Chobe, Botswana, November 2012

Below are a couple of photos from my amazing trip to Chobe, Botswana:

Ship's Prow marathon!

Back from an epic Ship's Prow hike - woohoo! We made it to the top in a day, but only just!!!

We were on a three day hike with the first day starting at Monk's Cowl office and hiking up Ship's Prow, a daunting 22km with the highest pass at 3300m in the Drakensberg! I was eager to leave Monk's Cowl campsite as I knew this was going to be a tough day!

By 6.50am the first people started hiking and the faster ones were soon separated from the slower hikers. We climbed all the way to Blindman's Corner where we took a 20 minute breather. There were five of us: Fernando, Anthony, Brigitte, Bernard and I. By the time we were ready to leave, the others had not caught up with us. We carried on along the contour path which was another 10km to Ship's Prow stream. Ship's prow Pass has two forks at the top and we had to take the left fork as the right one was nearly impossible to climb!

When we arrived at the bottom of the pass at 12pm, we saw Peter coming towards us in the distance. He soon caught up with us, as we were having lunch - he was so glad to have found us, he didn't want to get stuck with the slower crowd of 14 people.

We had a 45 minute lunch break to replenish and were about to leave when we saw the masses arrive in the distance. We waited for them all to get across the river before heading into the bed of boulders and bundu bashing.

The stream was flowing quite heavily. At times we found what seemed to look like a path only to lose it again and get stuck in the bushes. Our legs got scratched and the packs got stuck in the lower branches.

Eventually we got closer to where the pass narrows and the steep bit of serious boulder hopping starts, when Anthony could see a feint path leading up the left hand side and considered that route better than sticking in the boulder bed.

We filled up our water bottles for the last time and headed up the steep path. There we found the first of many cairns.

We followed this path all the way, going on and on and on. We were climbing in the mist by now and could not see the top of the pass but luckily we had 3 GPSs amongst us and we could keep progress of how much further it was. We were exhausted and still had 600 vertical meters to go!! We would have to take a rest every now and then. The higher we got the worse we felt. Eventually we would walk five steps and stop to catch our breath and rest our legs! Its not that we aren't used to altitude, all of us are strong seasoned berg hikers!

Finally the mist lifted and we could see the top...YAY!! Only about 100m. It took us over an hour to get up that last bit. 6.15pm we finally topped out, utterly wasted! I have never felt soo tired before!

It had become extremely cold, so we quickly put on warm gear, got out our headlamps and walked to the right over the ridge and down to the river. By 7pm we dropped our packs for the last time that day and pitched tents immediately. A cup of tea revived me again, but I struggled with the supper, I was simply too exhausted!

I was in my sleeping bag dozing off when I heard voices, someone said not to answer in case it was basuths, but then we saw the headlamps and realised it was our group arriving at 9.30pm. We couldn't believe it, we thought they would have camped on the way up the mountain somewhere, although that would have been difficult. They hadn't even had supper yet!

When I looked out of my tent the next morning, there was "tent city", buzzing with people. They all wanted to take a walk back to the pass to see it in daylight. Anthony, Peter and I, however, had breakfast, packed up and hiked towards Grey's Pass, a mere few kilometers away.

From the escarpment down the world was covered in mist so the views that are supposed to be so fantastic, were not to be seen. We climbed down carefully as it was wet and the rocks were slippery. Two hours later and we were down the pass with keith's bush camp to our right. We continued to the river and stopped for lunch.

Another 10km of contour path, most of it on a gentle rise, which was quite tiring after the strenuous previous day. Eventually we arrived at Blindman's Corner campsite and pitched our tents. We were sitting around having tea, when Stephen and Keith arrived. They had turned back the day before, as Keith was cramping and Stephen was struggling with altitude. We had a lovely evening with the mist closing in on us, chatting and eating non stop.

Sunday morning was an easy one hour stroll down the mountain back to our cars.

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Snow Hike in the Drakensberg, September 2012

Saturday morning we check in at Giant's Castle resort and sign the mountain rescue register. We meet some people telling us that Bannerman's Pass is impossible to climb, we will break a leg. This guy knows because he mapped out the area!! Anyway, we just shrug it off and start our hike towards Bannerman's Pass. The Berg is covered with a layer of snow and the closer we get, the more excited we are.

We have lunch at Bannerman's hut and then slowly make our way towards the Pass. The first encounter with the snow is slippery and I start to worry, this could be worse than I thought. However, soon the snow becomes thicker and that worry is over! Now, I am knee deep in the snow, having to lift my legs high out of the holes I make. Making progress is very slow and hard work.

Soon I start to sink in thigh deep and getting out is a mission.

By 5.30 we are finally on top and quickly find a spot to pitch our tents.

The mist rolls in and we can't see a thing, so we have to melt snow for water. We climb into our sleeping bags, make supper, and soon pass out, as it's been a long day. The next morning we wake up to sunshine and a most glorious day:

We have breakfast, pack up and start hiking towards Langalibalele Pass.

Going around past Bannerman's cave the slope is iced up completely and its like we are on an icerink but at a 45 degree angle. We are slipping, holding onto our sticks for dear life, slowly trying to move down the mountain to softer snow. Eventually when its safe, I sit down and slide down the last bit but rapidly accelerating that it becomes scary and I brake by ramming my stick into the solid ground. I nearly jerk out my arm but I've come to a standstill. Now its back to soft deep snow, which is so much hard work again, that Penny eventually crawls on all fours to distribute her weight. Just before the pass we come to a river and have a well earned cuppa tea.

Going down the pass is fairly easy, steven follows the footprints of an animal that knows the exact track and soon we are back below the snow line. We have to strip instantly as the temperatures down below are so much warmer. By 4.30 we are back at our vehicle and have a long journey back to Joh'burg.

Fish River Canyon hike, August 2012

Last week a group of eight travelled to Namibia, six of whom would hike the Fish River Canyon. The other two had come along to spend a couple of days at Ais Ais. Shortly before arriving at Hobas, the start of the hike, we stopped at the Canyon Roadhouse for lunch. What an interesting place: lots of ancient vehicles placed in strategic places all around the restaurant. The lunch was delicious.

Group photo before we start. From right to left: Ulrike, Heinz, Penny, Joe, Don and Sabine

We descended the precarious path causiously, negotiating the rocks with care.

We had hardly descended 10m when Ulrike, my sister, said that her boot was falling apart - the sole had come loose!! Nothing could be done and she had to climb down very carefully so as not to trip with this gaping boot. Once at the bottom, she and Joe, our gadget man, pondered over how to fix this boot. Ulrike finally "drilled" holes into the top and bottom part of the boot with the sharp point of scissors and threaded through a thin but strong piece of string, which Joe then tied very tightly. The second boot was going to come loose the next day when she had to repeat the procedure and tie that boot as well. The knots held very well and she could walk without a problem. She did, however, end up with loads of sand in her boots.

The next morning we scrambled across big boulders and walked through thick sand. This part of the canyon is still fairly narrow and walking is tough.

We came across a vespa that has been standing here since the 60's, when five guys wanted to ride the canyon in their vespas. This one got the furthest, which is about 3km into the hike. The others all perished way before.

Evenings were spent chatting next to a roaring fire - there was plenty driftwood to be found (except for the first night where we really struggled to find enough). We had two pots in which we cooked our meals, that Penny and I had bought, prepared and divided out for everyone to carry equally. I had forgotten potholders, so we used sticks to carefully remove the pots from the hot fire to stir or check the progress. We ate like kings and there were leftovers every night for whoever was hungry to have for breakfast!

We were looking forward to the hot sulphur springs on day two, where we could soak our weary muscles. However the water was so hot that we nearly got burnt. By splashing some cold water into the hot, I managed to cool it down ever so slightly to try and get accustomed to the heat. We all resembled lobsters afterwards.

We found a sandy spot for our camp every night and would sleep under a starry sky. As it was close to new moon and there was absolutely no light pollution, the stars were amazing - there were so many one could hardly identify the easy ones! I would lie in my sleeping bag watching the sky and looking out for satellites and shooting stars, and then fall asleep blissfully. Early mornings were chilly but never too cold.

Boulder hopping is something one either loves or hates on the Fish, and careful placement of the feet is important not to twist an ankle. There are many sections like this one, here with "Table Mountain" in the background.

Reflections in the water are a highlight to me on the Fish:

We even had some rain, which is something of a rarity in this part of the country in winter. So, after we got rained upon the one night, Joe built us a shelter the next night with all our groundsheets and his rope that he cut up in pieces. It turned out a work of art and held us dry for the few drops it did rain. The following morning we were rewarded with the most stunning sunrise:

Joe had to try out his fishing line that he placed into the water one evening using dry wors as bait. He proudly showed us what he had caught the next morning:

All too soon the hike was over and we arrived in Ais Ais