IN THIS ISSUE :   From the Chair;  Welcome;  AGM Reminder;  Wildways Adventures – Session 4 Course at Highmoor – Navigation with Restricted Visibility Conditions;   

 FROM THE CHAIR                                                                                                                     Dave Sclanders

 

I have had to do my report a bit earlier than previously due to some of your committee being away for the next few weeks, and the Newsletter needed to be done early. So news will be a bit limited, except of course for very important matters.

1.                                                                                                          For those of you who may want to go to Injesuthi camp and stay or hike, there is   a NEW TELEPHONE NUMBER for the camp , this is  036 4319000,

2.                                                                                                          the New fax number is  036 4319001

 

Points that seem to be forgotten sometimes

 

3.               Paying  for hiking accommodation  “up front”. As you all know, for some of our week end events, leaders have to book early, and in cases put the booking fee up front with the booking.  In some cases the fee is reduced if numbers are high enough. So if a leader requires up front money with your booking, bookings will only be confirmed once the leader has your money, not before . So if you book early by phone, and then delay in paying, you could stand the chance of loosing that hike, or the type of accommodation that you may have discussed with the leader earlier. FIRST MONEY, FIRST SERVED –   Then once you have paid, the hike is yours, if for any reason you cannot make the hike, DON”T EXPECT TO GET YOUR MONEY BACK  FROM THE LEADER or THE CLUB – unless you can find someone to take your place, or the leader may have some extra people who now want to do the trip, but were late in booking, or paying.      Then the people who take your place MUST pay you., the club will not reimburse you , because that cost the leader his own money to refund you. Leaders are not a banking organization.      

4.               Also, please don’t wait till too close to the hike date, then put money in the leaders account, then let him know a bit later that you have deposited this money for such & such a hike. If the hike is already filled, then again,  the leader must refund you , this takes more of his time,  effort , and money,

5.               Just remember , for a leader to organize a hike where money must be paid up front, and where a lot of hikers are booked, there is a lot of time effort, money, telephone calls done on the leaders part to get “it all together”, the more the leader is messed about, the less attractive it is for them to get involved with exotic destinations.

6.               Transport, a costly and difficult “to organize thing to do” on some trips.  At the end of the day, it is not the clubs responsibility to get you to and back from a hike destination. However every effort will be made by the leader to co-ordinate transport amongst the people on the hike.                                                                         

 

CLUB NEWS and POINTS TO PONDER

The Club Web Site at  www.gohiking.co.za ,. Feedback to Rod seemed to have died down a bit,, so please if you do participate on a club activity, lets get some photos and a short write up for Rod.

 

A MORE SERIOUS POINT

 YOUR CLUB needs your  support to keep it operational. This year seems to have seen a distinct drop off in Members attending day hikes, and some of the week end hikes.

Club Socials have been very badly attended with just a handful of the same people attending the meetings. It costs the Club R165.00 a meeting to hire the hall, The car guard is paid R60.00 a night  to be there, no matter how few people attend. The short fall of car guard tips to make the R60.00 is paid by the club. But the worst is the poor attendance by members. The committee must now look hard at whether we drop the number of  socials to every 2nd month, to see what happens. The R165.00 is covered by your subs, so that cost is covered.

This Club is YOUR Club, not the committee’s club.   Leaders travel to meetings to sort out future hiking calendars, some hikes are explored by leaders before being put onto the calendar.  Then the leader  books – in advance that time off from his calendar to do the “CLUB THING’, does temporary bookings if needs be, etc, etc, etc, then at the end the question is asked “ was it worth it?’’    

 

We have said time and time again, if the club is not doing what interests you, let us know, give suggestions, be prepared to get involved, organize a trip, a speaker, anything that may get members to be involved with the club – THEIR CLUB !!!

 

Before  the AGM in August, I believe we will have to do some serious soul searching to determine where this, OUR  club is going.   I don’t believe we can carry on the way we are at the moment.    Something radical needs to be done.

I leave it up to each and every member to think about where they want the club to go .                         Hiking Regards

 

MAY SOCIAL EVENING

Members are reminded of the Social Evening on Tuesday, 19 May, when we will have  Andrew Friedeman who will be giving a talk and demonstration on ten or more practical hiking skills.   Andrew is an excellent speaker and one of the most knowledgeable hiking skills people.  Many of them you may never have thought of, and they could very well save your life.   This kind of knowledge will certainly make for more enjoyable hiking

 

WELCOME

Welcome to Ronnie Brooks and Carol Kristensen both of whom joined the Club since the last Newsletter.   We wish them both a long and happy stay with us enjoying many a day hike and week-end camping or caving.

 

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Members are reminded of the Annual General Meeting scheduled for Tuesday,18 August 2009, in our usual social evening venue.   This is your Club and your input at the meeting is important if your committee is to meet the needs of our hiking and social members.   It is also up to members to ensure that they nominate a committee which will do their utmost to ensure that the Club continues to function smoothly.   Notice of Meeting and the Agenda will be published with the July Newsletter, so please mark your diaries with this date.   We look forward to a good attendance on his occasion.

 

“WILDWAYS ADVENTURES” - SESSION 4 COURSE - AT HIGHMOOR -

NAVIGATION WITH RESTRICTED VISIBILITY CONDITIONS                                             Keith Ashton 21-22 February 2009

Thanks go to Andrew Friedemann again for his expert and dedicated training of our leaders and members, at no cost to the club, this time in adverse weather conditions.

 

The following hardy members participated in the week-end:- Margaret Kirsten, Max Ramseier, Chris Simpson, Hettie Randall, Chris Dobson and Keith & Margaret Ashton plus some Mountain Backpacker Club members.

After backpacking to a wilderness area we set up camp, had some lunch before Andrew presented the 3 hr training course, on map and compass reading, taking and setting a bearing allowing for magnetic deviation etc.

We then did some practical exercises in finding and setting landmarks plus estimating distances by measuring a certain number of average individual paces in each 100m – this is particularly important when you can’t see any landmarks or even anything when in thick mist or at night.

 

We had to interrupt our lessons several times due to rain and thunderstorms, then after supper it was the real test, to navigate in the dark to three locations previously marked by Andrew.

We were given co-ordinates for three positions and we had to plot these on a map and try to find them in unforgiving terrain.

 

Several attendees decided not to attempt this exercise as it was pitch black, pouring down with rain with thunder and lightning – opting for the relative comfort of their small tents.

However the rest of us set about the task in small groups of 2 or 3 and we were given about 3hrs to complete the exercise – have you ever tried to plot positions on a map, set compass bearings and find an indiscriminate position in such conditions (no GPS’s allowed) and then find your way back to the tents in the middle of nowhere?.   There are definite procedures to be followed in order to have any chance of achieving even part of the task.  Our small groups had varying degrees of success, the last group getting back to the tents after midnight – we were all like drowned rats having to get back into wet tents “this is the life”!!!!

 

THE REAL LESSON TO BE LEARNED HERE IS DON’T MOVE FROM YOUR LOCATION IN ADVERSE CONDITIONS SUCH AS THESE UNLESS IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY AND YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

Luckily on the Sunday morning it was fine with some sun so we were able to break camp and pack up after breakfast with our tents and gear relatively dry.

 

Most attendees decided to backpack back to the office and make their way home, however four of us, (Hettie, Max, Margaret and I) put our backpacks in our vehicle, kept minimum stuff and some lunch and headed for Aasvoelkrans Cave as it was such a lovely morning and we wanted to make the most of the weekend.

It was a lovely walk with the rivers pumping – the waterfall at the cave was roaring and it was difficult to hear, so decided not to chat much over lunch but just enjoy the marvelous views.

We got drowned again on the way back but we are not frightened of a bit of water are we!!!.

A quick change in difficult conditions and then we were on our way home in pouring rain – however a wonderful week-end.   Thanks again Andrew for the interesting course and everyone else for the company and camaraderie.