Breadcrumbs
| Toverkop |
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A wild and rewarding wilderness experience. There is a hut half way up, and caves at the base of the peak. Drive Time: 4 hrs 30 mins from Cape Town Coordinates: 33°26'7.13"S 21°12'10.65"E Click here for more information on maps, routes, etc. Access is for MCSA members only. The general rules for huts and club properties can be found here. For more details contact the Swartberg Properties Convenor (see the Contact us page).
THE FOUR SWARTBERG PROPERTIES: Peak Plaats Steenslang Toverkop Waterkloof
HISTORY See 1985 Journal - series of articles on Toverkop Centenary.
LOCATION According to the 1:50 000 trigonometry survey maps the Klein Swartberge are separated, in the east from the Groot Swartberge by Seweweekspoort (the poort not the peak!) and the west, from Anysberg, either by the Buffelsrivierpoort or, a few kilometres further west, by the Prinsrivier, or by the low neck in between. This is the pass on the road between Laingsburg and Ladismith – the route of the old postcart which Travers Jackson and others used in their day to get from Laingsburg station to Ladismith and Toverkop. This area is covered by three 1:50,000 maps, from west to east:- Floriskraal 3320BD Vleiland 3321AC, and Ladismith 3321AD This area boasts six out of the eight highest peaks in the province of the Western Cape, ie for those who accept the political division and whose Western Cape does not end on the top of Helshoogte! These, all over 2,000 metres, are, from east to west:- Seweweekspoort 2325m Steenslang 2232m Hoeko Peak 2141m Peak Wood 2248m Toverkop 2197m and its northern mate on the map Toorkop 2143m In addition, there is also the very worthwhile Elandsberg (2127m) on the maps shown as “Toringberg”, a name completely unknown to the local population. (In the 1906 Journal of the MCSA, Travers Jackson describes an ascent hereof and added:- “The peak was christened Elandsberg”. This peak is not climbed often, but is really worth the effort, with spectacular views of the gorge between it and Toverkop – “a savage place as holy and enchanted as ever beneath a waning moon was haunted…” In the adjacent portion of the Groot Swartberg range, between Seweweekspoort and the Gamka river, are two six thousand footers that are also worthwhile, Bloupunt (1979m) and Blouberg (1880m), the latter appearing on 1:50,000 map Matjiesvlei No. 3321BC). The MCSA owns undivided shares in the properties covering the southern slopes of the six higher peaks mentioned above, ie the properties described as Steenslang, Peak Plaats, Waterkloof and Toverkop. The slopes on the northern side, i.e. the properties Tover Berg, Koudevelds Berg and Seweweeks Poort belong to the State and are under the control of Cape Nature Conservation. More specific information as to routes on the various mountains will be found in numerous articles in the Journals of the MCSA, starting with the G.T.Amphlett article on Toverkop in the Journal of 1899. In fact, very few articles appeared in the Journals on any of the other peaks in the Klein Swartberge. Some of these are the following:- Peak Wood, e.a. Martin Versveld 1939 (38-40) Toverkop-Seweweekspoort Traverse Neville Mason 1951 (54-7) Toverkop-Seweweekspoort Traverse E v d S. Lotz 1958 (77-9) Seweweekspoort Bob Hinings 1959 (72-4) Toverkop-Buffelsrivierpoort Traverse Betty Davies 1968 (56-8) Seweweekspoort, e.a. Colas Coetzee 1987 (25-8)
REGULATIONS
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