Baboons in the mist

To get into training for climbing Mt Kilimanjaro on 8th August, we had found a 5 day walk through the northern Drakensburg mountain. We hoped it would stretch our legs, test our stamina (as well as our ability to go unwashed for 5 days) and ultimately help us shed some of the pounds we had gained sitting behind office desks and eating fat cakes!

We had booked ourselves on the Baz Bus to Nelspruit. On the morning we were due to leave, we had to head over to another hostel in Joburg to meet the bus. We had booked our friend Simon and his taxi to take us, but didn't reckon on having to jump start his car...twice. Luckily the bus was running on Africa time so - car mainteance aside - we had plenty of time to take in once last view of the city. The drive to Nelspruit was long but fine and we enoyed earwigging in on our travellers' tales during the journey. At Nelspruit we were met by Laura who drove us on to Sabie - the little town in the valley of the hills we would be walking. The hostel we were staying at was owned by a gruff but helpful Afrikaans family. The rooms were rustic to say the least and our en suite gave us a surprise - it was literally a toilet in the corner of the bedroom! Safe to say, we gave each other a lot of privacy when it was time to 'go'! The town of Sabie was quiet and rural and we could still sense the old segregation in the bars and shops we visited. But as a base it was good enough for us to stock up on our supplies for the next 5 days.

We had chosen the Fanie Botha self-guided hike which took 5 days and covered about 70kms. We would be staying in huts along the way, but with no electricity or hot water, it would be basic and we had to carry and cook all our own food.

The next morning, laden down with a week's worth of cup a soups, noodles, tuna and rice cakes, we start the walk. OUr first day was an easy start. Only 8km to the first hut so we could afford to pace ourselves. While not as high as Kili, we had increassed our altitude so had to get use to the slightly thinner air and the hot sunny weather. We had been going nearly two hours and decided to stop by a river for lunch. Along the river bank we got to watch a troope of baboons climbing the trees and eating berries. We packed up our lunch and got ready for the next leg of the walk, only to turn a corner and see the hut we were due to stay in that night. We had misjudged our pace and had already arrived! At least we had a chance to relax for the rest of the day. I spent most of the afternoon fascinated by swarms of crickets that were emerging out of holes all over the lawn and moving in formation over to the plants they wanted to eat. It was like watching a cross  between insect milatary manoeveres and Cirque de Soleil! Check out the pictures at: http://gallery.me.com/guypattison

We met up with Albert the warden who was walking around in a fetching pair of pyjamas! Guy then spent the night indulging in some quality grrr man-time by cooking on a primus and stoking the fire! The next morning we purchased two of Albert's finest looking walking staffs before heading on to Stables Hut. Our walk took us over streams and passed waterfalls that could have come straight out of Rivendell. We then hit our first steep climb. All the way up we kept saying how good it was for Kili! Unfortunately the reward of views we were promised at the top, didn't quite materialise as the cloud had descended and obscured everything further than 2 metres away!

When we finally reached Stables Hut we met John, the warden, and gasped our way through the coldest rain-water shower! We then quickly warmed ourselves up in front of John's expert fire. We were quickly learning that after the sun sets and after we've eaten our noodles, there's not really much more to do so found ourselves retiring to bed at 7.30pm!

The next day, we had our toughest. It wasn't so much the distance as the terrain. The rocky paths were tough on the ankles and most of the day we were going up rather than down. The cloud was still low - so still no sign of the spectacular views over Sabie Valley that made the Fanie Botha walk so enjoyable. We couldn't see anything and we could only hear the bark of baboons somewhere amongst the mist. Some of the started to sounds quite close so we quickly discussed how we would fend off an angry baboon with our staffs. We agreed on something that resembled Gandalf fighting the Baorog in LOTR - "You shall not passsssssss!".

We also realised as the day passed that we hadn't got enough food to eat. Our tuna and rice cakes at lunch hadn't given us quite enough carbs to make it up the remaining hills and we were running low on energy - an important lesson learnt for Kili. We devoured the remaining Laughing Cow cheese cubes, gritted our teeth and pushed on. After a few too many exclaimations of "I think it's just over this hill", we finally made it to Mac Mac Hut, managed by the enigmatic and silent Ishmael. Our relief at arriving made us crack open an extra pack of noodles! We ate hungrily, sat round the fire quietly, before retiring to bed at 6.30pm. It was getting earlier and earlier!

Day 4 brought the sun out and although we were walking through covered forests for the first half, we finally emerged out on some of these famous views we had read so much about! Our route to Grasskop Hut took us through more agricultural land and we watched women and children cutting wood and grass for fuel and to feed animals. Some of the bundles they lifted were huge and made our backpacks feel very small and light in comparison. We arrived at the hut at 1pm and had the afternoon to relax. We had another super cold shower and then reheated back in the sun. Our warden Elvis was friendly but quickly disappeared into town for his Friday night out! We were left with a very smokey fire and....more noodles!

Our last day was long so we wanted to set off early to get a goood start on the day. We hadn't bargained on our gas stove running out though, so breakfast was a little meagre! We were off by 7 and were feeling good. The day was beautiful and the landscape was rolling up and down around our path. We had one giant climb ahead of us so had saved our last 'power bar' and with the extra fuel and some steely determination, we began our ascent. We walked up a 45 degree slope for 45 minutes but when we finally emerged at the top we felt good. This walk had always been about preparing for Kili and we were worried that the month we'd spent behind a deskk in Jozi had made us 'soft' But the climb had reassured us that our fitness was back and we were starting to feel excited and ready for the 'big one' - Kili. We romped to end and had finished 23km by 1pm. Not bad going.

Back at the hostel we gratefully had a shower and went into town to find some food that wasn't rice cakes or noodles. We luckily also ran into Daryl. Our guide from the Apartheid Museum in Joburg was now going to be our guide through Botswana, going into the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park. We checked all the details of the trip with him and it was clear pretty soon that Daryl was 'on it'. We agreed to meet early the next morning at 6am to start a new African adventure.