History of Mountain Meanders

In 2006 Mike Scott and Tony Heher invited various GPS users to form a GPS User Group to share information on GPS use and to exchange tracks collected when hiking. It quickly became apparent that GPSs did not work well in steep mountain terrain. At first it was thought this may be limited to certain types of units but a series of GPS test meets confirmed the problems were systematic and common to all units tested. (See the companion article “GPSs in the mountains – the good, the bad and the ugly” for more information on the tests conducted by the GPS User Group.)

Two events then came together to sow the Meanders seed... Tony Heher had been putting together a photographic record of various walks he did with both U3A and the Mountain Club. These were shared with various participants using Picasa web, Users commented how useful these were for depicting a route. Mike and Tony then set up an integrated website, pulling together these resources of GPS tracks, photographs, maps and route descriptions in a way that made them easy to access and easy to update by multiple mountain users. The mountain-wiki concept was born!

On the 12 August 2008 the concept was presented by Mike Scott and Tony Heher at meeting held at the MCSA Clubhouse in Hatfield Street. Invitations were sent to all the main hiking clubs in Cape Town and virtually all were represented among the 39 who attended. There was strong endorsement of the concept and many useful comments were made.

A number of hosting options were considered and tested, but eventually Google Sites was selected as the most appropriate. This has not been without its challenges and frustrations as Google kept changing the "rules". Just one example: All the slideshows, which are integral to the site, have had to be redone 3 times to keep up with Google. If it was not for the sterling, dogged persistence of Mike and Nardus Cronje, the site would probably have died an early death.

The almost final straw for the team was when Google announced the termination of "Classic" sites as they called it and the launch of the new Google Sites. While migration tools were provided, initially they were hopeless and completely mangled most pages. We were feeling rather desperate, especially Mike and Nardus who had spent years getting the site in shape.

Fortunately Tony had emerged from "retirement" and decided to bite the bullet and see what could be done before we gave up. It did take several weeks work to get most of the site working but having survived the pain of the conversion, the new site is in fact much cleaner, better laid out and easier to maintain. And best of all, it now also works well on mobile devices. So it was worth it.

Another recent addition is to make much more use of Google Photo Albums as these are quick and easy to add. Thanks to Miles Adams for contributing a very useful set. This has in many respects gone full circle and taken MM back to it's roots using Picasa Web.

How long will it be until Google throws us another curve ball? We have no idea!! We have looked long and hard at other options but a site the size and complexity of Mountain Meanders would have cost tens of thousands of Rands to set up and ongoing costs to maintain on paid servers. It had to be free - see comment below on the costs.

Where does Mountain Meanders come from?

The answer is simple - it comes from nowhere! A name was needed to register a website and this was plucked from the air as being relatively neutral and not obviously linked to any existing hiking club. It is in fact the name of one of the U3A walking groups started by Tony Heher in 2007 and subsequently taken over by Tim Cronin, but this U3A group has no direct link or association with www.mountain-meanders.com. (They have kindly refrained from suing for copyright infringement!) The "meander" connotation was also suitably vague and has gathered an amusing double meaning as in "meander be dammed" when some walks ended up rather more adventurous than anticipated. On a more serious note, some concern has been expressed that the "meanders" appellation implies that the walks are all easy, hence the big bold warnings that the many of the routes described are difficult and dangerous and not to be attempted by the average walker without an experienced guide.

How much does it cost and who pays?

Nothing, so no one pays (well not quite, but very nearly...) Using a free resource was felt to be important because as soon as any organisation has to pay there would be a tendency for the site to be "owned" by them. A wiki needs to be owned by the users. The free website comes from using Google products which offer a range of free services for both websites and photo sharing. This has some limitations in terms of the freedom of design compared to a HTML-coded website but this was felt to be a minor disadvantage given that Google Sites is specifically designed to support a group of users working on a shared site.

The only cost incurred to date (and which will be ongoing) is the domain name registration of R200 per annum. This was initially underwritten by U3A through the U3A walking group Cape Mountains for the Curious and Adventurous It is this group, who have explored a number of old forgotten routes and opened a number of new scrambling routes, who have generated much of the information included in Mountain Meanders. A big thank you is owed to Margie Growse, Peggy de Kock, Martyn Trainor, Lucille Krige, Moiragh Girdwood, Kathy Holtzhausen, Liz Trew, Jeanne Myburgh, Karen Watkins and many others for putting up with being dragged up rock faces and through the bush backwards (and every other way) while exploring.

Tony Heher (click for a "mountain" CV)

May 2021

PS I have been told that the last paragraph does not adequately convey the rain, hail, gales, thick mist, thunder and lightening that the group has been subjected to, and last but not least, having to wade half naked chest deep through freezing floodwaters. And who said climbing wasn't fun....