and back again, with its many twists and turns along Bertsberg and the Shurrfteberg to Castle Rocks. The ascent to the top hut on Waaihoek, which belongs to the University of Cape Town,takes three or four hours If the going is good. This we ascended at night to avoid the heat of the day, as at that particular time the Cape was experiencing a very hot spell. It was hard to believe that the hu is really a skiing base, and in winter the surrounding coustry is blanketed with snow. We left the comfortable Waaihoek hut the following morning after enjoying a sound night's sleep. This was no ordinary kloofing expedition, as 14 pools of between 100 and 500 feet in length have to be negotiated, and to climb round them Is impossible. A li-lo was used to ferry the packs across, and very often they were pulled out sopping wet the other side. There are some magnificent waterfalls of at least 100 ft. which were encoun tered near the top of the kloof. Scrambling rather than serious rock climbing was required in each case, but heavy packs and an appreciable drop made caution necessary. Just below the waterfall we encountered clumps of the rare Red Disa. the beautiful orchid which is the emblem of the Mountain Club of South Africa, and seeing one is a very envied experience. As darkness approached we found a suitable place for the night, and after bathing our weary limbs in a pool nearby we enjoyed a pod meal. I think all of us were only too pleased to crawl into our sleeping bags and doze oft witn thousands of bright stars shining on us. At the beginning of the second day we entered the remarkable "tunnel section" of the kloof. Here the parallel rock walls vvhich confin^e the stream s approach to within 10 ft. of each other and nearly touch about 200 ft. overhead. In the thin slit of daylight above, huge boulders are jammed in a wild, ehaotic fashion. In the gloom at the bottom of this chasm the water flows eerily through pools of fahtastic depth. Our clothing consisted of pants and boots as wading was oftp easier than crashing through the bush on the sides of the river. We saw a lot of trout in the river that idly swam away as we approached. The amazing thing about the kloof is that we had no idea where we were because the kloof is so deep that we could not see any landmarks, and not until we saw the mighty Castle Rocks looming upwards did we know where we were. We took three days to descend the kloof and I feel it would be better to take even longer if one had the time, to appreciate the beautiful surroundings. We then established our base camp for the Castle Rocks climb about 20 minutes up the Witch's Kloof. This is the most convenient place for an attempt at the Rocks Here we were joined by two additional members of our party. We were intending to climb Castle Rocks central turret which Is a fyine rock face! It was stated in the 1931 Mountain Club Journal by a well-known climber who tried to open up the Central Turret,"the Central broadest of the three and will never be ascended by human efforts, ai^ think everyone pays due credit to those who opened the climb,for a wonderful piece of route finding. We all had a good meal that night knowing that the following day we would go withoutfood and water,except for the small amount offood we were to carry. After a substantial breakfast we set off at six, equipped with ropes, slings, and some raisins to eat during the climb. We reached the k about8 o'clock, and after regaining our breath started the real climb. The tirst pitch has a somewhat sinister appearance since old climbing ropes hang eerily over the rock face. They were left by a party who were caught in a o'lzMrd and forced to desist, all their ropes jamming. They are rotten now, as m those days hemp ropes were used and not nylon as nowadays. 235
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