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Kingdom trails (22 to 24 Jan 2021)

Kingdom 21 04 Kingdom hike on the Wilge river near Witbank. We have been there twice before. A lovely camp, but some of the things don't work anymore such as the fridge, the gas geysers, and the swimming pool.
The information sent to us recommended that a 4x4 or at least a high clearance vehicle should be used. But having been there before and not remembering any really bad places I decided to take my normal car. This went well and without a hitch until we got to the last little hill just before the camp. Loose stones did not allow for enough traction to get the car to the top. Frans had to be called in to pull us up in his 4x4.
Who did we find in camp? Tania, Allen, Michael, Almè, me, Eleni, Christopher, Frans, Judith, and Oliver
Kingdom 21 03Cheeky little birds, these Mocking Chats. See picture on the right, they kept us entertained by being close to and in the hut. Not very much perturbed by our presence
Hiking on Saturday was very short for me. I used my bad knee as an excuse to stop at the first swimming pool about 1.5km out on the trail. The others carried on over the mountain down to the Olifants, where they had a nice swim, and back again. Jenny started having some problems on the way back, a rescue car had to be sent to fetch her from the point where the trail meets the road. She recovered very quickly. Just shows you our age is starting to count against us. Sunday morning some of us went for a swim in the Wilge, just a km or two from camp.
Kingdom 21 04The fun really started when getting out of the place, it had been raining, the road was wet and slippery at places. Coming down the hill that gave us trouble on the way in was a non-event. We had problems when I could not get up a small hill and was sliding into a ditch. There was no way of extracting myself without any external power in the form of Frans's 4x4 and a tow rope. At the next hill, the performance had to be repeated. The added difficulty here was that the 4x4 could not get enough traction to pull us up. Three tow ropes had to be lashed together so that Frans could pull us from the top. After that, we had no further problems and got home in good time.

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