Hiking in winter

The Uitsoek Hiking Trail Camp.

We are back from a weekend (2 nights) hike in the escarpment. It's a wonderful experience to hike in South Africa in the winter. Quite cold during the night, but one or two hours after sunrise it's very nice and warm, this weekend around +25!







The hike we made in March happened to coincide with the warmest day at that time of year in this part of Africa in many decades, with mid-day temperature of +40! But this time it was just VERY nice...










We left on Friday afternoon, and arrived at the Uitsoek Hut, about 50 km from Nelspruit, just before sunset. We had a very nice braai in the evening, that Garrit, my brother-in-law, and Marie arranged with all their expertise.



































After a good night's sleep in our sleeping bags in the hut we were ready for the first hike on Saturday morning. I took some nice pictures of the view from the hut.
The trail is about 11 km long, and it has a rating of "Moderately Difficult", which is probably about 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. Our destination was the Bakkraans Waterfall. The whole hike took about 6 hours! It's definately not as walking on a sidewalk in town... You have to watch every step. But there is also very much to look at... nice flowers, beautiful trees, and even some monkeys...






In the evening we had a nice lamb curry that Robert and Annelie cooked on an open fire. Everybody went to bed quite early and slept for 10-11 hours!
In the morning it was time for a big breakfast that me and Leona cooked. Lots of stirfried veggies, and bacon and scrambled eggs.
After that it was time for the second trail. And then return to Nelspruit... A fantastic weekend! All the nice flowers... not a single mosquito... not even a snake... just one spider, a couple of monkeys and lots of nice birds!
To hike here in winter... wearing nothing but shorts and a short-sleeved shirt/T-shirt, is really wonderful.






Protea flowers



















































Aloe flowers