I never thought I’d do something like this but a confluence of hikes and beach walks have put almost 170 kilometres on my legs in July alone so far!!!! That’s insane!!! And right now I’m amped because I just got myself new hiking boots that are begging to be walked in.
Here are all the hikes and walks in order of date:
The months started on the beach in Hout Bay walking a with a dear friend who is dealing with the effects of long COVID messing with her heart rate and BP.
Next up was the epic waterfall hike to Skeleton Gorge on Table Mountain with my sister.
My afternoon beach walk to loosen up the legs after the weekends hiking.
Sunrise beach walk with my bestie to catchup before the epic adventure in the Outeniqua Mountains.
Day 1of our 5 day hike through the Outeniqua mountains. Hiking through dense bush and forest passed elephant, buck and bushpig footprints, while we carried our backpacks!
Day 2 of our adventure and it was technical and steep with river crossings, ladders, narrow bridges on mountain sides and an abseil down a steel wire with no harnesses 😳
Day 3 and the day of the Jonkersberg peak ascent followed by a Jurassic first of ferns before the long uphill climb to the next hut.
Day 4 was a fast start to a long day of gentle ups and downs through cold forest followed by an exposed section as we walked through low fynbos and then back into the forest to cut across to our final night in the mountains.
Day 5 was our shortest walking day and the only day that we got rained on (hello poncho). But the finish was rewarded with a hot latte and pancakes.
After 3 days of rest for the feet to recover (the rest of me felt great) we headed to Cape Point Nature Reserve on the tip of Africa for another overnight hike. Day 1 was long but one of the bonuses was slack packing and only carrying a day pack! Hallelujah!!!!
Day 2 of our Cape Point hike was more intense and rocky but shorter in distance with home in sight!
A cool down hike on Table Mountain contour from Kloof steps to Devils Peak steps in support of my sister. She’s been fundraising to supplement her staffs salaries as the hotel industry in SA has been brought to its knees. I’ll do a full blog on this soon.
And finally the Elephants Eye hike with the family last Saturday. I found this one easy but my feet started moaning after about 5kms. Time for new shoes because this month has made sure that my shoes worked extra hard. You’ve got to take advantage of these beautiful winter days. I’ll blog this one soon too.
There were a couple short warm up runs to add to the mix but Strava didn’t always come to the party. I’m always disappointed when my technology lets me down. But for the most part it’s all held up beautifully even through the 5-day hike with no electricity.
I’m loving life right now and planning the next phase of this hiking adventure.
This has been one crazy month!!!!
There are individual full blogs for most of these hike on my profile so head on over for the nitty gritty of the adventures.
