There is a hot spring near Naboomspruit, it spews out 200 m3/h of water at 52ºC. And it is not mineral water, just normal water. I am not sure about the geology of the system, in fact I know nothing. Why should there be hot water coming out the ground at that point? I think I do a bit of research on that, but not right now, lets get on with the story.
Because we piled everybody into the Venture we had to take the trailer for luggage. All went well until we had a puncture just after the Nylsvlei tollgate. The spare wasn't too good and we limbed into Naboomspruit to have it pumped up to full pressure. The punctured tire, by the way, looked to me like a write-off, it had a cut and wires were hanging out. How did this happen? This is the second tire that has been ripped to shreds recently.
Arriving a bit later than anticipated we parked at the hut and I immediately proceeded to unhitch the trailer and parked it next to the car. But not for long, when I turned around I noticed the trailer moving off downhill, a water tap temporarily halted its progress, but when the tap broke off the trailer continued on its journey down the hill towards the lake. Fortunately it didn't make it all the way, coming to a stop before. It took a couple of strong men (and woman) to push the trailer back up to where it had come from.
After that it was straight to the pool to wash away the aches and pains of the day. They have two large pools, and they alternate. Over night they fill one and during the day they empty one. That way they don't need to add Chlorine to the water, it was a pleasure to be in the water for hours. In fact, I think, the kids never came out for the whole weekend. And there are also the indoor pools, the water in there is a bit hotter and I actually found most of the time too hot, such that I couldn't stay in there for long.
Next day I first went back to town, because I wanted to sort out the tyre. Janine and Jacqueline came for the ride because Jacqueline needed a swimsuit; she had left hers at home. And I had to argue with the tyre place because they wanted to fix my tyre rather than replace it, something that would not have been safe.
The remainder of the day was spent in the pools and on the slide (R5 for five slides, very reasonable). For the evening we had a communal braai and did some ethnic dancing.
Now come Sunday, this was the day of the hike, we were going to hike over to Libertas which is a sister hot spring place, in fact they are jointly using the same spring.
The hike is not far, about 2 km, and mostly flat. On the other side we first spent time in the bubble bath. They have put spas into a dense forest and one pays a few Rand for ½ an hour in the bubbles.
Hanging around the pools for a while we started our return journey, walking back to Lekkerrus to spent some more time in the pools and playing some put put. In the evening there was a concert of chanting in the inside pools. The accustics is just right for that sort of noise.