It starts yet again in the stunning Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve and crosses the mountains via a pass to the Harold Porter Gardens on the coast. The walk should not have been a serious stretch, except that is exactly how I found it. In mitigation, all of my walks in the local environment have been through fairly flat country and this was the first time recently that I have tested myself on the slopes. I am not talking about anything extreme. In the event, the high point of my walk was only 338m, but in the extreme 35deg C heat, I found the climb exhausting and dehydrating.
As I set out, I passed a large group of rather elderly walkers who were similarly buying permits to walk in the reserve. They seemed a bit past it, but I should have taken more careful note! They had those sun-tanned and muscular calves that indicated they were not novices in these mountains! I was determined to get ahead of them so they wouldn’t hold me up during my accent of the pass. Inexorably, as I climbed the mountain they closed in on me. I found myself threatened by their imminence. I kept saying to myself that I had to be responsible. I needed to keep a check on my heart-rate and my general state of exhaustion. At the same time, I didn’t want to suffer the ignominy of them passing me on the trail! What would I say? Every time I took a rest, I would hear muffled sounds that could have been them, and from time to time, I would see them on the trail not far behind me.
I couldn’t believe that such a group of old people could be that fit! I stretched myself further, heart pumping, legs aching. I thought of Veronica scolding me for being absolutely puerile in trying to keep ahead. Despite all my efforts they were still gaining on me! For those of you old enough to remember “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, it became an issue of “Who ARE those guys?” In the end, I did give them the slip. It seems that they were faster on the uphill, but when the mountain goat in me started skipping down the other side of the pass, they simply couldn’t follow at the same speed and I lost them. (Probably that had nothing to do with it. They may just have stopped for lunch!)
In the end, I can’t say that I really enjoyed the climb. Admittedly, I was going up a mountain pass significantly higher than I will encounter in most of the English countryside, and the heat and dehydration were far worse than I expect to encounter, but the fact is that I covered only half the distance that I will have to average per day in England, and I didn’t have a full pack on my back. I was exhausted at the end, with legs like jelly.
Towards the end I was descending a scary zig-zag path, complete with stainless steel chains and wooden boardwalks to assist the amateur walker in safely traversing this difficult and vertical terrain. It is another feature of this extraordinary environment that the curators see the need to create such amazing assistance for the very few customers who may benefit from the experience.
It was a genuine pleasure to find Veronica in the Harold Porter Gardens at the end of the walk. I had spoken to her intermittently by mobile during the walk, at least from the top of the pass onwards from where I could see Betty’s Bay and where I finally found a mobile signal, so she was expecting me and was trying to identify me as a speck on the face of the cliff as I descended. I found her sitting comfortably in the shade, thoroughly enjoying the beauty of the formal gardens with its simply extraordinary fijnbos flora. A real sense of coming home from the wild!
The start of the walk, through the Kogelberg fijnbos
This, I think, is a fire daisy, because I found it in a burnt out patch. Veronica isn't convinced!
Hard work in 35deg heat!
A red Watsonia, also propagated by fire!
Veronica's favourite "Blousterretjie" or "little blue star", also a beneficiary of fire!
A welcome respite in the cool of the riverine forest. The cool mountain stream also helped!
A look down from the pass to the valley below from whence I came! Big sky country!
And at last! The top of the pass with Betty's Bay in the distance!
Rugged topography and more tough going, but the end is in sight!
A board-walk in the bush! The slope is much steeper than it appears!
Those are my feet! This is a view looking vertically downwards. The chains were a big help!
As if there wasn't enough to worry about already!
Finally, civilisation in the Harold Porter Gardens
And lovely Veronica, waiting patiently in the shade!
I was too exhausted to enjoy the beauty of the gardens! A reason to return!
4 comments:
I get what you mean by sun-tanned and muscular calves-- a condition to be sought after, but not so easily attained. However your training grounds are highly spectacular... I refrain from giving any frivolous advice
Richard, by all means I need all the advice I can get, frivolous or not! Great to hear from you. I thought I had lost you back in the Kogelberg! I agree that these are spectacular places to explore. Warm regards, Kevin
Like Veronica, I too am concerned about your health (truly) and, not to sound a defeatist note, there is an alternative -- instead of LEJOG there is LEWALK - this is from Lands End to Wales... now the last time I saw you in Wales, you were being savaged by a sheep, but you need not worry, I have spoken to my tribespeople and your safety there is assured. You may at this point be pleased to know that just 2 months ago, while walking deep in thought across the fields, I cam face to face with a south african breed Dorper cross Ram (possibly crossed with an Irish bog billy goat??). Of course I turned tail to flee, but alas I am not so nimble any more (was I ever?), and was butted firmly in the arse landing face down in the dirt. The herd-boys were hard pressed to look suitably concerned, when they were really bursting to laugh... let this sustain you as you foot it across the mountains... affectionately yours etc
So Richard, now I have to add to the all the other dangers I face, including snakes, winds, mists and falling rocks, the perils of irritated sheep, not to mention aggressive cows! As you well know, my instinct, as yours, is to turn tail and flee, hopefully with more cunning and less ignominy!
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