Two walks

With a school holiday and a public holiday and a reprieve from my publisher (1st drafts delayed by 10 days), we decided to spend Monday and Tuesday walking some of the wonderful walks around Umngazi.
On Monday, we walked south, crossing the river and walking down towards Mgazana river. The climb is not too steep, and then there is an amazing walk along the cliffs with panoramic views across the coast and down to Brazen Head. It was a beautiful day and not too hot – we didn’t sunburnt at all. As we went, we saw the track that leads up towards Cwebeni and I was glad that we have the opportunity to drive there each time we need to go.

We walked over the top of the cliff which has Flat Rock at its base and then went down onto the beach. We’d have liked to walk to Mgazana and the mangroves, but needed to get back to fetch Lerato at 12, so have left that till another day. There was a road of sorts as we went down to the beach, and Pete has checked on Google maps, and seen that it is the road that goes beyond Cwebeni School – so next time I’m working there, he will go and fish from the beach. I’m going to let the pictures talk for themselves – the colours and views are just too amazing.

On Tuesday, we decided to walk north and walked towards Sugarloaf. This was a much steeper walk and I was really glad of the adjustable walking sticks we bought before we came. Pete lent me his on the steep parts and I was able to balance myself on the ups and down. One of the “ups” was so fierce, I decided that the first place I could find a cow-pat free place, I’d sit down and rest. On a flattish saddle we found a place with the most amazing view and sat and rested for about ½ hour. Then I was ready to come back but Pete persuaded me to go a little further – we walked round the back of Sugarloaf through the fringes of the forest until we were behind Sicambeni – could see the house we sat outside to Skype Nic on Sunday. It took about an hour to walk back – but a total of 3 ¼ hours from the time we set off to the time we got back.

The pictures again are amazing - difficult to choose just a few. We shared the space with animals of different sorts – cattle, goats, sheep – who wanted us off their territory, donkeys and even a horse. In the whole 3 hours we only saw 2 other people.

Back to work tomorrow – crit lessons, a Soccer match and discussions with the school about ECO Schools at Cwebeni. Pete plans to fish – hope it’s a good day for him.