have hiked in the Himalayas.
We drove up DuToitklooppas (Du Toit's Gorge Pass), which is on N1 national highway inland (main
highway to Johannesburg). There is now a tunnel beneath the mountain (Huguenot Tunnel), but
the pass road is still open and preferred by many. At the pass, we took a narrow paved road
though a locked gate, which goes up to a microwave tower, and parked the car on the upper
reaches of that.
We hiked into a mountain hut, on a trail, after that the hike was a rock scramble all day. Climbed
a grassy knob, then leveled out on top, then dropped some into a wetter area, then climbed to a
saddle on the flanks of Witteberge (which means white mountain) and had lunch there. We did not
try the summit (1,689 meters, or 5,540 feet), which they said is pretty rough the last part up. We
returned by a different route, I had to pick my way down carefully, often rather rough. At one point
I saw a snake shortly ahead across my path, which they concluded was a puff adder; it made some
spitting or hissing noises. We reached the cabin again, and walked out.
We drove down the pass on the n.w. side to see the impressive n.w. face of Witteberge mountain,
which is indeed impressive. Also here you can look up to Du Toit peak (DuToitsberge), the highest
in this immediate area (1,997 meters, 6,550 ft. This is considerably higher than anything in the
eastern U. S. Returned about dark.