VE Berg trip

caught out Stijn! You never know if the next person you bump into is on this forum. There were a couple other members out in the Monks Cowl area this weekend other than us.

Frik Lemmer has extended his thanks too for the efforts. We briefly discussed the bad infestations in Wonder Valley and the Sterkspruit Valley below Htlatikhulu Neck on the phone yesterday. He is applying for assistance from the government, since this will require a lot of labour. Once they have done that, we can assist by going into those areas and tackling the left-over trees that are close to cliffs and on very steep ground (where rope-work may be needed etc). And on-goingly, our role can be to tackle pines in the remoter areas, and rogue pines with difficult access.

There are 4 pines left in the KBC area that we know of - so anyone heading up there could assist. There is also one very close to the path below Amphlett, when we saw it we had totally run out of time.

We can look at doing another VE trip later in the year. Suggestions for the venue are welcome. My suggestion would be Cathedral Peak. If we have many participants we could tackle the Thuthumi Valley since we'll need lots of hands there, and if its a smaller group we could cover the Xeni/Cockade/Tseke area.

@ Digz Maybe we can find some canidates for removal at Injasuthi over Easter Weekend!!!! Have been scouring all my previous "landcape" photos of the area for locations.

Thanks zen, those videos really capture the trip well.

We all agree that ClimbyKel is very skilled at river-crossing. What escaped filming is another spectacular fall which necessitated me jumping into the river with long pants and boots on to help her, and zen and me running downstream to recover her hiking poles!

@ST: besides the size of some of the trees, the other issue with cutting them down is that they often don't allow you much room to move out of the way, so it can be dangerous.

@ST

KZN Wildlife needs to see these video clips.

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We have seen them, and as Intrepid pointed out, we are looking for financial assistance from the Govt to get these cleared, but it is a slow corner to turn (judging by the budget speech...). We will continue to hammer away at it, but all the assistance from other groups is massively appreciated.

@Zen: Awesome video! Makes me doubly bleak that I had to pull out at the last moment!

To the other guys who went, Climby, Intrepid, Wendy, Diverian (and you Zen), well done! Wish I could have been there with you! Definitely next time, and no amount of work to be done is going to hold me back!

I have created two albums which I'll be adding to more over the next few days, and to which everyone is encouraged to contribute.

VE Trip March 2011 is for pictures from the VE trip

Pine Trees is for collecting pictures of pines in the Berg. Will be used as a database to plan for future trips, as well as to monitor progress at sites where trees have been ring-barked or cut-down. When uploading pictures to this album, whenever possible, please supply exact details on the location of the trees in the image description, and even GPS co-ordinates.