Arangieskop 2010 0 Unnamed road 7:08 12-NOV-2010 19:11:00 The Chris picked us up at about 5:30 and although Riana left our printed map at home, she guided us to Arangieskop (near Robertson) by brainpower alone (after we showed her which way "left" is). According to the GPS we reached a Unnamed road at 7:08 and in front of us we saw a very big kop glistering... in fact, Arangieskop was more of a mountain! Pottie and Linke was already at the hut, searching for the key. After a drive back to a spot with cellphone reception they inquired that the key was in the safe next to the braai area. The night we braai-ed for about 4 hours straight as the hikers arrived. We went to bed early-ish and during the night there were snoring, re-allocation of people and Linke scaring me in total darkness when, in stead of my head-light, I found a human head (her's) right next to our bed at 3am in the morning! Scary stuff... 0 Up and up and up (for 9km) 13-NOV-2010 08:06:20 We started our hike up Arangieskop just after 8am. It is really a very beautiful route with a lot of proteas & Cape fynbos. It is also really steep and tiresome, but we survived... Riana almost did not make the first hill, but thereafter she got her second wind and we had to hold her back... :) 0 The hut on the hill 13-NOV-2010 13:54:38 We reached the beautiful stone hut, our base-camp before summiting the next morning, at about 14:00. I was surprised at how fancy the hut was... it had electricity, double bunk beds and even warm water if you made some fire under the "donkie." Most of us did not wait for the "donkie" to warm up and we had refreshing cold showers. At about 5pm a tractor came up from the Koo valley side (not the Robertson side were we came from) and brought a number of tourists that disturbed our peaceful period of chillaxing. They walked into our house and even snooped around in our bedrooms upstairs... not cool. Luckily they did not stay long and soon after they left we started a game of Hackysack! It was a lot of fun, but also dangerous with Ileana targeting Pottie and not the hackysack (we would only learn the next day where she got the training for her lethal round-house kicks). After Jaco Mmmm kicked the hacky a record distance of 50m into the field, the hacky game was stopped due bad light (and bad behaviour). We then had another braai and got to bed at around 11pm. And again, some substantial snoring & giggling... (lucky no scaring or scarring). 0 To infinity... 14-NOV-2010 08:49:33 We started just after 8am the morning and reached the top of Arangieskop at 8:49! What an awesome view! 0 And beyond... (below) 14-NOV-2010 09:22:23 For the decent the hike was in some way broken down into various groups of people. In front, we formed a group of 5 formidable hikers: Riana & I, The Chris, Jaco Mmm and Ileana. The tail was bought in by the very patient Pottie... After about 5 minutes of down-hill and a story about the Boland 90, Ileana was promoted to leader of the pac (30-seconds term) of the five formidable (semi-crazy) hikers in front. Firstly we followed because of admiration, then because of respect and even some fear. We became aware of the fact that Illeana actually dated and dumped (i.e. broke the heart) of Chuck Norris! Her other ex-boyfriends are dead and some of her admirers created a website called, www.wewalkedwithilleanaandlived.com (this website was bought and secretly has been disposed of by Google). We also heard the Chuck Norris now wears the only boxer with Ileana's face on ever made! Yes, we were in the presence of giants! The group of five can be seen on the Movember photo... note that our mo's are made from the stuff that grows in Ileana's nose! 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0