Waaihoek is the name of a peak at one of the vertices of a very large (8000ha), remote, rugged and mountainous rural property called Zuurberg ("Sour Mountain"), located about 60 km north-east of
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
, on the margin of a great sandstone massif known as the
Hex River Mountains
The Hex River Mountains ( af, Hexrivierberge) make up the second highest mountain range in the Western Cape province of South Africa and are located 120 kilometres (75 miles) north-east of Cape Town. They form part of a large anticline in the Ca ...
. Waaihoek is well known in the
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...
as the 'home' of the
University of Cape Town Mountain and Ski Club
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...
(
UCTMSC).
[ ] The name in
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
means 'blow corner', or perhaps 'howl corner', as in 'the corner where the wind blows or howls'. The first part of the name, "waai", is a verb, not a noun. The name is pronounced 'Vye hook', where vye rhymes with eye.
Snow often falls in winter and lies on the ground for a few weeks between July and September, when members of the UCTMSC have in past years operated a private ski tow in the vicinity of Waaihoek Peak. The club maintains two huts in the area. Both were built by students, who carried most of the materials up the mountain on their backs. The older and smaller structure, built before the Second World War, is called Pells Hut. There is a newer and much larger hut somewhat higher up the slopes. This structure
Hoare Hut was built c. 1970.
References
External links
UCT Mountain and Ski
{{coord, -33.4721, 19.3157, display=title, region:ZA_type:mountain
University of Cape Town