GRADE: E
TIME: 4½ hours.
DISTANCE: 15 km return.
TERRAIN: Undulating path.
The Gorge car park is the starting point. Initially follow the path to The Gorge. After about 30 minutes the path emerges from a forest, and there is a signpost to Devil’s Hoek Valley. A further 10 minutes walk will bring you to, on the right, a large rock with some Bushman paintings. Sadly these have been vandalised in recent years by scratches and graffiti. Damaging rock paintings carries a fine of R500 000, or five years jail, or both.
Continue through a large patch of forest, uphill across an open section, and into another forest. The path ends here. The near-legendary leopard has been encountered here. This valley is said to have a forbidding air, and the local people never venture there. Return the same way. It is possible – hard going – to climb up from beyond the second forest to The Dome, or on the other side to Dooley.
From Thendele camp there is a more direct route to Devil’s Hoek Valley; 30 minutes each way.