August 4th… The Helderberg Mountain is in Somerset West. We can see it from right outside our front door. Scott thought it was a good idea to climb it today and to find a few geocaches of course. Considering our excessive and unhealthy eating habits as of late, I think we were long overdue for a health kick! SO YEEHAW… Ima gonna climb dat mountain yo!
We picked up Tessa, Naty and Kaitlyn and made way for the Helderberg. The thing that’s awing is that here, one can see the beautiful mountains from outside our very windows, unlike in Edmonton where you’d have to drive for hours in order to experience such splendor and beauty. Otay, so we made it into the gate, bought a couple maps and got psyched up for the hike. The lady in one of the shops told us that the hike up and down would take about 4-5 hours and she advised that we’d better hurry ‘cause the gates closed in 3 hours. Yea… we kinda started the hike a bit late in the afternoon… at 2:30pm to be exact. Haha… we had originally planned to start the hike at 9am, but good ol’ “African time” got the best of us I guess. Haha… this has been quite the habit of ours as of late as well. No time is really set in stone when in Africa. Anyway, so we only had 3 hours to do this thang. I looked up the mountain and thought, “Whooo… we are not gonna make it to the top in THAT time.” The top looked way high up yo! Scott being Scott said, “C’mon let’s get started. We can do it!” He had no doubt that we would make it and was determined to reach the very top. Whatevs… guess we’d better get a move on then.
Not too far into the hike, Scott found a geocache already. The container had a bunch of nic nacs including R2 and N$1. Scoot gave those coins to Kaitlyn as a “Welcome to Africa” token, since it was her first time here and all. Aight… no time to waste… the hike continued. The first part of the trek was a bit tough because the climb was really steep and the ground was made of a clay and mud, which was slippery to climb up at some parts. Poor Kaitlyn didn’t didn’t have hiking shoes with her so she had to wear her flowery Mr. Price slip-ons instead, so the climb must’ve been extra tricky for her. Tough as it was, we kept moving forward. Gradually the group started spreading out a bit as we all paced ourselves. Scott, Joel and I were at the front of the pack. We passed some amazing trails including one where it looked like you were entering the Amazon forest or something. We also passed by a stream of fresh mountain water, which was so cool that I couldn’t help by letting out a shout of appreciation. I LOVE FRESH MOUNTAIN WATER… THE BEST!
The views got more and more amazing the higher we climbed as you can imagine. And that was motivation enough to keep going. Guh… words can’t really express… just check out my pics for a better depiction. Nearing the top of the mountain now and only 1.5 hours into the hike, we were making good time. Unfortunately we lost Scooty a ways back due to another geocache hunt, so Joel and I kept going without him. The other peeps in the group had resorted to resting at a lookout point a ways down and weren’t going to continue the trek up. I must admit, the latter part of the climb got pretty tough with mostly rock and steep incline, but I was determined to burn some major calories today yo! Hahaha… even if it meant my legs would turn into jelly in the process.
Nigel and Tessa eventually caught up to Joel and I and the four of us pushed hard to make it to the top. Boy were we glad that we had kept going because the view from up top was spectacular… beyond description… almost heavenly! We had climbed so high up that we were above the clouds!! I was overcome with a huge sense of accomplishment… We climbed the Helderberg baby! I was so proud of everyone!
Uh oh… only 1 hour left before the gate closed. We had to cut our relaxation and admiration time short because time was ticking. Of course we made it down fine, though 10 minutes after closing time. Ooo… we’re such rebels! Haha… whatevs… at least we were able to squeeze in the full meal deal in our limited time frame. GO US!
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