Overnight Mountain Mission
The Bergrivier valley, viewed from Jonkershoek nature reserve, is probably one of the most beautiful valley views in the Western Cape. If you have not seen images of it on social media, it is an extremely narrow and steep valley with a river running right down its center. To make it even better, there is a large rock right on its saddle that looks down over the valley - a perfect viewpoint. Most of the photos you will see of this place are taken during the day, mostly around mid-morning or in the afternoon, as it takes quite a while to get up there. The idea came about to photograph this place at sunrise as the sun comes up right down the middle of the valley. As it is quite a hike to get to this viewpoint, being there at sunrise presents a challenge. You would either have to start hiking at around 2 or 3 AM in the morning or alternatively, overnight on the ridge. One day, myself and Jurgens Uys decided to hike up to the top and overnight on the ridge in order to capture the early sunrise over the Bergrivier valley.
With tripod in hand and backpacks loaded with food, water, gear, sleeping bag and tent, we were ready for this adventure.
Our backpacks must have weighed in excess of 20kg’s. Not being used to carrying such a weight, we suffered quite a bit as we hiked up the steep terrain in the mid 30ºC heat.
The first view of the valley from the top of the trail. This is where we would be camping for the night.
When we eventually reached the top, we found that there wasn’t any proper place to set up a tent. The terrain was mostly slanted and very rocky. We searched higher up for a better spot but after spotting a large Cape Cobra, we decided to go back to the only ‘flat’ space - a small patch of slanted dirt right on the saddle overlooking the Bergrivier valley. We set up camp, unpacked the gear and I started taking a few photos of beautiful scenes around us as golden-hour approached.
Sunset views from camp. It felt pretty amazing being up here all alone, surrounded by mountains, valleys and epic views.
Billion star hotel.
The milky way was pretty clear considering we were still in a populated area. I tried a few shots where Jurgens was standing on the ridge shining a torch into the sky, but for some reason, the resident bat population disapproved of this and kept swooping down on him until he retreated. Needless to say, we abandoned that idea.
At around 4:40 AM we hiked down to the viewpoint to be in place for sunrise. There was a heavy layer of low clouds obscuring the entire valley from view. This was worrying - had we come all this way just to have our view blocked by clouds? Nevertheless, we stood on the lookout rock and waited it out, hoping for a change in conditions.
As we stood waiting, we were treated to an incredible show of nature. From the Jonkershoek valley side, a strong wind was blowing over the ridge into the Bergrivier valley. This caused the clouds to flow, like water, over the ridge. At the same time, a contrasting wind was coming up from the Bergrivier valley towards Jonkershoek. We stood right at the point where they clashed and this resulted in a dramatic display of clouds. The clouds would come rushing in and visibility would drop to a few meters. A few minutes later, the clouds would rush out and the valley became visible again. This process repeated itself a few times and we had the perfect vantage point to witness it.
The shot I’ve been waiting for. I originally planned to get a different shot a bit later in the morning, where the valley was better in view, but the dramatic sunrise and dynamic clouds ended up looking pretty cool.
And just like that, it was all over. The clouds came in for the final time and decided to stay. Soon the weather worsened and rain started to fall. We packed up our tent and gear and started the hike down the mountain.
All in all, this was quite an epic 24 hour mini-adventure. The dramatic sunrise overlooking the Bergrivier valley was definitely worth the tough hike and rough nights sleep. I left my GoPro on time-lapse mode out on the ridge for the duration of the morning. Check it out below:
Gear Check
Camera: Nikon D850 with 24-70 f2.8 lens (used for all shots)
Gopro Hero 6 Black (used for timelapse)
Sea-to-Summit dry bags.
Garmin Fenix 5
Backpacks: BushTek 90l / KWay 75l
Shoes: Salomon S-lab & Asics FujiTrabuco trail shoes
First Ascent Ice-Breaker sleeping bag
Black Diamond Storm headlamp
Tent: Light, strong and easy to set up 2 man tent from Outdoor Escape
The End
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