I wanted to hike the Genadendal trail for some time now and I was ecstatic when I friend invited me to join. The trail starts at the small town of Genadendal, which is not far from the more well known, Greyton. The Genadendal trail is a two day hiking trail (14 km and 11 km respectively) in the Riviersonderend Conservation area, with overnight accommodation on private property. The Riversonderend mountain range has to be crossed in order to get to the overnight accommodation on De Hoek farm.
We started the hike at the Moravian Mission Church, the oldest mission station in South Africa. It was quite warm for this time of the year (end of July) and the weather forecast looked good for the weekend. The perfect medicine to get rid of the office blues.
The Moravian Mission Station at Genadendal, the starting point for the Genadendal hiking trail
The first part of the hike was quite strenuous and I actually struggled a bit, but I knew I just had to get my stiff legs going. Fortunately this was the most difficult part of the hike, but from here on onwards, it was mostly smooth sailing. While hiking up the mountain and looking back, we saw the town of Genadendal nestled between the surrounding hills. What a view to start off the day!
Looking back towards Genadendal. Up until this point the gradient was steep, but luckily the mountain was more forgiving from here on, onward.
Just before the hike I bought a new lens (Tamron 70-300 mm F4-F5.6 VC). Up until now I only used a wide-angle lens (Nikon 12-24 mm F4), which was great for photographing mountainous scenes, but I missed to capture the more smaller details on hiking trips. I was very excited to try it out and now I could take photos of the beautiful Cape fynbos as well! I fell way behind during the hike, enjoying the mountains, while trying out my new lens.
One of the first photos with the new lens. I just love the back lighting on this rugged and dried out protea. It left me feeling nostalgic of its long forgotten beauty.
The star like form of this flower captured my eye. I used a shallow depth of field to isolate it from its background, directing the focus towards its beauty.
The new lens added a new dimension to my landscape photography. I used my wide-angle lens to capture the grand vistas, but with the new lens I could now isolate parts of a scene. Many times we saw beautiful light falling on the mountains, but the scene was not interesting enough for a wide angle shot. But by zooming in and focusing on just a part of the landscape, I could still capture its beauty. And the new lens was perfect for this!
While ascending the mountain, this illuminated ridge and trees caught my eye.
Only this small part of the mountain was lit up, while the rest was covered in shadows – a perfect chance for zooming in and isolating a subject in a vast landscape
The trail led along deep valleys and beautiful ridgelines. As we neared the top of the climb, the fynbos slopes were suddenly strewn with rocks. It looked as if someone sowed rocks over the landscape. Looking down one of the valleys, we could see its sunlit edge, creating a leading line towards “Uitkykkop” (Lookout Peak), one of the prominent peaks. This illuminated ridge created a beautiful contrast with the folds on the mountain. Unfortunately we were well into the day and the light was not great for photographing landscapes. I would love to take some photos here during better light.
The illuminated sharp ridge on the left-hand side leads the eye down to the peak at the back.
Everyone were looking forward to the first point of interest on the route, called “Wonderklippe” (Rocks of wonder). No one really knew what to look for and we were wondering what it looks like. After a while I started to wonder if we missed it… Or maybe it is called Wonderklippe, since you wonder where it really is? Luckily a sign showed us when we reached Wonderklippe…and all the wondering turned into wonder.
Wonderklippe: We wondered who placed these rocks into such an interesting formation
The trail meandered down the mountain slopes, taking us from the one valley to the next, suddenly changing direction to a new valley we were not aware of. After finding Wonderklippe and with everyone’s wonder being satisfied (or so we thought)… we started to wonder what “Klein Koffiegat” and “Groot Koffiegat” (Small Coffee Pool and Large Coffee Pool) would be. Some of us even wondered if coffee would be served at these pools?
We decided to have lunch at Groot Koffiegat and have a swim. Well, it probably was more a-jump-in-and-out kind of swim! I love swimming, especially in mountain pools, but this was the coldest swim I ever had. After literally running out of the pool, everyone was looking for a spot in the sun, trying to recover lost body heat.
Groot Koffiegat – A beautiful, “ice” coffee coloured mountain pool
After a refreshing lunch, the trail takes you up onto a neck which overlooks the De Hoek valley, where our overnight accommodation was situated. The clouds started to roll in, blocking the sunlight during the golden hour. Initially it was disappointing, but since our overnight hut didn't have any potential photo opportunities, the disappointment started to lift. Instead we enjoyed an evening filled with stories around the camp fire. I fell asleep with frogs singing in the background. Pure bliss!
The next day all was feeling refreshed with a few stiff legs and sore toes. We set off in the wrong direction, but fortunately we hitched a ride on a tractor, which took us to the correct starting point. Like the day before, we started with a steep climb. Luckily our legs were used to it by now. It was still a bit cloudy, but the mountain slopes were filled with yellow colored fynbos.
The hiking trail meandering through yellow colored fynbos.
Upon reaching the highest point for the second day, we were greeted with the same deep valleys and ridges from yesterday. The only difference was that we were now on the other side! The first part of the descent was quite steep, with parts of the trail overgrown. Nevertheless, we still enjoyed the beauty these magnificent mountains had to offer.
The view after reaching the highest point on day 2
After having lunch and overlooking the magnificent Riversonderend mountains, we started the last hike back towards Genadendal. The trail slowly descended downward until it ended in Genadendal.
This red flowering fynbos with the trail leading backwards, created good foreground interest for this knobbly landscape.
What a great spot for lunch, looking out over the magnificent valley of the Genadendal trail.
The Genadendal trail offered many photographic opportunities. Unfortunately the weather and light did not work out this time. However, I discovered a few magnificent scenes for landscape photography and I will come back for more.
From a hiking the perspective, the Genadenadal hike is perfect: beautiful sceneries; ice cold swimming pools; meandering trails; deep valleys to discover; making new friends and strengthening old bonds. One however has to have a moderate level of fitness and should be able to carry your own backpack up and down these mountains. I really enjoyed myself and would definitely recommend it to any avid hiker.
And after completing the Genadendal trail, I don’t wonder anymore, I only stand in wonder…
I would love to hear your comments about this blog post. Have you done this hiking route and what were your thoughts on it?
