Permits

The year is almost at its end and everyone is busy finishing up. I decided that me and @fermentedphil needed to escape from home otherwise we would both go mad. I found a hiking trail long ago which was an hour away. It is located in the North West province in the Magalies mountains. You have to request a permit at the MCSA to access this trail. They only allow 20 people per day in order to protect the environment. At first I wanted to take my parents along so I tried to book for a Saturday, but it was fully booked until middle December. The only time there was space available was in the week. I made a booking for the 26th of October after a lot of emails with the administration. You have to pay R40 per person and take R60 in cash for parking. I was a bit anxious after I paid and have not received my permit as it is stated on the previous emails that you will get it directly after you paid. The day got closer as it was already the 25th of October and I still have not received it. Just as I was about to call the office I got the email with my permit attached. There were four files: the permit, the map, parking details and how to clean up after yourself in the bush.

The permit contained various warnings, but I have done my own research and found that two people drowned in the pools. One must always take extreme precautions when hiking, nature is not your friend and you have to respect it. There were emergency numbers attached, but it came with a note stating that it would take a while if there were any emergencies as the location is quite remote. We knew that we were going alone so we agreed that we would not swim in the pools and we traced out the path on a GPS the previous night.

Morning

Because it is an hour’s drive away, we decided to be on our way at around 6:45. We drove on the highway for a long time until we entered the town Mooinooi. On our way to the parking the tar road stopped and we had to drive on a dirt road. It was nerve-racking because of the loose rocks and sand. It was 5km of this dirt road when we eventually arrived, but was it the right place?

The farm

We parked in front of an old broken down caravan next to a giant goose cage. Not a single person was in sight. I went to the caravan and saw the logbook. I signed it and put the R60 into the little tin can. @fermentedphil saw one of the farm workers and waved him over. He was friendly and gave us directions to the beginning of the trail. The reason we had to walk a bit before beginning the trail was because the parking space moved further down the farm. The reason being because of hikers disrespecting the owners. We thanked him and followed his directions. After climbing over two makeshift ladders to go over the fence and a sign written in the sand, we were on the right track.

Ready, set, lower dome pools

Up the hill we went under the increasing heat of the sun. The path was easy to follow where it went over the mountain and into the small valley. We started to hike next to the river and stopped various times to dip our hands into the water. At about 5km of hiking we found these breathtaking rock formations with various waterfalls and pools. It looked like remnants of a lost city.

Circles

The path ascended on top of the big rock and so we climbed the rocks which made perfect stairs. On top @fermentedphil saw something dropping out of the corner of his eye. He thought he was going to look up and see a baboon, but what he saw was a frog that leaped from higher up. It gave him quite the fright!

He told me to wait on the rock and that he would climb up further to see if the path continued. While I waited, I peeked over the edge and saw how high we really were. Then I saw the suicidal frog and he jumped the whole way down where I lost sight of it. @fermentedphil returned and he told me there were no path. We climbed down and walked in circles for a while until I felt dizzy and asked if we could eat something as we have not eaten anything yet.

Picnic and semi-panic

We sat in the shade and removed our hot hiking boots. The water felt refreshing between my toes and the sandwich tasted delicious. @fermentedphil was still confused over the trail. There was no signal for us to use the GPS to see where we were. It did not make sense, but the map said “Do not take the distinct trail” which was a bit confusing in itself. We saw that our water had dropped significantly and we only had a litre left. There was no way we could hike another 3km-5km and back in that heat of 35°C without dehydrating or suffering from a heat stroke. We talked and decided that we should rather head back as we had seen the lower pools which were divine and it would be safer if we went back to the car.

What was that?

We were hiking back when we heard the faint bark of baboons up ahead. The reason we heard it was because of the echo against the mountains. It was strange to hear the bark when we were so far back. When we got to the place where we speculated the baboons were, we heard a growl. Me and @fermentedphil stopped in out tracks and gave each other a serious look. It was a deep growl and not that of a baboon. It sounded more like a hippopotamus, but that was impossible. We hurried on when we heard it again and increased our speed.

Almost the end

After a while we were under the mountain and before we started the descend we took a water break. I looked up and saw a small snake going over the branches over our heads! It had a greenish appearance. When I looked around to show @fermentedphil it had already disappeared. That was just another reason for us to hurry to the car.

After the mountain and the unnecessary walk back, we arrived at the parking. I was overjoyed to get out of my hiking boots as it felt like I was walking on hot coals in that heat. And so we were on our way home with the AC on full blast.

At home

When we arrived home we took a cold shower and a long nap. Me and @fermentedphil were both curious about where we stopped. We went on the GPS and low and behold we were a few metres away from the path we had to take to go to the actual pools. @fermentedphil deemed it a blessing in disguise that we lost the path. The path ahead was in direct sunlight and we would have definitely gotten dehydrated.

[Source: Screenshot from alltrails.com]

I found some disturbing information of my own. I read about a route next to the one we did, Castle Gorge which I also wanted to do, of someone seeing a leopard and so everything clicked. Baboons are a leopard’s favourite meal and that bark we heard in the mountain were not a warning because of us but maybe because of a leopard. It sent a chill down my spine to know it may have been a leopard and the only thing we had to defend ourselves with was a hiking stick.

I am glad we were not harmed and made it safely home. It was quite the journey. In total we hiked 9,49km which does not seem that bad, but the heat made it feel more intense. We are going back in the future, but on a much cooler day.

The end for now

Thank you for reading my post. If you want to try it out for yourself I suggest you go in a big group. Until we meet again, happy hiking!

(The post is my own creation about our experience and the photographs were taken either with my or @fermentedphil’s iPhone/Nikon D300.)