Old Coach Road Mountain Walk

The route is a series of marked waypoints numbered 1 to 16 running in an anti-clockwise direction. The first section between waypoints 1 up to waypoint 5 is an easy walk through forest and along the river bed.  This part of the route follows the fault zone separating the Kaap Valley Pluton and the topographically low basin area to the west and the rest of the Barberton Greenstone  belt represented by the high mountain range to the south. Many mines were established along this fault zone during the 1880's as mineral deposits such as gold had extruded into this fault zone. Here you will encounter the basal conglomerate of the lower Moodies Group. It is easily recognized by the different sized pebbles embedded within a dark grey and very fine grained sandstone unit, a typical formation of a deltaic deposit many millions of years ago. The river bed section is mainly forest and home to a wide species of butterfly and birds.  Between waypoints 2 and 3 you will see two magnificent species of Schotia brachypetala (Weeping Boerbean-SA 202).

At waypoint 3,  you will meet the first of the Lower Moodies Group rock deposits. Take a moment to appreciate your surroundings. You are in a time machine. The wind that rustles the forest around you is as old as the universe. The dark grey rock formation that you are standing upon is 3.1 billion years old when life on Mother Earth had just figured out how to produce oxygen.  Look up at the heaven above and reflect upon the words of Omar Khayyam: "And that inverted bowl in the sky, whereunder we crawl, cooped up, live and die, lift not your hands to it for help, for it, as impotently rolls as you or I".

Between waypoints 3 and 5 you will often come across rocks with a banded dark red centre. This is Jaspilite, a banded iron formation or chemical precipitate which formed during the early part of Mother Earth's crust when the oxygen content of the atmosphere was minimal. Several billion years later, these iron rich deposits gave Homo sapiens  a kick-start to modern civilisation. Jasper is also sought after and makes attractive lapidary material.  

The next section of the day hike is the upward climb which starts from waypoint 5, leaving the forest. Here it rises from about 650msl to your next point of rest at waypoint 8 which is at an elevation of 800msl. Here you can relax and enjoy the view towards Barberton. Enjoy the natural rock chair. You are approaching the younger portion of the Upper Moodies Group of rock formation (2.8 to 3.0 billion years). The vegetation between waypoint 5 and waypoint 7 consists mainly of shrubs, including Pride of Dekaap (Bauhinia galpinii)  which is a beautifull shrub when in full bloom  (November to January)