Litter at Monks Cowl Reserve

On Sunday I took a small group of first-time hikers up Sterkhorn. I have not been hiking in this area for the past year but it has always been pristine. However, this time I was appalled by the litter and general disregard by day hikers in the area between Breakfast Stream and halfway up Sterkhorn. Chocolate wrappers littered the path in a number of places and the bottom of Sterkhorn was littered with toilet paper!

There were even 2 tents pitched at the base of Sterkhorn right at the river with the occupants still in them (at 9h00 in the morning). On the way down one of these hikers was seen washing himself in the stream with a bar of normal soap - right where hikers fill up their water bottles. When I confronted he said something in German and then casually climbed back into his tent and zipped up the flap. Litter was also lying around their campsite next to a fire which they had made the previous night!

On returning to Monks Cowl Station I reported what I had found but their attitude seemed to be one of "thanks but I can't really do anything about it".

I was really appalled by the lack of regard for this beautiful area. Unfortunately it is very popular among day hikers but I feel that Monks Cowl Office should do more to educate hikers before letting them loose to screw up this area. /rant

The guys at Witsieshoek told us that they collected something like 7 black bags full of rubbish on the chain-ladders path after the easter weekend. The path up past the Sphinx even has rubbish bins, I wish people would just keep that extra 22g of weight and throw it away at the end...

ghaznavid wrote: The path up past the Sphinx even has rubbish bins, I wish people would just keep that extra 22g of weight and throw it away at the end...

If there were bins on that path, we certainly didn't notice them - they are either gone or well hidden. That shouldn't be an excuse anyway - what you take in, you should take out with you.