Just outside Witbank the Condor starts listing to the left like a disobedient dog on a leash. Driven by the wind, clouds of sand roll across the flats. I grip the steering wheel tighter and squeeze my elbows into my ribs. We drive into a dark and somewhat ominous-looking horizon. It feels like the beginning of that tornado that blew Dorothy and Toto all the way from Kansas to Oz. Then a thunderstorm breaks, dumping the first impatiently awaited summer rains on the flats. Where the roadworks start on the N4, an electronic speedometer flashes in yellow lettering: “Slow Down. Your speed is 41km/h.” “Does anyone have a rain jacket I can borrow?” I overhear the voice of a fellow hiker on someone’s cellphone.
11 kmDay 1Tracking the lynx
The rain pummels down late into the night on the roof of the Bottlebrush Haven, our hiking hut at Wathaba, 20km from Machadodorp in Mpumalanga. This morning it’s still cloudy, but fortunately the clouds are now light grey. Everybody rummages around for the day’s necessities. A tin of rusks is handed around beside the morning fire outside. That’s what’s nice about a circular trail like Wathaba: You unpack once for the entire weekend and set off from the same place each morning. So you can bring as much food as you can fit into your car. This also means that someone like Minette du Preez and her six-monthold baby can come along, because they can hang out at the hut while the rest of the family sets out on a day when a stiff hike is planned.
A small group of donkeys welcomes us when we enter through a wooden entranceway signposted Lynx Loop. “Daddy, I hear a cow,” says three-year-old Kara du Preez in front of me. Her dad’s carrying her on his back in a baby carrier. Her brother Inus, who’s five, walks on his own. What Kara is hearing is in fact the chainsaw that workers are using to clear alien wattles. It’s a big problem at Wathaba, one that owner Wimpie Rautenbach (a woman) wages constant war against. She has already marked most of the indigenous trees along the trail: blue-flowered tinderwood, velvet-leaved canthium, num-num, notsung, warty-fruited lightning bush… Every kilometre and every place of interest also has a sign, such as Kransaalwynparadys, which we reach two hours later after a stiff climb.
I’m always surprised at how quickly you gain height. The valley now lies at our feet, with the green foothills wearing a wrap of fog. Fortunately the sun peeks out when we stop for lunch at the impressive Cascades Waterfall, where the water tumbles down 10m, from one block of granite to the next.
After lunch we enter the shade of an indigenous forest. Sprokiesland, Feëtjieland, Kabouterland, read the signs in this tunnel of moss, dripping water and tree ferns. Then we tackle the final leg in the sun on Donkie Highway and Cow Land. It’s hot, and Kara falls asleep in her carrier. “I can already hear something cold calling me,” someone says as we finally spot the hut.
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4 kmDay 2Hike, swim, hike, swim
Today we’re a full house: Six month-old Elmien is coming along in a carrier bag strapped to her mother’s chest. All you see of her are a white cloth hat and a pair of Michelin Man arms sticking out. After 20 minutes’ walk we’re at the Wathaba Rainbow Waterfall, some distance above the hut. Today’s leg is only 4 km long, so we can linger at the next rest stop, another swimming pool and waterfall at the point where the trail turns back. If you want to feel the spray of the waterfall on your skin, you have to swim through a rock passage. The water is freezing cold, making us gasp for breath. Under the waterfall the drops pelt like tiny pebbles on exposed skin. Then it’s back into the numbing water…
From here we zigzag across the Schoonspruit, over bridges with names like Skateboard Bridge, Bloukransbrug and Albert se Brug. (I later find out that all Wimpie’s children and grandchildren have had a spot on the trail named after them.) “Snake!” someone in front calls out. We peek around carefully, but don’t see anything. “It was a long, green snake…”. Treading carefully we hike to Guise’s Swimming Pool, where we take another dip. Then we’re back at the rainbow waterfall, but this time we approach it from the opposite side. Now you can see the valley nicely, with the ruggedness of the aloes contrasting with the soft rolling of the green hills. The road to Badplaas streaks out in the distance. I think of something someone said yesterday. “On a hike you really get to know your friends, even if you’ve been friends for a long time.” Indeed. Even a relatively tame trail like this one does wonders for a friendship.
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The nuts & bolts
How much does it cost?
Bottlebrush Haven sleeps 12. You pay R100 per person per night, and it’s R85 a night for children under 12. Children under three stay for free. Minimum six people. Kiepersol Hut. Sleeps 30. The cost is the same. Minimum 12 people. Mountain Creek Cabin. This is a private hut with electricity, two to four people, R210 per person per night. You have to book each hut for a minimum of two nights.
Day visitors pay R65 per person. No pets are allowed. The prices go up every September.
Contact: 083 483 7753;
wathaba@vodamail.co.za;
www.wathaba.co.za
(Note: Prices accurate in March 2009)
How do i get there? Take the N4 towards Nelspruit. Turn right at the Machadodorp/Carolina exit (R36) just after the Shell garage. Drive through Machadodorp and turn left at the Dutch Reformed
Church into Potgieter Street in order to take the R541 out of town. Wathaba is about 20 km further on your left.
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