On Friday the 15th of March Malika, Tristan, James and I went to Groot Winterhoek for James’ springbok hike. The first day of the hike we were hiking up a valley to Groot Kliphuis. There were lots of prickly and spiky bushes and branches that scratched everyone’s legs. We arrived at the beginning of the hike a bit later than expected and because of this we hiked into the dark which was fun but we were all very tired. We were over the moon when we saw a sign pointing us to the oak tree where we were going to sleep. We had wraps for supper with hot chocolate and went to bed.
The next day we set off and hiked at a very good speed arrived at a hut 1km from where we were spending the night and decided to eat lunch there in the shade as it was quite hot. At around 2pm we decided to go to Die Hel which is a really beautiful natural pool with a stunning waterfall that we swam at. Getting down to Die Hel was tough but it was worth it. When we arrived at the ‘campsite’ we were staying the night at. We started making supper which was pasta. It was delicious and we had all been looking forward to it the whole day.
In the morning we packed our bags, ate breakfast and off we went. That day we hiked mostly up the valley and over the mountains. At one point we had to take our shoes off to walk through a shallow river that was going over the path. There was a really nice, big rockpool that we stopped at to have a quick swim. After wee swam we dried off and continued hiking. Around 1pm we got to the end of the hike and we were all exhausted and hot as it was the hottest day of the hike. All in all it was a really great, scenic hike and we had lots of fun.
– Juliet D’Arcy-Evans
