And this is it - or rather, the most spectacular part of it, the narrow frontal section of the rock that sticks out at right angle into the gorge. The face is aptly named Mithral Prow - it does indeed feel like you’re in Lord of the Rings land! - Tony Lourens writes about the rock:

“The crag is essentially a solid quartzide fin, that juts out about 50 metres from the side of the Salt River Gorge. The wall ranges from about 20 metres in height, where there are some single pitch routes, to a magnificent 60 metre prow which hosts a spectacuar 2 pitch line.snaking up the middle and overlooking the Salt River.”

Both Jonas, my 23 year old son, and I, 50 year old Chris, had so far climbed almost exclusively indoors; Jonas for about 8 monts at City Rock in Cape Town, and I myself for the same time at The Rock, Kaifu Lodge in Hamburg, Germany. OK, we both had done a bit of top-rope outdoor climbing before, mainly with my friend Johnny Levy, a well-known trad climbing crack in South Africa. But NOTHING like this on our own, ever!

It took as a total of three excursions before we felt comfortable enough to do the two pitch 60 m route up the frontal section, called ‘Mithral’. Pitch 1 is 30 metres with 11 bolts and graded 18; pitch 2 is another 25 metres graded 20 and with 9 bolts. (For UIAA grading: add one and divide by three, or use this conversion table).

I also played around a bit on the first pitch of ‘Galadrial’, the second option for pitch 1 on this face which is graded 21. Time permitting this will be cracked on our next joint excursion!

I think this is the place to say ‘Thank you!’ to some people: To A.Scott, P.Wooley, B.Higgins and Tony Lourens who bolted these routes - you did a wonderful job and opened up some thrilling stuff for novice climbers like myself! Also to my climbing teachers Linda and Tobias - he’s just started a climbing lodge in Spain; check out his website! - and last not least to my old friend Johnny Levy who introduced us to outdoor life in South Africa, the Magaliesberg, the Wolkberg, did the Hex River hike with us, and many more things ... Thanks guys!