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.
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.
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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