Kgaswane Game Reserve Summit Trail

You either love hiking, or you hate it, there is no in-between.

Me and my husband are one of those, “We LOVE hiking, when are we going on our next hiking trip?”

So after a very long, boring two years of absolutely no hiking, we jumped at the opportunity to go on a hiking trail with my parents. Whom if I might add are also those “We LOVE hiking” kinda people, but their last hiking trip was with me before I even met my husband, about six years ago (so you can imagine).

For a long time we were talking of going on a hiking trip with my parent, but with busy lifestyles, we somehow always managed never to have the same weekends open, after a lot of talking we finally got a weekend that would work for both parties.

I finally had the opportunity to start planning a hiking trip, and it had to be close to where we live so we don’t spend too much time diving as we could only leave the city after 5 pm Friday and had to be back by Monday morning.

About a week after we had the date of the weekend we wanted to go I saw an article on Facebook from a hiking page that I like, Hiking South Africa about a beautiful trail about an hour and a half drive from us. I immediately send an email to the contact they gave in the article to do the bookings. The next day I got an email back saying that they are not the people of the reserve but that they have forwarded my email to the correct person.

About two days later I received a phone call from a lady saying that she was from the reserve and if I had any queries that I should give her a ring or send an email, so I send the mail saying how many people we were and when we wanted to go. She sends me an email back with a quote, and I made the payment, asking her that she will please send me the confirmation that they have received it that we don’t have any problems at the gate when we arrive.

The time was coming near, about two weeks from the hiking weekend and I still haven’t received my confirmation letter, so I send a second email asking for it. Again, nothing happened, so I phone them. Eventually, after a long struggle, I received the letter, and we were ready to hit the road.

That Thursday night my dad got really sick, so bad that he and my mom decided that he should not do the hike with us but rather just drive from hut to hut. The Friday after work we were all pack and ready to go on this long deserved trip. But we did not count on the major accident that afternoon, a drive that should not have taken us more than an hour and a half became three and a half hours, so we arrived at dark to closed gates, with no light or any human being.

Because we could only leave the city after work, I knew that we would arrive after the gates closed so I arranged with the lady that we will arrive late, but she said that it wasn’t a problem. So you can understand the utter confusement when we came to this closed gate with no living being in sight! I started making plans about how we should arrange our bags so we can sleep in the car but my mother wanted none of that, she refused to even think of sleeping in the uncomfortable car after the long week and ordered my dad to start looking for a guest house nearby. So while my dad was doing cheap bed hunting on his phone we went to the garage to get some coffee, which ended up in only Jeandre getting coffee because the machine magically broke after one cup poured. By now I was not up to doing this trip any more, I mean really, I have been struggling from the beginning to get the letter that we can actually go, to the really long drive, the closed gates and now not even a cup of coffee! I was really not feeling this trip anymore.

When we got back to the car, my dad got us a place about 5 min from where we were, and he said that the lady has even offered two separate rooms for us for the same price as one room when she heard that we were two couples. About 9 pm that night we finally had a place to sleep for the night, we said our goodnight and wasted no time to get in those beds. The next morning the alarm went off at 5:30, we got dressed loaded our bags and had the most fantastic breakfast, while we were enjoying our meal we were talking about how cheap this accommodation was for everything that we got, questioning how the lady even makes money. Then it came out that she has made a colossal mistake on the website that her guesthouse was priced and that we were actually supposed to pay triple the amount that was charged. But the lady was very friendly and said that it’s ok, and we don’t have to pay the other amount as my dad has also helped her a lot because of his knowledge with the booking websites as he has a guesthouse of his own.

Our tummies were really full as we headed back to the gate that was closed the previous night. We arrived at an open gate this time with amiable ladies saying that someone was waiting for us last night but we never showed. But somehow no one ever got the message through to me with the right instructions to the actual gate where the hikers start, they only gave us the directions to the main entrance of the reserve. So, once again we drove away from the main gate to another gate about 10 min from there where a security guard greeted us and gave us our map.

About 10 min into the hike we came across the most beautiful huts were we were supposed to sleep in the first night, there we decided that someday we should definitely come back even if it’s just to sleep in those huts.

Before the first km was completed we already started climbing that mountain, and within the first hour, we started searching for markers all over telling you where the track is marked in a faded yellow.

The first few hours of walking was really breathtaking, cloudy and a bit windy but the weather was great for hiking. We saw a lot of wild, zebra, impala, nyala, buffalo, etc. Lunchtime we wandered a bit of the track to a nearby stream and filled our tummies.

After lunch, we quickly got back on the track and started walking at a quicker pace as we realized that it was getting late and we still had a long way to go. We finally reached the highest point of the trail, took some photos and were off again, walking up and down literally every mountain that you see.

By the time we were halfway down the mountain with the highest point, we suddenly stopped seeing those faded yellow pointer. By this time it was way past 3 pm, the sun was burning our skin and our water bottles were getting empty. We backed tracked our footsteps to find the markers again but every time we found the last marker we couldn’t find the next faded yellow sign, so about 20 min after searching for the marker we decided that its best we start walking in the direction that we think the next cabin will be because its soon going to be dark and we are definitely not moving forward by just searching for the missing markers.

We knew that my dad was waiting to meet us somewhere about 1 km before we reach the cabin to give us a “motivational drink”, so we knew that he will be getting worried because of the time and no sign of us so we tried to phone him but we were so deep in the mountains that we had no signal, we decided on sending him an SOS using an SMS and when we got to signal the message will go through. So onward we walked, making paths were maybe no man has ever walked (or at least that’s exactly how it felt to me).

I was walking in shorts, which I normally don’t do but all my jeans were dirty, I thought my only options were the shorts and a t-shirt. Oh but was that one of the worst hiking decisions that I have ever made. Not only did the sunburn the living daylight out of me but my legs were covered in ugly scares, not just because of the bundo bassing we had to do but even before that in the actual paths that we had to walk. Its there that I have come to the conclusion that wearing dirty jeans is really not all that bad. About an hour later of walking through thick bushes, ducking and diving for branches with ugly thornes I told Jeandre that I think it will be the best option if we started going up the mountain again because so far we were only walking on the side of the mountain near the fence trying to get to the corner of the reserve so we know excatly were we are, but the whole hike so far was up and down every mountain we never walked on the side of the mountains, so enought said, we started walikng up again.

About every minute or so me and my mom had to help each other up and over rocks and fallen branches, Jeandre frequently giving a helping hand, and behold on top of the mountain laid the very familiar and long-lost faded yellow marker! We were so happy to see that marker we all wanted to give it a kiss but decided against it due to the fact that we would have to bend down very low to even think of reaching it and so we push on.

We stopped on top of a mountain really hoping that this will be the last mountain that we had to climb for the day, enjoying our very last sips of water and fearfully enjoying the sun getting closer to the horizon. Slowly getting our mindsets right for the last stretch of the day we loaded our bags on our backs and started walking again. Every now and again we lost sight of the faded yellow markers but very quickly walked back to the last spotted marker, searched a bit wider and because the last stretch was only open grassland and not very dense bush, like before, we broke into three groups and then very quickly found the markers again. About an hour later we saw the hut, now not really walking anymore but almost doing a slow run to the hut. We saw my dad passing us on the road but not seeing us, we were now very motivated to reach the hut knowing that there will be an ice cold beer waiting for each of us (something you almost never get on a hike, one upside of my dad being sick on this trip).

Finally, we reached the hut, we almost fell down on that grass green lawn. Imeddialty we took off our shoe’s and it almost felt like we have been seated in a restaurant with my dad bring us ice cold beers. Making turns we took showers in the outdoor bathroom, heating the water in metal buckets and carrying it to the shower. After we were all clean and felt like brand new human being we started with the food. We made a chicken pasta with mushroom sauce while we enjoyed the nightlife around us, drinking OBS. Not long after sundown we all said our goodnights and slept like babies.

You know that feeling in the early mornings when you kinda know that your partner is also lying awake beside you but trying to lay still as not wake you? That’s the feeling that I have awakened to. So I whispered to Jeandre asking if he wants to take the mattress outside with a cup of coffee and enjoy the sunrise. And as always, he said yes. Not long after we were seated my mom joined us, enjoying the last bit of the nightlife we sat warmly tucked under the blankets chatting the last few minutes away.

Sunrise came way to quick, we brushed our teeth, packed our bags and with no hesitation we were off in search of the faded yellow markers. Up and down and then up again and down again, somewhere along the way we started singing to each other just to keep the mood going as we were all really stiff. You somehow forget how much it takes from your body to walk a whole day with all your food, clothes and sleeping bags on your back, getting some serious blisters on your feet and then to do it all again the next morning. Despite the aching bodies and the sore feet, the view was absolutely breathtaking every time you stopped to catch your breath.

Some time very close to lunch we finally spotted my dad waiting for us, this meant that we were only about halfway through the day’s hike. Not really knowing if we were happy to see him because we have made it halfway or disappointed because we still had so much walking to do. But our emotions set aside, he was really excited to see us, the look on his face quickly gave it away that he had something really special that he wanted to share with us. After about a half hours walk down a very difficult part of the hike my dad stopped us and said that we needed to take off our bags and leave them there because it will be too dangerous to take it with to where he wanted to take us. Jeandre immediately took a seat on the nearest rock and I could see that he was not planning to take one step extra if it wasn’t on route to the finish line, it took some serious motivation for me to get him to actually take off his bag and join us. The closer we came to what looked like the edge of the mountain my dad started walking slower and slower and the closer we came we started to see something that looked like a waterfall.

When we finally reached the end we saw this huge waterfall just in front of us, almost tucked away in between the  mountains so you cant really see it from the side where we came from, you actually have to go down to get to the edge to witness this body of water falling over the rocky edge and of course just standing there was not close enough for us, we sat on our bums to slide closer to the edge just to get a better view, and off course take some photo’s. You could hear my dad was full of fear for us, almost going hysteric, “That’s close enough! Go slower! No, don’t do that! Ok, come back now, you’ve seen enough.” As you can figure my dad is really not a fan of heights, at all. But while sitting there taking it all in you have this realization that you are really so small and insignificant, that there has to be something bigger than yourself, some bigger purpose than just living. It’s there that you realize that even though you sometimes feel worthless and don’t really know what you are here for that somehow you have to believe that you were put on this planet for a reason and that you will meet your path somewhere along the way. We decided to move on from the very white, fainty look on my dads face.

About 500m from where we left our bags we found the cutest little water pools, and of course what is a hike without swimming in some ice cold water? The guys didn’t have to be invited twice before they stripped and were only standing in their underwear, even my sick dad. Me and my mom decided that it would be wiser to jump in with our clothes as we didn’t know when there would be others passing by. One, two, three and we jumped in. Man was that a shock to the system! We didn’t swim too far the first round, slipped and slide to get out of the water and not too long, we jumped in again. We swam to the other end of the pool to where the waterfall began.

Turned around and it was the most beautiful picture, the water in front going down the waterfall with the most picture perfect mountains as far as the eye could see, I wish we had a waterproof camera so we could have taken a picture from there. After the swim, we all sat on the rocks baking in the sun like hyraxes. We just sat there for a while, enjoying the view, not wanting to think of whats laying ahead of us.  We finally got dressed and headed onwards. Not even a km from where we swam the car was parked, almost waiting for us like a rider on a white horse

Just there and then we all decided that we have walked more than enough for the day and that it was a sign that the car was there. We still had about half of the route left to walk but made a vow to one day come back and do the whole hike with my dad, hopefully not too far from now. All in all, we really enjoyed this hike, the accommodation was great, the views everywhere you went was picture perfect, there were a lot of wild, was very clean no garbage laying around, the walk itself was a bit difficult, but I think its mostly because we have hiked so long ago.

One thing that can really be upgraded on this hike would be the markers, a lot of our time went into searching for the path that at times became very frustrating and definitely, the communication between the client and the personnel wasn’t very bright, something that can really be worked on. But I will definitely recommend this hike to any person that has hiked before, has the correct hiking gear and most of all are fit because this was not a walk in the park. I really hope to be going back there someday soon.