This overhanging wall at the Sassies contains one of the coolest, cleanest, and newest lines at Rocklands. Colorado filmmaker Chuck Fryberger was first to climb the standing start, which was initially pegged at around V10 … until Lisa flashed it. Lisa added a sit start that she called Pinotage (solid V10 this time) named after a South African varietal of grape.

Having climbed the standing start to Sunset Arete (V9)—sometimes five times in a row—Lisa nevertheless fell from the final crux each time she attempted the sit start, Nutsa (V12). This was an addictive obsession, but sadly, her time abroad was limited as always. Here she delivers a goodbye kiss. But we'll be back!

A bumpy half-hour drive took us to the tiny town of Clanwilliam—a couple of strips of paved road surrounded by rooibos (an herbal tea only grown in the Cederberg region of South Africa) and adjacent reservoir, and connected to Cape Town by a smooth highway. There, a few old colonial buildings added a pinch of character to the more typical dusty concrete boxes along the short main street. We’d make regular visits to the grocery store and the stone-built Oliphantshuis restaurant for delicious grilled steaks, gourmet pizza, beer and wine.

The Rhino (V7), one of the most astonishing boulder problems at Rocklands, distracted us from putting up lines of our own. This preposterous cantilever of rock calls for an extraordinary sequence of moves beginning at the back with squeezes on slopers before moving around the far side to good incuts and a punch for finishing jugs.

From a parking spot at the top of the pass on the main road to Clanwilliam, a half-hour hike along a jeep track took us to the so-called Roadside Area and Rocklands’ greatest concentration of developed bouldering. Andy Raether, one of America’s foremost sport climbers, displayed a deft hand at cooking fried eggs and potato with avocado, and a simply shocking ability for consuming the same. Raether was also a driving force in the search for new problems, dispatching both the line shown in this picture with its v5/6 mantel to start and the one on the prow to its left—two stellar new highballs, previously overlooked on the typical immaculate, well-featured stone.

At least 20,000 years before potatoes arrived, the San people, also known a little derisorily as Bushmen, lived a Stone Age existence throughout southern Africa. They never settled down to farm as those who moved into the area, whether blacks or whites, were later to do. Perhaps since the earliest times, and at least for the last few thousand years they produced hundreds of mesmerizing tableaux of art on cave walls. With more images per square mile than anywhere else in the world, discovering them is one of the special pleasures of exploring the Cederberg region. The paintings are believed to have often been associated with religious or shamanic ceremonies in attempts to gain supernatural power over animals or to bring rain. The precise age of the art is unclear, and although some images may be as recent as the late nineteenth century. Similar art in Namibia to the north has been dated to 27,000 years old.

On our last day at Rocklands the weather turned cold and repeated showers dampened hopes of sending that one last line. Lisa (the purple dot of her down jacket is visible in the lower right corner of this image), was still hoping to find that symbolic pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Visiting French climbers also persevered as the low northern sun shone out above a tide of rolling clouds that receded briefly before welling up in the west and southern sky.

Slab climbing was one aspect of the Rocklands inventory that seemed under-developed and the opportunities were alluring, abundant and varied. Here, Andy Raether makes a repeat of a sweeping gold-streaked wave The Quagga (V2), first climbed a few hours before. Led in by some easy long moves on positive footholds, Raether soon reached the upper crux where the edges vanished, forcing a confident approach high up on the grip-tape-like surface.

A quarter-mile of immaculate golden cliff untouched by climbers, came to a turning point at this hanging arete, providing an easy steal for the Sassie House. Because the first ascensionist used a leap to gain the break at the start, we referred to the line as Jump Start (V4/5). No cleaning was necessary on this, nor most other first ascents in the area. Bouldering simply doesn’t get any better.

The beauty of the Rocklands area owes almost as much to the variety of flowering plants as to the rocky landscape. During spring the proteas of the area explode with ruby, pink, or purple blooms, while dense swathes of African daisies coat the lower elevations creating a tourist attraction of their own. Here, Lisa climbs a V2 in the Roadside Area.

Things to do in South Africa: Walk up to a prominent feature like this at an area no climber has ever explored, and make a ground-up first ascent. Chuck Fryberger’s initial attempt on this 25-foot line left him with a strained ankle from a long fall. But Fryberger—with a pedigree of highball repeats and first ascents across the States—is not shy of tackling giant lines, and two weeks later, ankle recovered, he returned and flew through the moves, which included a heart-in-mouth slap for a sloper below the top.