Seasoned hiker killed in fall

2002-01-13 22:16

Lynn Prins and Waldimar Pelser

Stellenbosch - Freak falls claimed the lives of two people in separate incidents in the Western Cape at the weekend. One of them, Matie medical student Dirk de Villiers, was a seasoned hiker.

De Villiers fell 80m to his death at Jonkershoek, near Stellenbosch on Sunday morning.

It is believed that he slipped on a sharp ridge.

De Villiers was with his cousin, Colyn Hendriks and a friend, Keith Brown when the accident happened. Brown tried to resuscitate De Villiers, but to no avail. His face was still streaked with blood when rescue workers arrived at the scene.

"He was still alive for a while, but it was clear that he was very badly injured," Brown said.

De Villiers had sustained head and multiple internal injuries.

Members of Stellenbosch and Strand Metro Emergency Services arrived at the scene minutes after the incident. Due to the inhospitable terrain the helicopter had to lower emergency personnel on to a ledge close to the scene to reach De Villiers, but it was already too late.

The body was placed on a stretcher and carried to even ground, before being transported by helicopter to the bottom.

Pilot Gustav Arendt said the terrain was very steep and it was difficult, also due to the rockiness, to reach De Villiers' body. Hendriks said it had taken him about 15 minutes to run down to summon help," he said.

He and De Villiers had often hiked together at Jonkershoek.

Hendriks's father, professor Jurgens Hendriks, said after the freak accident that De Villiers would have wanted to die in this way if he'd had a choice.

"As baby he already took part in hikes with his dad. His dad carried him in a backpack."

De Villiers' father, Reinold de Villiers, said in Pretoria: "My son was granted the opportunity to live in full."

In the second incident an army helicopter was called in on Sunday afternoon to recover the body of a bricklayer from Pacaltsdorp, who fell to his death from a rock ledge near the mouth of the Schaapkop River the morning.

Andries "Vissie" Jansen, 37, and 5 friends had been camping near the river mouth on the other side of Pacaltsdorp outside George since Saturday morning to fish.

Butter-fish and zebra-fish were barbecued over the coals on Saturday morning, and Jansen, another friend and Ashwell Bruintjies, 16, had a craving to add an octopus or two that were hiding in rock pools hundreds of metres from where they were fishing.

"The three of us were walking close to one another, high above the waves. Vissie was walking in front and suddenly stopped short at a rock-ledge. He could not go forward or backward because it was high ... he started to tremble like this," Ashwell demonstrated.

Jansen fell over backwards and landed on a rock about 12 metres down.

Emergency personnel of the district municipality and Metro said his legs had been stuck in a hole.

The back of his head hit a rock and he presumably died instantly, said emergency chief Patrick Hall.

A helicopter from 22 Squadron in Cape Town recovered the body as the high cliffs made it too dangerous to attempt a rescue on foot.

Inspector Anthony Percy of the Pacaltsdorp police said Jansen and his friends often fished at Schaapkop River mouth.

"Now he is dead and he never even got the octopus," Ashwell added.

- Die Burger