Stellenbosch Mountain Trail Run

Our trail grading: Red 9C

Distance: 11km

Extremeness: Extremely technical terrain... actually mostly unjogable

Location: Stellenbosch Mountain, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Joggers: Deryck Nel, Wim Morris, Dirk van der Merwe & me

In some way I snoozed my alarm-clock without waking this morning and our jog started 30min later than planned. We started in Brandwacht and jogged part of our regular Paradyskloof Friday route. Dirk joined us for the first 2km of uphill and after this the uphill continued... and continued. 900m of elevation is not easy, especially if you do it in heat of 30+ degrees! 70% up we met a group of people that slept on the mountain overnight and they were kind enough to show us a Disa (a rare flower, see picture 3) that they found. After two grueling hours we reached the top of Stellenbosch mountain at 1200m. After taking a photograph or two Wim shared his Bar One with me and Deryck and we were ready to jog (or hike or fall) down. The route was very technical and steep during descent and a few slips and tumbles were part of the fun. After 10km we reached the well-know wooden cross above Coetzenburg and then picked up the pace to jog down to Wim's house.