Wit Els Hike

Top memories of the 5 day Wit Els Hike

• Meeting Carissa and Kendra (two adventurous, young Canadians who found us via the Gum Tree) in Claremont the day before and doing our shopping
• The trip to Baine's Kloof and stocking up with a "bulk burger" before we started the hike
• A backbreaking walk up a very steep mountain to Hoar Hut on the first day
• Climbing the last 200 metres in the dark to discover a huge fire burning at the top of the mountain - thankfully our path to the hut had already been burned out so it did not threaten us
• Water rations at Hoar Hut after we discovered the hut's water stocks had been used to fight the fire the day before. This meant washing our pots and plates with red wine and toilet paper!
• Reading our old entries in the Hoar Hut guest book
• The great toilet at Hoar Hut
• Russel scaling a peak to deposit a geocache
• The relief of finding water just 20 minutes from Hoar Hut when we thought it would be 3 hours till we could replenish our limited supplies
• A knee jarring descent down the other side of the mountain to the beautiful Wit Els river
• A rather scary scramble along the edge of the river canyon in order to get into the river.
• Coming across a snake on the path as we clung to the cliff did not help to settle the nerves!
• Getting down into the shady river canyon and the start of our boulder hopping adventures
• The beautiful waterfall and pool at Disa Camp
• Very sore leg muscles and feet on the 3rd day - in fact I felt like a right wreck!
• Mike's mega 12 hour "cat nap"
• Playing "Asshole" and "Shithead" card games
• Waterproofing our packs for the parts of the river where the only way through was to swim
• The Tunnel Swim - a 100 metre compulsory swim through a dark canyon with our packs on little lilos
• Russel's feat of swimming the gauntlet 7 times to help with the bags - what a champion!
• Experimenting with my underwater camera
• Kendra's casualties: falling pack first into the river on the first day, falling on the river and banging her head, finding the wine had spilled into the pack. Like a champ, she kept her sense of humour!
• Favourite sayings on the hike: "Prime Time", "Wicked!", "hectic", "Er, howdi Mike", "You dirty dog" "It's the bomb!"
• Food highlights: Jammy biscuits, Tuna Mate, Oats so Easy, Liquorish Alsorts without the Liquorish, Dried fruit
• Food lowlights: Mike's burned pasta (hee hee!), Banana Instant Pudding
• Chucking Mike his dinner in the frisbee
• Adam slipping onto his bum in the riverAdam's smoke breaks
• Carissa's infectious laugh
• Mike sleeping with his underpants on his head
• Russel's distinctive white "cricket umpire" hat
• Adam's amazing leaps from rock to rock on the river
• Mike squinting at his map and his patience in answering all those "How far is it, Mike?" questions
• The colour of the cliffs in the early morning at Sandy Cove
• Poor Adam wrapping himself in his space blanket to augment his super thin sleeping bag
• Me falling off the tree at Amber's Ring (it was further down than I thought!)
• Mike drinking straight from his red wine bottle
• Russelisms and Russel literals
• Adam so cold at night he asked to snuggle between the boys
• Putting rocks in Adams grass mattress - much to his chagrin
• Faarting contests with Mike - much to everyone's chagrin
• Hiking out via the "Emergency Exit" due to our rather relaxed pace.
• The beautiful and refreshing pool at the top of the hike out
• The amazing rocks stacks at the top of the mountain
• Hiking down to the blue dam
• Hitching a lift with the nature conservationalists - 7 of us crammed into their bakkie for a bumpy ride
• Waiting 4 hours to retrieve our keys from the safe at the place we left our car - thankfully there was a pool to relax by
• The food at the "Bush Wackers Pub" at the bottom of Baine's Kloof
• All in all, an absolutely fantastic hike!!

The cast

Mike - Our Intrepid Leader

Russel "Packet"

Kendra

Clarisse (aka Clarice)

Adam (Matt Damon's Younger Brother)

Us

Staying overnight in Hoar Hut

What a great toilet!
This is the toilet for Hoar Hoar. What a great view it has. ALso cool with the ski's - and a notice saying "Don't hoot, I'm moving as fast as I can!"

Guest book entry 1998

This is an entry Ally wroter last time we stayed overnight in the Hoar Hut - all the way back in 1998.

Fire

We got to the top of the ridge (in the dark!) to discover a large fire on top of the mountain. Luckily the section to Hoar Huit had already been burnt so we had safe passage. There were a couple of horrible moments when we thought we might have to return down the mountain in the dark.

Camp life

Boulder hopping down the river

Compulsory swims

On parts of the river, the only way through was to swim. Needless to say, this required careful waterproofing of the backpacks!

Putting my water proof camera to the test

Fauna and Flora (Witels Hike)
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Hiking back to civilisation

Mood shots