Cederberg Hiking

Hi All. Does anybody have any experience in overnight hiking in the Cederberg Wilderness Area ? Will be planning a "tourist" trip there next month to get a better idea, but thereafter would like to get down and dirty and do it properly !

- Recommended 1 / 2 / 3 night routes (ideally circular) ?
- Are Huts freely available / need to be booked in advance / tent always required ?
- Crime situation in the mountains, especially for small groups, (not sure if Rooibos Tea and Boegoe are major smuggling commodities)
- Cape Nature seems firm on limiting numbers - is advance booking necessary,and how efficient are they when it comes to handling bookings etc ?
- Any other need-to-know ?

Thanks in advance !

Last time I hiked there was in my varsity days so unfortunately I can't give you any current advice. A route I can recommend which we are doing over the long weekend next week is to start at Algeria, camp at Crystal Pools on the first night, Spout Cave near the summit of Tafelberg on the 2nd night and then down to Driehoek on the last day. Driehoek is about 10km down the road from Algeria so not quite circular but easy enough to do a car shuffle. Summitting Tafelberg as a side-trip is highly recommended!

You will need to contact SANParks for permits and book in advance for popular periods as they do limit numbers. There are a few huts but they are in a fairly dirty state - i.e. intact but not the most pleasant places to sleep. i.e. Take a tent or plan your route around some of the caves in the area.

Oh and no crime in the mountains as far as I know.

Thanks for the heads up !

I went hiking in the Cederberg 2 weeks ago, with two friends from overseas. Bookings are done through CapeNature. It's best to make the booking over the phone, but they're pretty quick and efficient and will send you all the documentation, permits etc by email. If I remember correctly they issue up to 50 permits per day in each zone (A, B, or C - they can email you a map of the zones). There was still plenty of availability when I booked just 2 weeks before, even though it was for the easter weekend.

As far as routes go I got ideas from Mike Lundy's book "Weekend trails of the Western Cape" which I highly recommend! We started from Eikeboom 14km past Algeria, and hiked up to Sneeuberg hut, where we slept overnight. The plan originally was to hike further and camp near the Maltese Cross, but foul weather made the hut an inviting option. The hut is pretty solid - 3 walls built of stone and a huge boulder as the 4th wall, but none of us slept much that night - rain and wind hammering at the tin roof and wooden shutters, and a leaky roof requiring a couple of bed shuffles during the night! Nevertheless it had quite a rustic, homely feel about it with recently-laid straw and sitting stones, and we all agreed it beat pitching a tent in the rain and icy wind.

The plan for the next day was to summit Sneeuberg, hike to Duiwelsgat and back, and then return to Eikeboom, but again very cold and wet conditions precluded any possibility of a summit, and we made do with a hike to the Maltese Cross and back, and returned to camp under the oaks at Eikeboom - a lovely, sheltered camping spot, we slept like babies in our tent even though the storm continued unabated through the night.

On day 3 (which thankfully was bright and sunny) we drove to Sanddrif and did a day hike to the Wolfberg Cracks and on to the Wolfberg Arch and back. I cannot recommend this highly enough! An amazing walk, with lots of fun scrambling, fantastic rock formations and stunning views.

Because we did a day hike we could get the permit through CapeNature as well, but I believe if you stay overnight at Sanddrif you need to book through the landowners there.

In the first 2 days in the Sneeuberg area we did not see another soul (besides lots of birds and quite a few klipspringers!) and it felt quite remote and wild. I will definitely be returning at some point to complete the planned circuit! Even on day 3 we passed only a handful of people up to the Cracks and no-one at all on the walk to the Arch.

Hope this helps, and have a great trip!

Now I'm itching to go, thanks for the great feedback !