Fynbos Wonderland Trail #1: Hackers Triumph!
Depending on the route/s chosen, this up to 13-cache trail will take you on a beautiful, bounteous, botanical journey which can include the 303m Else (Elsie’s) Peak and the whole Brakkloofrant ridge passing its 305m summit en route. See maps and waypoints for the various possible routes.
For the approx. 3-4 hour 5.9km 11-cache (+ 4 pre-existing SawaSawa caches) point-to-point version you will need to leave a car at each end (Golconda Rd, Glencairn Heights and Risi Rd, Risiview).
Single-car routes are also possible:
- a 4-hour 6.3km 9-cache version going from the Glencairn Heights trailhead via Else Peak and on as far as the Brakkloofrant beacon, then back or
- a 2-hour 3km 5-cache Else Peak circuit.
The two caches (#12 and #13) not passed in the point-to-point route will be added later and can be done as a short one-off there-and-back walk from the Glencairn Heights trailhead.
The usual access to/exit from the NW end of the trail above Risiview - previously an unfenced, open access path - is now through a locked gate. Call 086 102 1911 to arrange for the local security patrol to come and open it for you. There will obviously be a - hopefully short - delay before this happens.
To avoid this, you can access the trail by parking at the side of the Glencairn ExpressWay @ S 34 8.015 E 18 23.724 and following the firebreak around the edge of the adjacent gated housing development to join the trail heading up @ S 34 8.018 E 18 24.025. This will add 300m to the trail.
Map of the Eastern (Else Peak) part of the trail
Map of the Western part of the trail
Maps Key: P=Parking J=Junction #=Cache
The 1st cache in the series, a small camo-taped tablet pot, is hidden along the trail heading up to the peak.
To Find the Cache: clicking on the image at the top of the page will take you to a jigsaw puzzle, completion of which will reveal the coordinates – and a helpful hint!
Please note that although the link through the image is from a well-known source, it has 'not been checked by Groundspeak nor by the reviewer for possible malicious content and access to the site is therefore at your own risk'.
To Reach the Cache Location: park at S 34 9.053 E 18 25.761 the parking area at the trailhead at the top of Golconda Road in Glencairn Heights. Noting the jeep track on your left which – if you are on a single-car mission and unless you do the trail in reverse! - will be at the end of the return leg, follow the trail ahead up to the cache location.
This has been increasingly recognised as one of the finest fynbos areas in the Cape Peninsula and provides a great botanical and recreational reward for relatively little effort. As a bonus there are stunning views throughout most of the trail. It well deserves its 5* rating in several reviews of trails around Cape Town and all or parts of the trail are included in several guide books on the best trails in the south peninsula
‘With outstanding 360-degree vistas, gorgeous fynbos and the possibility of sighting whales and dolphins in False Bay this easy, dog-friendly walk up the distinctive little peak between Fish Hoek and Glencairn is one of the best reward-for-effort hikes on the Peninsula. The trail is particularly outstanding in spring when the flowers are at their best. Since it’s only half an hour from the summit back to your car, it makes an excellent sundowner walk’.
Another states . . . ‘to see a wonderful example of fynbos triumphing over alien invades, take this short easy hike with a pleasant view’ and . . . ‘at the start you were surrounded by alien shrub, but this soon gives way to a superb variety of fynbos’. This is only due to the dedicated, prolonged and continuing voluntary work of some serious hackers . . .
The start of the Cape Times, the architect Herbert Baker, the ‘Desert Rats’ of WW2 and the chief gardener at Admiralty House are some fascinating connections with the wonderfully-named Charles Stratford St Leger Searle, the 1976 founder of the Fish Hoek Alien Vegetation Control Group, locally called the Fish Hoek Mountain Weeders, then a retired district forest officer.
The group officially closed at the end of 2015 after almost 50 years of clearing the previously alien-infested Elsies Peak and surrounds, but former members still go up the mountain for pleasure – loppers in hand – to continue this vital work, with results clear for all to see and admire.
The Cape Times connection comes from his maternal grandfather, Frederick York St Leger, its founder, 1st editor and chairman of the board. His father was equally distinguished Sir Malcolm William Searle, a lawyer elected Judge-President of the Cape Provincial Division of the SA Supreme Court in 1922 and knighted in 1923 (see photo left).
Charles chose a very different career from that of either of these two men. He was a conservator of forests, instilling in others his love of the wilderness and involving many in the fight against the spread of alien vegetation.
He was born in 1905 and grew up in Highlands, a Herbert Baker house in Tennant Road, Wynberg. His father also owned St James landmark Spray Cottage in Main Road. He and his 5 siblings developed a very early love of the southern Peninsula and together with his 3 older brothers, all members of the 1st Kenilworth Scout Troop, explored the Kalk Bay caves, roved the mountains and went on camping expeditions.
He spent 6 years at university in England studying zoology and botany, gaining 2 BA degrees, one from Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1926, and the other from Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1929. His subsequent career took him all around South Africa.
He joined the army at the outbreak of WW2. He was in the engineers as a surveyor, in his time in North Africa, seconded to the British 8th Army, also known as the ‘Desert Rats’. They were renowned as the first to turn the tide of the war against the Axis forces as well as having the longest fighting record during the war. He saw some hard action which left him with bad shell shock.
He was recalled to salvage the forest industry and was based in Pietermaritzburg, then Kokstad when the war ended. Later he moved to Stutterheim, Elgin and King Williamstown.
His daughters still recall the walks that, with such pleasure, they took up the mountains with their father . . . ‘Often he used a little white lie to entice us up the mountain, and declared to one of them that as she had such sharp eyes, he needed her to accompany him up Elsies Peak as he had mislaid his watch there the day before. Sure enough, she found the missing watch, which was suspiciously hidden rather too well under a bush!’
He had an active retirement first living in Great Brak River and George, where he continued to be involved in forestry. Nature conservation continued to absorb his retirement years when he moved first to Stellenbosch, then to his final family home in Fish Hoek.
Admiralty House, Simon’s Town, needed a chief gardener and Charles was appointed in the 1970s, while his wife Joy helped with the flower arrangements. In 1976 he founded the Fish Hoek Alien Vegetation Control Group with 6 members.
Eventually there were 9 grandchildren, and one daughter recalled that during the December school holidays they were obliged to give up at least one day to go hacking with their granddad on Elsies Peak. The days were usually windless and hot, with the cool blue waters of Fish Hoek Bay glistening below tempting the teenage hackers. Granddad would teach them the Latin names of all the species of plants and birds, which mostly fell on deaf ears!
In 1985 he received a citation from the Rotary Club for Alien Vegetation Control as a Custodian of the Historical Society. He died at Carlisle Lodge in 1986 and his ashes were scattered on Elsie’s Peak. An exhibition of his efforts can be seen in the Fish Hoek Valley Museum.
See here for a cinematic drone video of Else Peak.
