Nooitgedacht Hiking Excursion

Date: Saturday, 2 November 2024
Pickup Point: Pick ‘n Pay, Galeshewe
CLICK HERE for a Map of the Trail Locations.
 
BACKGROUND
The trail is named after the Glacial Pavements found between Kimberley and Barkly West at Farm Nooitgedacht. Nooitgedacht Glacial Pavements comprised of geological feature pertaining to the Palaeozoic-age Dwyka Ice Age, or Karoo Ice Age, (some 300 million years ago) where the glacially scoured (smoothed and striated) ancient bedrock (re-exposed by erosion) was used, substantially more recently, during the Later Stone Age period in the late Holocene as panels for rock engravings.
 
SHORT DESCRIPTION OF TRAIL
This is a nice 16km trail, fairly easy for beginners. It starts off from the R31 road onto gravel road which leads up through plantation lands ending on the banks of the Vaal River in Farm Droogfontein.
 
DETAIL DESCRIPTION OF TRAIL
The trail starts on the pleasantly flat gravel road right at the intersection from the R31 road through the farms with an unnoticeable steep as you reach about 800m. As you walk you will note some curves until a point where you reach a sharp curve with a sharp dip where you will see the Vaal River in the background.
 
As you descend you will reach Nooitgedacht Glacial Pavements at about 6km from starting point. We will continue to descend and slightly climb as we take a curve next to a hill (possible siting of Baboons) and the road surface will be clay leading to sandy soil as we approach Mike Hall Farm. Along this section the forest will become dense and as we continue, plantation land will be visible on both sides until we pass Malu Pork (De Hoop).
 
Through the sandy road we will reach a rail crossing which we will cross and after a few meters turn left into Farm Droogfontein. Along the section we will be in the forest and the trail will lead us to the banks of the Vaal River and we will continue upstream for about 3km until we reach the river drift.
 
POINTS
At the Nooitgedacht Glacial Pavements, we will be able to relax, take pics and hydrate.
Once we reach Vaal River Drift, we will setup our camping chairs, take out our cooler bags, have some lite lunch and dip ourselves in the rock pools with some music.
 

 

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