Time for another glimpse of the Cederberg Landscape. You can see from the angle of the stratification of the distant mountain that there's been a bit of a geological upheaval in times past.....I can also see how much further there was to walk that day. You may be able to make out the track snaking towards the big copse of trees in the centre, and also further in the distance, more towards the right of the picture; our eventual destination was in the valley between the low rise beyond that and the much bigger slope which rises towards the top right of the picture: still quite a way to go, to put it mildly. 

It strikes me that the recent bout of pictures could give the misleading impression that the trek was some sort of picnic, which for the vast majority of us, particularly an old-timer such as me, it most certainly wasn't: over a quarter of the participants missed out at least one of the days. This young lady developed a serious knee problem, though she tried hard not to give in: the expression on her face says it all, a feeling that I well sympathised with. See the gap between the peaks at the top of the picture? We'd come down from there (having already climbed the same height from the other side): a slow descent down a very narrow rocky path with irregular 'steps' and steep pebbly slopes; absolute torture even for good knees.....

(Just to emphasise how far away the pass was, the little patch of green and grey just below the leftmost twig is actually a copse of full-sized conifers.)

I took well over a thousand in all, t-p, so yes, there may be a few more to add to the thread yet.

Here's a picture which I'm not particularly proud of, but it does show just how difficult some of the climb up was before the descent shown above: these are the Woolfberg Cracks, fissures through the cliff-face, narrow and blocked with boulders, some of which were huge - the size of a small van or so, like the one towards the top left of the picture: not at all easy to negotiate. The big camera was stowed in my day sack, not just for safety but also to allow maximum freedom for awkward climbing, but I always carry a smaller one in a pocket as well, and whilst we were struggling up this particular defile and the queue was backing up, I used that one to snap a shot as best I could to give some sort of impression of what it was like.

Here's another shot of the formation known as the "Maltese Cross". Mr Dough breaking every rule in the book here by shooting straight into the sun: he had a hunch it might give a rather good effect, though.

Just to interupt the flow of the thread for a while, I'd just like to return to the charities that so many of you have helped me to support. My rather fraught and very delayed trip to London yesterday (very kindly funded by the communications firm who occasionally employ me and who organised the trek in the first place) was intended to give those of us who had raised funds an opportunity actually to experience the work of the charities at first hand. Unfortunately the train down from Edinburgh was severely delayed and arrived over two and a quarter hours late, and not only did I miss the visit to Treehouse completely, but also arrived at Get Connected after everyone else had left to go to the third trek-related visit of the day.

The people at Get Connected were very obliging, however, and spent quite a while explaining exactly what they were doing and then let me listen-in on a call in progress. To refresh the memories of those who have heard this before, and to explain from the start for newcomers, Get Connected is a phone service aimed specifically at helping youngsters from the UK up to the age of 25 sort out problems: it's not an advice line as such, indeed the phenomenally gifted and dedicated staff are trained specifically to maintain an unemotional but friendly distance. What they do offer is the ability to put callers in touch with exactly the people who can help them best, be it their local social services or a national advice service such as the Samaritans, those dealing with abuse, rape or bullying, or perhaps someone who can finding them accomodation if they've run away from home or have been kicked out; they have a database of several thousand organisations and will gently lead the caller towards the most likely choice and if they so wish act as a bridge between them and the organisation of choice to spare them the pain of reliving the whole trauma over again. Very importantly all calls from home phones or mobiles are free, the cost being met by the parent organisation; this means that a child can phone from home without the fear of anyone else in the household being aware of that the call was made: it won't show up on the bill.

 I sat in on part of the most harrowing call from a very fraught teenager who had become trapped in a horrible situation, and was stunned by how amazingly well the operator allowed space but made sure that every decision of what to do and where to go was sanctioned by the caller. It strikes me that any of you who work with young people in schools and universities might find it useful to ensure that GC's contact details are easily available to all:

http://www.getconnected.org/home

 There were certainly times in my school and university days when the availability of such a service might have helped me considerably. Recently they've been looking at how they can help young asylum seekers: this means that they also now have access to interpreters, too, so that coversations become necessarily three- or even four-way. In this increasingly complex world where the pressures on the young grow ever more demanding year by year, and the bridge of understanding between the generations becomes increasingly difficult to cross, such an organisation is no longer a luxury but an everyday necessity. Thank you again for helping me to help them help others.

Ron