Trail near Montague

Towards the end of last month Caretha and I decided that we both needed a week-end away. I got onto the internet and started to search out a camp site that was close to Cape Town, pet friendly and with a 4x4 trail. The result of the search was a place called Badenfontien just outside Montague. A quick phone call backed up by an email and we were in.

We left Cape Town at lunch time on 29th April arriving later in the afternoon. A lovely quiet camp site and we were the only people there! Camp was set up in a matter of minutes (we are getting this down to an art now). The site is marked out with 12 camp/caravan sites some with power and others with shade, we had the pick of the best, shade and power! The ablution block is an old rondawel converted to 2 (family) shower/toilet combinations and 2 separate showers and toilets.

A lazy start the next morning, why get up early if there is no need to! Then we decided to have a go at the 16 km 4x4 trail, leaving the camp at 09:45 had lunch on-route and came off the trail at 13:30. As this is not a circular route we now had to go back to the camp through Montague, a round trip of 44 km.

The trail starts out with a steep climb with loose rocks and some nice tight bends and switch backs to get to the top of the first ridge, a short respite with a wonderful view site and then up again to the next ridge that ends by some Telkom/radio towers. It took us about an hour plus to get to the top of the ridge at about 990 meters. The track now went through farmland, with plenty of open gates, that had at one time been sheep farms, what they farm now is any-ones guess! We carried on climbing to just over 1040 meters. The top was like an open plain with Proteas and Ericas everywhere. The decent was not as tricky as the assent, but the views were just as spectacular. There is a section that is crying out for a bit of exploration, this is a branch road the goes to some rock formations.

When we asked the farmer on whose farm the camp is situated about the trail he told us that the original owner (who put the trail in) passed away and that the farm was put up for sale, it is now owned by a person from Bredasdorp, unfortunately there is no real upkeep of the trail.