Discovering the joys of hiking in the rain
Gene Kelly might have enjoyed singing in the rain, skipping as he did in the gutters with that umbrella over his head, but would he have sung as much, I wonder, had he been caught, as I was, in a seriously wet, wintry downpour, turbo-charged by gusting winds, on a leg of the Hoerikwaggo trail in Table Mountain National Park.
“If you hike here in winter, you can expect to get wet,” said a perceptive member of our party who had recently returned from hiking in the Himalayas. Well, wet is one thing. Totally soaked is another.
The day before, my group of 11 happy hikers had left Silvermine heading for the warm and cozy tented camp at Orange Kloof. It was slightly overcast but reasonably warm.
When we reached the point of descent just below Noordhoek Peak overlooking Hout Bay, the wind bit into us with teeth cooled and sharpened, it seemed, on the ice-blue cliffs of the Antarctic. By lunchtime, in a rocky ravine near a stream overlooking Hout Bay, we suited up for rain and headed off on the final leg of day one to camp.
What a pleasure, I thought as I pulled on the rain trousers I bought about five years ago, but had never had the opportunity to use. Onwards we trundled with my rain suit turning into a sauna, heated from the steady exertion of hiking.
As we headed towards Vlakkenberg, beyond the manganese mine, the wind threatened to blow us off the trail, but there was hardly any rain and nor was there much for the rest of the hike that day.
Getting wet is not really that unpleasant
The following day was overcast again, with rain only threatening as we headed towards the mist-enshrouded back table. Experienced hikers in the group, among them former “rescue rangers” cautioned against heading into the mist, so decided to enjoy the magic of the
Afromontane forest of Orange Kloof, going to contour path height and then circling back to camp.
Clearly, there was no need for rain gear - well at least not the trousers part of the rain gear. It was a bad decision, as I was to learn about an hour or two later, when the rain came pouring down. In spite of a rain jacket and what I thought were waterproof boots, I was more seriously soaked in a few short minutes than I have ever been in years of hiking hundreds of kilometres up and down mountains all over southern Africa.
I must admit, however, that getting so wet is not really that unpleasant as long as you keep walking and there is the prospect of a warm and dry destination in the not-too-distant future.
And that’s the great thing about the Hoerikwaggo trails, which one day soon will allow hikers to walk 100km from Cape Point all the way to Table Mountain. No matter how cold and wet you might become in winter, home, a hot shower and dry clothes are never much more than a hop, skip or jump away. Which I now understand is why, like Gene, I could sing so happily in the rain.
Email the writer at evelyn@cybersmart.co.za
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