All these areas are close to the contour path. Hillywood is a large boulder developed by Guy Holwill, paying homage to the Hollywood hillbillies. Moss Master is situated below Hillywood in the belly of the forest. Kontraband is part of a larger scree slope and is fun if you enjoy a good slab line. The Seneca Stone is situated directly on the path and features a few moderate grade problems.
Marijus Šmigelskis and Joe Möhle found and developed The Seneca Stone in 2006, with one or two of the harder projects being opened later on. In 2007 there was a lot of development in Newlands Forest. Hearing about a new Guy Holwill boulder called Hillywood, Scott & Stewart Noy looked a bit further and found a few more interesting blocs in the area.
HOW TO GET THERE
DRIVE
Main Entrance Parking
From Cape Town, get onto the N2 and then M3. Continue on the M3 for about 3.6km until you see the 'Newlands Fire Base' sign on the right situated on the middle barrier of the freeway. Follow this into the parking area.
Note: Click on a boulder named "Contour Boulders - Paths Map". This will bring up a picture of the paths that are mentioned in the approach description. Please note that the paths map is not perfect and there will be minor mistakes here and there, which will be corrected over time.
We have also drawn TRAILS on the MAP however with all the tree cover it is difficult to be precise so only use it as a guide as to the direction you are going. When you reach the fence (see below) the TRAIL on the MAP is pretty well spot on.
Note: The following description for the approach is designed so that the area can be located from the perspective of someone who hasn't visited the area before. Once you have your bearings you can obviously choose your own approach to the boulders.
APPROACH
From the parking, head up a tar road (1) and turn left. Continue on 1 until reaching a second bench on the left side of the path and turn onto 7. Follow this keeping left, past the ruins of an old building, until reaching 8 next to a fence. From here you can use the yellow TRAIL on the MAP to also guide you. Head right along 8 up some steps ahead and then right up 8a on more wooden steps to reach a gravel road (9). Continue right up the winding road and pickup 10 on the right when reaching a sign on the left side of the path that has several indications on it, one of which is "Contour Path" pointing to the right - that is the one you want to take. Follow this path, keeping left, all the way up to the contour path (6).
Each approach is described from this point.
Hillywood: 40 minutes
(1) Head right on 6 for 2 minutes until you reach the start of the first wooden boardwalk. Here immediately move slightly right down the bushy hill for 50m to find Hillywood.
Moss Master: 45 minutes
(2) Head right on 6 for 2 minutes until you reach the start of the first wooden boardwalk. Here immediately move slightly right down the bushy hill for 50m to find Hillywood. From Hillywood head diagonally left down the very bushy slope and then straight a little to find the well hidden Moss Master boulder on the right at the bottom of the slope.
Kontraband: 45 minutes
(3) Head right along 6 for 5 minutes. When you reach the end of a second wooden boardwalk, immediately move right down the scree. The Kontraband boulder is positioned on the right side a little ways down the scree.
The Seneca Stone: 70 minutes
(4) From the intersection simply head right along the contour path (6) for around 35 minutes until you reach the boulder. It is directly on the path on the left, so if you think you have missed it, you probably just need to walk a little further.
Note: A much more direct approach (45 minutes) to Seneca is to follow 1 onto 2 onto 3 onto 4 and then up to 6. Now just head right on the contour the boulder.
