October 2021

4km (2.4 miles)

  • Estimated time to complete according to brochure: 2-3 hours
  • Our time: 4.5 hours

If a hike is only 4km, there’s definitely no rush to start early, right? We therefore took our time and enjoyed a warm breakfast of Pronutro and a few cups of coffee and tea. After re-packing our bags and filling our water bottles, we walked over to the start of the trail at around 10:00. Let’s go!

We’re on the Rock Pigeon Route

At the start of the hike, the hike goes through the poplar plantation until you reach a few ruins from earlier days. The whole route is marked with stones that are stacked on top of each other or just laid out in a line to show you where to walk.

Here you can see the stones next to the route indicating the way
Walking through part of the poplar plantation
What a lovely path (we thought at first)
A ruin within the first kilometer

Although this area is well-known for beautiful spring flowers, we knew that most of these flowers would have been gone by now since we’re already in October. We were however still surprised to see quite a few pretty flowers during the next five days on our route.

Wildflowers on the trail

Just when we were completely relaxed, we came to the first of many ladders that we would have to use to climb up and down big rocks. For Berto this wasn’t really a problem, but for me (with my shorter legs and heavy backpack) it was quite a challenge. Sometimes I had to take off my backpack and hand it to Berto so I could climb up and down the ladder more comfortably.

Our first adder to help us down some big rocks

We then reached a turnoff where hikers on the multi-day hikes needed to go left.

Take the turnoff here that follows the two multi-day hikes

Once we took the turnoff, the trail heads over to the edge of the Saaikloof – seeing some interesting cracks and cliffs in the kloof (gorge).

But before we got to the edge, we had to work our way over some big rocks
On the edge of Saaikloof (no, we will not take that road … that’s too easy)
Walking on the edge (with rocks once again packed out on our right to indicate the route)

Now, this is where our brochure just mentioned that you have to keep walking for 3.6km until you reach your overnight camp – nothing was mentioned about quite a few ladders and rocks that still lay ahead.

Crossing a bridge over a stream

That’s also when our beautiful pathway disappeared and we came face to face with rock climbing/scrambling. Every now and then a path would appear, just for us to see more big rocks around the next corner we need to get ourselves over.

We need to get down this rock … say WHAT??
Oh, hang on … we need to get OVER these rocks … no way!
And work our way through some narrow spaces
Now, let’s get down here … and then up there again
Berto took my backpack at some of the bigger rocks to help me to get safely down or up

At some point, we got to a huge overhanging rock that gave wonderful shade. We took our backpacks off and rest here for a while.

Shade and a great spot to rest

And then it was back to climbing more rocks – happy days!

Up here …
Berto waiting for me to get down (yet another) ladder

Finally, we got to the top of the mountain from where we could spot our overnight camp, Brakwater.

On the left you’ll be able to spot the green roof of our overnight camp

But of course, we still had to walk down that mountain with a steep slope to get to our hut. And let me tell you, this is not so easy with legs now feeling like jelly after climbing all of those rocks.

Going down to our hut

Honestly, I was delighted to get to our overnight hut. I looked at Berto a bit worried and said:

“So, when they say the first 4km is just a walk in the park, what do you think lies ahead for the next four days?”

Brakwater, our overnight hut

All the huts are pretty much the same. There are 15 bunk beds, a table and two long benches. If you’re lucky, you may find a basin and shower. We only had a working shower in our first hut here at Brakwater (we will tell you more about our showers in the next posts). There is also a compost toilet located about 100 meters from the hut (so don’t forget to pack a flashlight or headlamp).

Bunk beds and table inside our hut

What about water?

Sometimes there would be containers filled with water in the huts, but other times (actually most of the times), we had to collect water from nearby fountains or the river. Since we had water available at this hut, we decided to wash our clothes. We only have two sets of clothes, and we’re not sure when the chance will come up again to do laundry.

Laundry hanging in the sun to dry

This was quite a day! In hindsight, it was probably not that strenuous (Berto will tell you – I tend to disagree), but we did not expect the terrain to be that rugged right at the beginning. The brochure mentions that the first 4km are not considered part of the route – apparently the actual route only starts the next day.

It was only the two of us in the hut (as was the case with each of the following days). So, after we’ve enjoyed a shower, done the washing, making our beds and packing out some stuff on the table, there was only one thing left to do.

No, it’s not a blood transfusion

Confession time: We brought some luxury with us. We thought a drink in the afternoon after a day of hiking, would be the perfect way of ending each day. Berto had the clever idea of filling a water bladder with red wine (we carry our water in two 1l bottles each), and I had a small 1l box of red wine in my backpack. But I will tell you more about this in the next post.

Tired feet (and that after just 4km). But hey, life is good – we have red wine to enjoy

Oh, and let’s not forget about our freeze-dried food. We have never tasted these before our trip – so, it was probably a bit of a risk to rely only on this for dinner on our hike. But oh boy, it was GREAT! Once we’ve added the hot water to the contents and let it stand for a couple of minutes, it tasted like a home cooked meal.

Tonight, it’s Creamy Parmesan Chicken
An amazing meal

We will conclude each day with a map of our route, as well as an elevation map. It’s difficult to explain to you how steep an uphill or downhill is, and there’s no indication of how many rocks or ladders we’ve climbed. Hopefully the maps will give you some idea.

Day 1 – Route map
Day 1 – Elevation map

So, what will tomorrow bring?

You will have to wait for the post on our second day. Because we had quite a rough night, which we’ll tell you all about in our next post. You can read about that, when you click here