Rock climbing day in Cedarberg Kloof

The day after our kloofing adventure we managed to put together a day of rock climbing.  The Magaliesberg Mountains near the Rigging for Rescue training location have some of the best rock climbing in the Joburg vicinity.  Really nice quartzite.  It would have been criminal to leave without getting our hands on the stone.

A couple of the Rigging for Rescue participants were kind enough to loan us ropes, a rack, and rigging equipment for the day.  We tied Swiss Seat harnesses on the kids.  Joanie and I already had our rock shoes and harnesses ready to roll. We had sent those to ourselves in Cape Town in hopes of getting in some rock climbing during our stay in South Africa.

The day turned out to be magical. The kids all did really well on the climbing. We rigged two different lines with varying difficulty so that everyone could have fun.  We had the crag to ourselves and it was just amazing to pause and reflect during that day and pinch ourselves…here we are, rock climbing in Africa…how cool is that?

It’s funny, but despite the week being a “work” week, I think I will reflect on it as one of the best weeks of the South African segment. We met some new friends, saw old friends from 2010, turned some very keen people on to Rigging for Rescue, did some activities that we either would not have known about (kloofing) or could not have pulled off without loaner gear (rock climbing), and had the cultural experience of hanging with locals.  It was awesome. 

Mike

A few days ago, the Gibbs family went climbing in the Cedarberg Kloof in the Magaliesberg Mountains north of Joburg. I was really excited because we hadn’t gone climbing in FOREVER!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, the easier climb was called Lunch Box. Even though it was the easier one, there were still many difficult aspects to the climb. One of which was the start of the climb: to get to the rock, you had to clamber over a tree growing out of the mountain. There were also many box-like sections with minimal holds that were also pretty hard. Everyone summited the Lunch Box and then came the challenge: Dom’s Party.

We all looked up to the top as it ominously stooped over us. My father was the first one brave enough to tackle the climb. It proved easy enough for him. The next challenger was none other than the rock solid Rock Gibbs! This time, the climb was lucky enough to prevail. Judging by Rock’s size, that wasn’t too much of a surprise. I was the next contestant. It was very hard. At least for me. It involved a lot of pull-ups and cramming elbows into tight spaces but I made it up in the end :D. I was really sore the next day. It was definitely an awesome day of rock climbing! 

Mackenzie