Nicola picked me up from the airport and we headed straight out towards Balfour. The directions were fairly straight forward although the 16km gravel road we had to travel on was certainly not the best in the world. We arrived sometime after 6pm to find Eddie, Shirley, Karen and Edith already there and settled. We were delighted to hear that we got upgraded to the cottage next to the main farmhouse where there was electricity, fridge, microwave, hot water and all kinds of luxuries we shouldn’t get too used to. Mike and Moira arrived shortly after us and as Eddie had already got the fire going earlier, it wasn’t long before various pieces of dead flesh were sizzling away. After dinner we still chatted late into the night before going to bed.
Day 1 (08 Nov): The bunch of tame peacocks roaming around the farmhouse woke us early but a cup of coffee soon dispelled the sleepiness. By 06:45 we were ready to go and with a cloudy sky and cool breeze at our backs, we headed into the veld. We first walked past the hiker’s hut where we would’ve stayed had we not been upgraded and then turned north through some cattle grazing and into low hills. The trail was reasonably well marked through the short grass and it was quite obvious that we were going to climb onto every single koppie and hill we could see. We took a few breaks along the way but there was very little of interest along the trail. At some point the trail turned back to cross the entrance road to the farm and then approached a small farm dam surrounded by large gum trees where Black-headed herons had built a large heronry. This was our lunch spot – the shady gums provided welcome relief from the sun that had now started blazing down in the late morning. With lunch done the path traced back to the road and then appeared to head over yet another hill before taking a longish roundabout route back to the farm. My feet were sore and I’d had enough of the purposeless path so I whipped out the GPS, got a heading back to the farm and walked straight for it with Nicola, Moira and Karen joining me. Just before 1pm we were back at the farm cottage with the rest of the group trickling in over the next fifteen minutes. A quick shower was blissful in the hot afternoon and we spent the rest of the afternoon chatting in the cottage’s cool lounge. Despite threatening thunder and lightning, we didn’t get any rain and just before 5pm, Nicola got the braai fire going. After dinner the farm’s owner brought us imported pear cider from Sweden that had been delivered to them by mistake and never picked up again – it was delicious! With the alcohol doing it’s trick, we made it to bed quite a bit earlier than yesterday.
Day 2 (09 Nov): All of us except Karen were again ready by 06:45 and again we first walked to the hiking hut from where the shorter Day 2 started. The path wound up the first koppie of the day where we spotted Blesbok, Red hartebeest and Zebra in the distance. Northern black korhaans were calling loudly from all over the grasslands and they were joined by Cape longclaws, Wing-snapping and Zitting cisticolas, Diderick cuckoo and the ever-present Hadeda ibis. At a rest stop in between some acacias, Edith spotted a Spotted eagle-owl in a tree but it unfortunately flew off just as I had the camera ready. We saw another two eagle-owls as the path started circling back towards the farmhouse and along a stream that fed several small farm dams we also notched up Commmon greenshank, Spurwing goose and Hamerkop. We were back at the cottage by 10am and had a quick shower before we left for home.
Although not a particularly memorable hike, it was good to get out in the veld again and meet up with old friends and good company.
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