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PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:28 pm 
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Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2010 11:26 am
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Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Real Name: Stephen Martindale
I am planning a trip to Rocklands - for sport, probably around the grade of 20.

Where should I plan to camp? I hear that De Pakhuys is pretty good. Is this the best? (I have heard rumors of another camp-site near the sport-climbing areas.)

Are permits required? How are permits obtained? Is it possible to acquire a permit for a weekend, thus avoiding daily paperwork?

Dare I ask: do I need one of these new-fangled "activity cards" to climb in Rocklands?

I notice that Western Cape Rock has fairly scant info, compared to the Wiki. Is there a better guide book for Rocklands? Alternatively, is there any other source than our own dear Wiki? Perhaps one that I should use in addition to the Wiki.


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:50 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:40 am
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Location: Stellenbosch
Real Name: Nic Le Maitre
Hi

While the sport climbing at Rocklands is fantastic (most routes are 5 star) there is not all that much of it, at least not grade 20 and under. You'd be better off going to the Sanddrift/Truijieskraal/Rooiberg area and climbing there. The best guide for the sport climbing at Rocklands at the moment is the wiki used with Western Cape Rock for directions to the crags.

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 7:42 am 
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Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2006 12:32 pm
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Location: Cape Town
Real Name: Willem Boshoff
jip, sanddrif has two of the finest grade 20s in SA - you'll probably get more value for your time there


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:08 am 
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Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:31 am
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Location: Montagu
Real Name: Justin Lawson
Have to agree, great wall, great climbing, nice swimming in the river (and at Maalgat - which is a 10 minute walk from the campsite) plenty of Trad and other things to do in the area.

Truitjieskraal & Rooiberg are down the road.

See: Sanddrif in the Routes Wiki

Below is the sport wall at Sanddrift - there is also another area with more routes
Image

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 4:01 pm 
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Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2012 11:29 am
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Location: Cape Town
Real Name: Ben Olivier
Stephen, I did this whole exercise two weeks ago and went to stay at rooiberg in the end. I don't have ALL the info right now, but will give you a detailed response wrt to routes tonight if you want it. I will never knock Tony Lourens' books, as they provide much needed info, but I do have to say for the sport routes, only 3/4 pages of that enitre book gives you detail of what you need to know, plus the map page, it covers a LOT of trad routes. Send me a pm with your phone number and I'll help you on the phone, having just been there and doing sport only up to 19's.

Nic and Justin's advice is good, you can follow that. Lemme give you this so long...

De Pakhuys: awesome campsite and Thys will help you with advice, however, for a long weekend, it is too much driving for the sport climbs at Truitjies, Rooiberg and Sanddrift (and don't think about the shortcut over Wupperthal to that side is quick, being such a short distance, you need a 4x4 and more than a few hours to get from Pakhuys to Truitjies ;) )

You can camp at the following places which will all have you within 15 minutes of a location with the sport routes you want to be doing:
Rooiberg: Amazing hosts, great camping, electricity, nice toilets. get the permits there, and if not, Louise will tell you in more than enough detail where to stop. Rooiberg sport routes are right next to the farm - walking distance (unless the river is high, but then they will sort you out to get around the river), 10 min from Truitjieskraal, 20 min from Sanddrift.
Kromrivier: also great hosts, middle between truitjies and sanddrift. They are working on a new campsite, nice current campsite, no electricity, nice bathrooms and right next to a small river.
Sanddrift: Have never been and cannot provide a recommendation, but a nice campsite apparently, closest to sanddrift crags, furthest away from Rooiberg and truitjies than the other two.

Permits for truitjies and rooiberg you get at the campsites. Wild card will get you in for free at the cape nature sites if you have a national one. But probably just for the weekend it,s not worthit. Everything except wolfberg arch is about R25 per person.

When there I suggest a hiking day, hike up to wolfberg arch. You can include the wolfberg cracks en route and make it a 7.5 hr hike, or go round the back end and hike up to the arch itself. Also go see the maltese poodle, stadsaal and lot's wife. That is two separate days of hiking tho.

Oh and which way around are you driving up? N1 through Ceres has got a few roadworks and stop and go's but will still be quicker to get to rooiberg, kromrivier and sanddrift than going N7 with the roadworks after citrusdal. If it rains a lot, check with the locals about the river crossings as well.

I can't pm you for some reason, but give me a call and I'll give you more info. 082 897 9691

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 4:26 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:40 am
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Location: Stellenbosch
Real Name: Nic Le Maitre
Funguye wrote:
Also go see the maltese poodle


LOL

Maltese Poodle:
Attachment:
full.jpg
full.jpg [ 103.64 KiB | Viewed 553 times ]


Maltese Cross:
Attachment:
D1_CEDARBERG AND WEST COAST_MALTESE CROSS.jpg
D1_CEDARBERG AND WEST COAST_MALTESE CROSS.jpg [ 29.33 KiB | Viewed 553 times ]


Climbing one of the former is easy, if you can get it to sit still, the latter is a really nice grade 15/18 trad route

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 4:39 pm 
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Location: Cape Town
Real Name: Ben Olivier
It got redubbed maltese poodle the last weekend I was there, for the same reason I renamed Chocolate Highway and Pipe Nightmare in Montagu...Due to the long term effects of the use of ethanol and ethanol related products, but thanks for translating for the sober amongst us, you're quite handy to have around it seems. :jocolor:

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 4:41 pm 
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Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2012 11:29 am
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Real Name: Ben Olivier
Wait what? Is that a 3 legged poodle?

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:10 pm 
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Location: Stellenbosch
Real Name: Nic Le Maitre
:lol:

Seems it is. It was the first google image search result that came up. Maybe Google Image search applies affirmative action too, just like Woolies

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:48 pm 
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Real Name: Ben Olivier
Ooooh, OH NO HE DIDN'T. Well it is a white poodle, so I don't think so Nic :P

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