24 February 2007    to      25 Febraury 2007

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This was the second time that we did the Swartwildebees trail. The whole week the country had had a heat wave and the weekend was not going to be different. The trail is in the Van Reenen pass area. The whole group managed to get to the base camp well before dark. Due to a very hot and dry summer most of the streams had dried out and the only water that still came out of the taps at the base camp was muddy.

Some of us had a braai/barbecue and the traditional Garlic snails that evening.

Despite the sweltering heat the company was great!

The traditional group photo at the start of the hike.

The area is very scenic and after climbing up a small gorge one gets to a plateau.

Shortly after reaching the plateau, there are some large wild fig trees.

This photo gives a whole new meaning to the term "Branch manager".

Here and there where still some pools of water.

The bush is really beautiful!

Here we had a break in a dried out riverbed.

The area is quite hilly but not too difficult.

The temperatures had soured to well over 30 degrees.

There is a nice pool about 1km before the hut and Petro, Kerneels and Silvia decided to dive right in. I first went to the hut to drop off my backpack and then went back to also cool off.

The water was absolutely great!

When we eventually returned to the overnight hut we found that there was no more water left in the two big tanks behind the hut. This not good news at all, as our group consisted to eleven people and another small group of four people was also there. Being one of the most expensive hikes we really felt that the owners could at least make the effort to check up on the water supply! We had to make do with stagnant river water. Trying to use a cellphone to contact the owners also did not work as the signal was too weak.

Next morning we got off to an early start. The second days route is much shorter than the first day.

Our last break.

Not long before one reaches the base camp one crosses a large vlei. At this point the markings become very difficult to follow and one has to be careful not to loose the trail as the grass was very long, but all in all we had an enjoyable hike.