Links
I picked Nicola up from her parents place, driving without incident north on the N1 until we reached Potgietersrus (Mokopane). We arrived in the dark and walked up to our hut in complete darkness. We dumped our stuff in front of our ridiculously small hut (Huilboerboon) – cupboard sized, just large enough to fit the mattresses. Then I heard Shirley’s voice and soon she explained the rest of them were higher up at another hut as they arrived in pouring rain and couldn’t use the braai area at our hut. The higher hut didn't really have space for us so we left our stuff there and joined the rest of the group at their hut for a late dinner.
After a restless night, plagued by mozzies, we ate early and met the others at their hut at 07:30. The trail started by climbing immediately in a large zig-zag on the hill west of our huts. The trail was reasonably well cut and weed killer was obviously used too. The weather was cloudy and warm but very pleasant to hike in. We soon overtook a second group of hikers and met them again when we rested at the summit of the trail (around 1680m). The views were quite pretty but we were severely distracted by some serious grooming caused by some of the worst blackjack infestations I’ve seen in a long time. The trail descended the hill again and soon we were walking back towards camp, arriving just before noon back at the camp. The showers were really good now that the sun was shining and we spent the rest of the afternoon chatting at the upper hut. A Spotted Bush snake and Yellow-fronted tinkerbird provided entertainment and the cut Eddie received on his knee when he tumbled down a large boulder received a lot of attention. The fire was started at 4pm, dinner consisting of flat beans, courgettes and chicken kebabs. Just before it became completely dark, Nicola and I walked back to our hut. Unfortunately, even closing the door as tight as possible and rubbing Peaceful sleep all over Nicola, didn’t deter the mosquitoes at all and we had another bad night.
When we got up the next morning we were tired and decided not to hike, but rather go do some birding at the nearby Percy Fyfe nature reserve. We arrived before a locked gate with no obvious signs of life and then turned around and went back home. The trail itself is not badly laid out and it was an enjoyable weekend, despite the blackjack and khakibos infestations.
No comments:
Post a Comment