Foofy slide to a river pool

One of the kids at Chaos Boy's birthday party foofy sliding into one of the Maitland River pools at Sleepy Hollow.  They were slightly apprehensive at first as the water looks pitch black, as most deep river pools do, but once they got going they didn't want to stop.

Exit the tunnel

I snapped this pic of one of the boys at Chaos Boy's birthday party as he walked out of one of the mines at Sleepy Hollow where the party took place.  I just liked the shot for some reason.

Chaos Boy turns 13 at Sleepy Hollow

Chaos Boy turns 13 today (I can't believe he's a teenager now) and he wanted to have an outdoor "Survivor" party.  We decided that the best place to have an outdoor party would be at Sleepy Hollow and this morning we headed out there with eight kids for a day of hiking, swimming in the Maitland River's pools, foofy sliding, slippery sliding and exploring the old mines.

My best attempt at a Survivor cake

Highlights of the day

Getting your feet wet

Drama Princess getting her feet wet at one of the drifts where the path crosses the Maitland River at Sleepy Hollow

Cooling down in the Maitland River pools

This is how you cool off on a hot day.

Floating in one of the Maitland River pools on at Sleepy Hollow.

Otter droppings at Sleepy Hollow

I've visited Sleepy Hollow a couple of times now and the one thing I would still love to see is an otter.  How do I know there are some? Because last time I found otter droppings on the rocks around one of the river pools right up in the valley.

Maitland River at Sleepy Hollow

One of the pools in the Maitland River as it flows through Sleepy Hollow farm. 

Yes, this is right on our doorstep

Sleepy Hollow mines

One of the main features at Sleepy Hollow outside PE is the old abandoned silver and lead mines dating back to the late 1700's.  When we go and camp at Sleepy Hollow we normally take our strong torches along to go for a walk down the old mine shaft.  Last time I was there I didn't venture too far in though as I forgot my torch and there were a couple of bats sweeping in and out in the late afternoon.  Without a torch one never knows what else you'll encounter so I rather stuck around the entrance taking photos.

Activities at Sleepy Hollow

We are busy organising Chaos Boy's 13th birthday party and decided to have a day out with his friends at Sleepy Hollow in the Maitland River Valley.  I went to dig out a couple of photos I took at Sleepy Hollow in December when we last popped in there for a visit.  I went for a walk up the river with Drama Princess and she is always willing to play the model if I need one for a photo.  This is one of the main intersections on the trail into the valley from the campsite.

Sleepy Hollow offers both campsites and picnic sites for day visitors.  Activities include shorts hikes around the farm and up the Maitland River which runs through it, a walk up to Sleepy Hollow waterfall, exploring the old mines and swimming in the river pools.  There is also a very popular slippery slide where you just can't get the kids away from once they start going.  The place is absolutely stunning and you can really get close to nature while still being close to the city.  On our last visit I spotted Knysna Loerie, a Eagle owl, heard a fish eagle, spotted a young water monitor and found otter droppings.  We even had to duck for a bat that came flying out one of the mines when we were standing by the opening.  Oh yes and Geocachers can look for the three caches I put on the property.  I have a couple of other pics from my visit to share so I think I'll do a Sleepy Hollow series this week.

Maitland River

There is an Afrikaans song that says that if you get tired of life in the city you have to go for a walk in the countryside.  In Port Elizabeth we are very very fortunate to have a lot of countryside right on our doorstep withing the city boundaries.  Places like the Baakens Valley, Sacramento Trail, Cape Recife, Kragga Kamma area and Maitland River Valley to mention only a few.

River lily pond

Very few people realise how beautiful it really is along the rivers and streams around Port Elizabeth.  The Baakens Valley is truly stunning and so is the Maitland River Valley.  I found this lily pond upstream in the Maitland River.

Golden Orb Web Spider

Most of the time I post pictures of historic buildings or beaches so I decided to post of pic of a Black Legged Golden Orb Web Spider today.  The reason for the name is the gold coloured thread they spin their webs with.  Taken with a bit of back lighting you can actually see the golden thread in this pic.  The picture was taken to the west of Port Elizabeth in the Maitland area.

Black Legged Golden Orb-Web Spider

I'm not a big bug fan unless I'm looking at it through my camera, but if I had to choose my favorite spider it has to be the Golden Orb-Web Spider.  They get their name from the gold coloured web that they spin.  I have seen them at Sleepy Hollow before and with this last visit kept an eye out for one as we were walking along the river.  And I wasn't disappointed.

River pool foofy slide

After spending two days going down the slippery slide with the kids at Sleepy Hollow my Boet and I decided to go and try out the foofy slide (zipline) at the main swimming hole.  Now I'm not one who is very comfortable with heights and I get nervous if I have to lift my feet anywhere higher than mother earth herself.  That coupled with the unknown speed of the zipline, submerged rocks next to the bank and... the worry of how long I could actually hold my own weight meant that it took a bit of time to get the guts  gather my wits.  Then there was the need to calculate the wind speed and direction, zipline angle and everything else that I had to be sure of before zipping down the cable and letting go over the black (and very cold) water of the swimming hole.  So in the picture you can see a flying Firefly just before the big splash.  Oh yes, I just want to mention that I kept on going long after my Boet had decided to stop.  My inner child crawled out again.

Sleepy Hollow slippery slide

I may be in my mid thirties, but I am very much in touch with my inner child who, every now and then, forces himself to the surface and refuses to crawl back in.  So it happened at Sleepy Hollow where I went down the slippery slide before the kids even got their costumes on.  After the kids had to stop and stood shivering I kept on going (and had the aches and pains the next day to remind me).  One of the other campers said that it looked to her that I was really enjoying myself.  You know what, when I'm sixty one day I hope I would be able to still do things like this with my grand kids like my grandfather did with us and I will still enjoy it as much as I do today.

Enter at own risk

 Some of the interesting features at Sleepy Hollow outside Port Elizabeth are a couple of old abandoned silver and lead mines that date back to the late 1700's.  Although we did explore them on a previous visit, Chaos Boy wanted to go and have a look again.  So off the two of us went one morning with torches in hand to explore the tunnels.  The three tunnels go straight into the hillside with the longest one probably being about 60 meters or so in lenght.

Hiking at Sleepy Hollow

As mentioned yesterday there are several short hiking trails around the farm at Sleepy Hollow.  We did a number of them and on this specific morning headed out on the main trail, turned off past the old mines before continuing along the Bosvark Trail looping back down to the main trail.  In total there are probably just over 5 kilometers of trails at Sleepy Hollow, one of which takes you boulder hopping up to a small waterfall.

Eerste Drif

Sleepy Hollow is situated in the Maitland River Valley which means that the Maitland River runs through the property. Duh.  That sounded better in my head before I typed it.  Anyway.  There are several trails that you can take with the main trail following the stream up the valley.  Along the way the trail passes several pools while you have to cross the stream three times.  This is Eerste Drif (First Crossing) where you can either walk through the knee deep stream or follow a (slightly muddy) path along the side. 

Camping

Over the recent loooong weekend we (we being me and my family - Damselfly, Chaos Boy and Drama Princess - my Mom and my Boet, his wife and kid) went camping at Sleepy Hollow just outside Port Elizabeth. I have done some posts about Sleepy Hollow before, but seeing that I have a bunch of fresh pics I decided to do a series of seven posts showing the sights and activities we encountered there. Sleepy Hollow is situated in the Maitland River Valley just off the Blue Horizon Bay Road and has a number of camp sites as well as covered caravans to hire in addition to the permanent caravans that are located there. Most of the permanents usually go out there over weekends so the best time to visit Sleepy Hollow is probably during the week as its much quieter.

More to follow...

Plumbago path

Plumbago growing next to the trail at Sleepy Hollow just east of Port Elizabeth