Witels

The Witels is a remote stream of the mountainous Boland of South Africa and flows through rugged sandstone ranges some 60km east of Cape Town. Access is quite difficult in summer and for practical purposes impossible in winter, when the canyon ("kloof" in Afrikaans) is in high flood. The name in Afrikaans (pronounced 'Vit-else'), means "White Alder", being the name of an indigenous tree "Platylophus trifoliatus". The upper reaches of the Witels are about three days days' walk from the nearest road, on the property known as Waaihoek.