Giants hike report

Pleasure ST. And yes, Baneermans hut was clean and well kept. Grass should be cut before winter veldfires though......
The spider was about 9cm diameter, we were'nt going to pick him up, but moved him away from the path carefully with my stick.

Excellent idea Intrepid.

Yes that will be a great one-stop place for the desperate souls like me
living in England,constantly pining for the Berg and making things worse
by reading these excellent Hike Reports!

Thanks to all of you who have put the effort into your reports
and continue to improve the standard of a truly outstanding forum!

I also think it wld be a good idea. Wow that is a big spider.

The arachnid looked like a baboon spider, and so it was.

I also found a spider man who was able to give it a proper id.

The scientific name for your spider is Harpactira curator (Common name: Malvern starburst baboon spider), and looking at the general physical structure, it looks like an adult male. It's generally the adult males that are seen anyway, because they leave their burrows, and search for females to mate with. Females tend to live a solitary existence inside their burrows, or under rocks.
This species has quite a large distribution, but seem to be fairly restricted to the Kwazulu Natal province.