Adventure With a Purpose: SA 9 Peaks Challenge: Nooitgedacht West 1806 m North-West Province

This peak is really easy to get to and is a walk along some uneven ground to the beacon. It does have breathtaking views that seem to go on forever and when we climbed it in the early morning rolling mist added to its unexpected beauty. I have passed with peak many times over the years enroute to other hikes and I was glad to finally be standing on its summit to see what it was all about and take in the spectacular views knowing this was one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world.

Magaliesberg (historically also known as Magaliesberg or as the Cashan Mountains, is a mountain range extending west and north from Pretoria to just south of Pilanesberg, and extending for some 50 km east of Pretoria where it peters out just south of Bronkhorstspruit. The highest point of the Magaliesberg is reached at Nooitgedacht (1 806 metres) 25.8583°S 27.530°E.

The Magaliesberg Range has a very long geological history. Its quartzite, shale, chert and dolomite were deposited as sediments in an inland basin on top of the 3 billion year old Archaean Basement Complex. This process of sedimentation lasted for about 300 million years. About 2 billion years ago a massive upwelling of molten magma resulted in what is now known as the Bushveld Igneous Complex.

The enormous weight of this intrusion depressed the sediments that lay beneath and tilted the sediments along the edges so that the broken scarps faced outward and upward, and the gentler dip slopes inward. During the same period these sediments were fractured and igneous intrusions of dolerite filled the cracks. With the passage of time these intrusions eroded, especially on the dip slopes, forming deep kloofs or ravines providing excellent rock-climbing potential to modern man.

This large dog-leg-shaped area is now termed the Transvaal Basin and includes the lofty escarpment of the Transvaal Drakensberg overlooking the Lowveld in the eastern part of the country. Massive outpourings of igneous material - volcanic lava - of the much younger Karoo Supergroup later covered the Transvaal Basin, but this was subsequently eroded so that it only remains along the Transvaal Basin's southern rim.