Magaliesberg day hikes

Just bumping this back up to the top to see if I'll get any responses

Hello John Mark 1

That is a fairly long day out, I guess about 5-6 hours of moving time.

At the point where Upper Tonquani kloof narrows to "become Lower Tonquani", you get the help-help pool. It is a 5m jump. Or, a tricky scramble - the hard bit is rather high up, so it is probably better to do the std jump instead if you are worried about falling.

After that, it is easy enough to get all the way down Lower Tonquani, although there are several mandatory wades.

If you are scared of the jump or are going to slow, you can exit via High Gully and head back to the top end of Cedarberg Kloof and back home that way.

Sounds like a fun trip, enjoy

Cool, thanks Andrew. Last question, is there anything to watch out for in terms of the jump. I have no issue jumping and have done a lot of jumps higher than 5m, just by principle I never jump into a pool that I haven't tested first for depth or watched someone else jump into first to check they don't land on hidden underwater rocks

None of us have been to this kloof before and seeing as I've organized this hike, the onus to jump first may well land up on me Don't want to land up jumping at the wrong point and breaking a leg!

Thanks Intrepid.

Yes, we are camping at MSP, so a very early start can definitely be on the cards as well as a late finish.

Cool, if you don't hear any feedback, its probably cause I jumped into the incorrect (shallow) pool

This past long weekend my mate and I camped at MSP. Upon arrival, we met an older gent in the office who didn't look too pleased to see us. He told me that if I want to get into cedarberg kloof, I should walk to the twins rock formation and then enter the kloof where it begins there. When I asked him about the ceidarberg campsite and gully at that campsite for accessing the kloof, he told me he has never been able to find that, despite looking for it last week.

Either he was deliberately telling me nonsense or he really doesn't know his turf at all. On Saturday, we left MSP at 07:30 ish and within 30 minutes were inside Cedarburg kloof thanks to Intrepid's very accurate and detailed instructions a few posts above. We went down Cedarberg, turned right at the junction and decided to continue going up Tonquani. Upon reaching help help pools, we climbed up the side by means of the traverse. It isn't that difficult, the only thing that plays with your head is that there is about a 4m drop off beneath you. My friend who has never kloofed or climbed before, was a bit freaked out, but climbed it nonetheless. I definitely wouldn't take my mom there, but if you are okay to jump 5m, then you should be able to do the scramble as well. In case anyone else ever wonders about the depth of the help help pool, it is definitely deep enough to jump into and it is also the only place in the Tonquani kloof where there is a 5m drop off, so it's pretty obvious when you get there. The jump is definitely easier than the scramble on the side imo.

We exited Tonquani at short gulley (kitchen corner gulley) and then shot along the top to where Boulder kloof makes a 90 degrees bend. It's an easy scramble down into the kloof there. There's nothing too much exciting in Boulder kloof. Upon reaching the junction, we headed down stream all the way through lower Tonquani and exited by the big pool at the end of the kloof from where we arrived back at camp about 3pm.

We had a lot of breaks, so this could have been done a fair bit faster. The navigation isn't difficult and if you follow the directions given earlier in this thread, you can't really go wrong.

It is possible to not get wet at all in Cederberg kloof, however, Tonquani has many compulsory waids, so you will definitely get wet in that kloof.

All in all a great day out and many thanks to all the replies to my questions in this thread! If you live in Pretoria or Joberg area and haven't visited these kloofs, it's a definite must!