[jwi]

OK. We're planning to go to Waterval Boven for 3-4 weeks in July, do we need to rent a car? We'd like to go to the Kruger park as well, as we never been to the sub-Saharan Africa

[seankenny]

I visited WVB in a weekend trip whilst on a work trip to Jo’burg a few years ago. I couldn’t imagine visiting SA without a car, as the country seems to be islands of safety and security set in oceans of diceyness. I say that having been to lots of poor and troubled countries.

Lots of people like SA but it’s the one place I never want to go back to - just felt too violent and rapey.

Not meaning to piss on your bonfire, but forewarned is forearmed.

[SA Chris]

You can get a car from Jo'burg international and it's about an hour and half drive, then from there about another 2.5 hours to Kruger. This is probably the easiest way. Alternatively you can get an internal flight to Nelspruit and hire a car from there. There is a great developing bouldering area near Nelspruit airport too, the name of which escapes me, but I can find out if you are interested. Self drive is a great way to see Kruger, but I'd recommend booking a couple of drives with a guide, especially at night. I expect easy access to internet and twitter has changed the old luck based self-drive approach we used to take.

Most people stay at Tranquilitas, which is the climbers camp, with chalets and tents as you wish. The guidebook is downloadable from www.climb.co.za. Good place for meeting other climbers, getting latest route details, beta etc.

I've not been back for about 12 years, so can't comment on safety.

Shout if you want any more info.

[Duncan campbell]

I am interested in visiting Boven next year with my girlfriend so I will be watching this thread closely... a friend of mine went a few years ago and he thought it seemed ok safety wise.

I’d also be keen to stay a little later and go trad climbing at all those cool sounding trad crags, but I’ll probably post a question about all that closer to the time

[SA Chris]

The crags around the original campground - Elandskrans (which is now closed and derelict due to ownership and mismanagement issues) are a safety grey area, best check in with Tranquilitas as to current situation. Shame, as some of the original routes which put boven on the map are brilliant.

http://www.climbing.co.za/wiki/Waterval_Boven

Kaapsehoop is the name of the bouldering area I couldn't remember

http://www.angelfire.com/trek/citizen_of_earth/kaapsehoop/kaapsehoop_rg.html

[jwi]

OK, another question: How's the access road to the crags? Do I need to rent a high-clearance car?

[SA Chris]

No, it's a standard South African dirt / untarred road, as used by all vehicles from Artics to donkey carts. Just make sure your hire car insurance covers dirt roads, there are a few that don't, in spite of them being quite common, especially in the game parks.

[SA Chris]

Not been recently, but not seen any news on safety issues on the local forums. As far as I know the older "Restaurant" crags around the original campground and the waterfall are a bit sketchy, but those around Tranquilitas don't have any issues. If you contact Mike at https://tranquilitas.com/ or Gustav at https://rocrope.com/ they will know the latest score.

Disclaimer - things can change any time.

[jwi]

The restaurant crags are well accessible using a new approach. No problem. Depending on your friend's level you might not want to go to the Restaurant crags anyway. In the guidebook much effort is spent on hyping routes in the 7b and up bracket in other areas than God No! wall and Superbowl, but judging from the routes I climbed no routes or sectors could compare to the sectors around God No! and Superbowl for quality (from 7a and up).

We rented a car and drove there, I very much doubt this is unsafe. Felt totally OK.

The climbing is good, but there are very few sustained routes (I climbed one sustain route in total). Mostly clear distinct cruxes interspersed with ledge shuffling. I didn't loose any bouldering strength there, but more-or-less all fitness. The holds are mostly on horisontal stratas, so flat holds from tiny to the whole hand. I wasn't too enamoured, but J. liked it quite a bit.

It is supposed to be 10-20 ºC in July, but we had mostly 25-30 ºC. So as an escape from summer heat it worked less than moderately well, Scandinavia would have been a better—if less exotic—choice this summer, wrt to escaping global warming by being part of the problem.

The Kruger park was amazing.

I very much liked Johannesburg, but J. felt unsafe and was scared all the time (despite growing up in UA and being a seasoned traveler of the 3rd world), so again ymmv.

Overall, there are not many places that are obviously good destinations for sport climbing in June-August. Waterval Boven certainly is one option, but I think you have to look at Boven as part of a bigger package than “just” climbing ... as I struggle to justify such a long flight for the quality of climbing available.

Learn some simple phrases in Swazi before you go.