Kalk bay trash

[Greg Hart]

The summer has yet again attracted people to sleep at the Kalk Bay crags. Last year was the same story. Today we carted out (yet another) huge bag of trash left by these idiots. In addition they have stocked Blackbeards cave with several dead trees worth of firewood and made a huge fireplace in the cave. The roof of the cave is blackened from the smoke and fresh grafitti adorns the walls. Despite repeated requests from our side Park management have obviously never appointed rangers to patrol this area.

Please if you are climbing there take some time to help, and throw all of the dead trees far down the slope and destroy the fireplace. We only had the time today to pick up the trash. Thanks! Take some photos of yourself doing the work and we will use them to ensure our continued good image in the eyes of park management and maybe put a bit of pressure on them to keep the park in better shape! Thanks.

[Brent]

Hi Greg
As I mentioned to you earlier, I've yet again nagged Parks about it. Even if they do nothing, at least they see us as concerned about the environment. At best, they will hopefully step up patrols in the area, although they have their hands full deploying personnel to cope with the surge in violent crime in the Park (which is, admittedly, more important) around TM.

Just to reiterate Greg's call, please just ditch any firewood you find there, and bounce any rifraff you see. The worst trash I want to encounter when climbing at a crag is lowlife climbers, anyway :-)

Brent

[Grigri]

Ive removed all the firewood and am going there tomorrow with a ladder, brush and water to scrub off grafitti. Its important for us to stay pro-active, to protect the routes from becoming covered in soot, not to mention all the other more serious violations.

[Grigri]

So I took that ladder to Kbay, I figured in my shape that was the only way I was going to get up any of the routes!....no, spent the afternoon scrubbing off grafitti. Quite a schlepp, but the difference is dramatic and the place has a more friendly and natural atmosphere.

[Grigri]

Report back from Parks liason Brent: The park rangers have been active in the Muizenberg/KBay are and have even arrested some people overnighting in the caves! Great to hear that efforts are being made to tackle the situation despite their staff being spread pretty thin on the ground.