Minerva Heights 4 June, 2023
The A Team:
Hettie Randall, Ali Engelbrecht, Amy Jacobs, Darryl Jacobs, Dave Langstone, Iain Kerr, Felicity Kromhout, Mandy Watson, Marlene Conradie and Rebecca Wakeford
The weather forecast had looked bad for Sunday. Our group shrunk from 15 to 10 but our final team of Bravehearts, had cool but dry weather, to explore and enjoy this unspoilt mistbelt forest at ENON.
The trail had not been used for 10 years so it was a jungle. The path had been cleared for us by the staff and goodness me, what an incredible job they made of it. They had even cut steps in sections where the incline was severe, to help us to negotiate it.
We started a gradual climb along the forest road to the start of the Woodcutter’s/Waterfall Trails into the indigenous forest. We had a 4km pull to the top. Our smart apps recording a total ascent for the day of 744m and distance at 18kms!! (This did, to be honest, include a bit of backtracking where our danger tape markings had been inadvertently removed by harvesting staff and I took a wrong path!) I think we should have been closer to a total of 500m for the day over 15/6 kms.
Everything was freshly cut and the smells from the undergrowth was heady and delicious. Through arches of twisted vines hanging from the canopy above, around huge trees, clearly eons old, some with very interesting markings and bark, beautiful “knobblies”, all worth a stop and see, we slowly wound our way to the top of the krantz. Bubbling streams crisscrossed our path with crystal clear water, refreshingly cold. We followed the Waterfall Trail which took us to a lovely waterfall with water gushing down and disappearing into the green foliage below.
Once at the top, we stood quietly taking in the breathtaking views. We had mist in the valleys below which seemed to add to the expansive vastness all around us, with the berg peaks visible in the background. A photo session was taken from a viewpoint decorated by Aloes as we looked down into the Byrne Valley with the old historical Byrne Valley House at the bottom.
We had lunch at Picnic Rocks, an outcrop of boulders, feeling very triumphant at having climbed up the gorge from the valley floor now far, far away.
The mist started turning ominous as it was being pushed up the valley by a brisk cold wind. We cut lunch short and headed out over the Minerva grasslands. So nice to see natural grasses. With the views holding and the mist turning direction, we even had patches of sunshine, we basked in the beauty around us. A lovely flat walk after the strenuous start.
The path crossed the ENON dam and headed us towards the decline back through the forest until we joined in on the Woodcutter’s Trail again and back to the cars.
