Route Guide for Kaapsehoop Bouldering
The boulders in Kaapsehoop are predominantly sandstone with some sandstone quartzite. There is potential for hundreds of short boulder problems and traverses in the area. At present most of the prominent boulders in the sectors described have been developed, but there is still loads of potential for more development. Most of the bouldering is easy to moderate, however hard problems can be found or put up. The rock quality is generally quite good on the prominent boulders, however due to the sandstone being fairly soft, some hand or foot holds may break, so care should be taken.

Ethics

1. Sensitive Environment
The entire Kaapsehoop area is a sensitive grassland area, one of the most threatened habitat types in Southern Africa. Climbers should bear this in mind and have as little impact as possible in the area.
2. Swallows
The entire Kaapsehoop area is an extremely sensitive grassland area that is home to the migrant Blue Swallow (Hirundo atrocaerulea), which is one of the most endangered bird species in Southern Africa. Swallows build mud nests in protected overhangs, this is a very important point as some small overhung roofs on boulders may be ideal nesting spots for a swallow. Should any mud nests be encountered on any boulder, the boulder should be avoided. One would hope that climbers are sensitive enough to understand this point, the birds need that location more than a climber needs to put up a route. Due to the sensitive nature of the area and the endangered status of the bird, it would not be surprising if bouldering were banned from the area should any reports of damage to nests or the environment were reported.
3. Flora
Many of the boulders and the base of the boulders have sensitive and uncommon vegetation growing on and around them. Climbers should be aware of this and try not to damage any vegetation through ignorance of what is around them.
4. Pedestal Boulders
A fair number of the boulders in the area, especially the higher ones, are made up of two or more boulders balanced on top of one another. Climbers should be aware of the precarious nature of some of these boulders and done climbing any boulder, access each boulder. One needs only to walk around the area a bit to see evidence of toppled boulders. This point should be taken seriously as should a boulder topple over while being climbed, the climber could be killed or very seriously injured.

Maps and GPS References
Due to the thousand of boulders in the area it is extremely hard to describe where the specific boulders and routes are. Every effort has been made to accurately describe and map the area. To this end GPS technology has also been used to reference and map the areas and boulders. The GPS references are included here, with the map references, which will be very useful to anyone with a GPS to aid in locating the specific boulders. For climbers without access to a GPS, hopefully the maps and descriptions will suffice.
Details of GPS parameters.

The area has been divided up into different sectors where a number of good, fairly high boulders are found clumped together. There are thousands of boulders but the really good ones are generally in the same sector together.

ROUTE GUIDES

The Yellow Footprint Boulder Trail Guide - all areas and maps
This is the main sector covered by this online guide. Due to the labyrinth nature of the boulder field, it is almost impossible to describe how to find areas in the middle of the boulder field. Lucky there is a well marked nature trail running through the area and this has been used to find most of the areas. The trail is marked with small yellow footprints painted on the rocks and is easy enough to follow. It starts at the signpost on the left (east) side of the road, just further down from the Green Venus Pub.
A number of sectors are described on this trail, starting with the closest to the road and moving further down the trail.

The Mordor Sector
The Mordor Sector is located to the east south east of the village. It is characterised by larger boulders and walls in deeper, heavily vegetated gullies. There is a great deal of potential in this area, but much "work" would have to go into developing problems here. Most of the obvious lines on good boulders have relatively bad fall lines. Hence no problems have been described in this area.

The Forest Sector Guide
This is a small sector across the road from the village. It has a few problems and unfortunately as of yet has not been mapped and only two boulders have problems put up on them. Most of the boulders here are fairly low and only hold one or two move problems, there is a few more boulders that may have some scope though. There are as yet no GPS references to these boulders, but the descriptions maybe of some use.
7 Problems from V2 to V4-5. Very little potential for more problems.

The Far Edges Sector Guide
The edges are located to the far south east of the village on the east side of the road back to Ngodwana. Only one boulder has been developed in this sector, but there is lots of potential for more problems all along the edges and up into the boulders further up behind the edges.
5 Problems from V1 to V2. Potential for many, many more.

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