It was another early start as we had seen that there was a
8.6kmreturn hike to another waterhole. We knew it would get pretty hot quickly,
so set out to get there before the heat set in. We were properly kitted out
with hats, sunnies, long shirts and most importantly hiking books. The hiking
boots have probably been one of the best personal items we brought with us. We
also took our lifesaver bottle with us, we shared a litre of water before we
left, and put another litre in the backpack. With so many rock pools around, we
knew that we wouldn’t have a problem with water. The lifesaver bottle and jerry can have been another fantastic
investment, you can put any kind of water in them and the filters are of such a
high standard that you get medical grade sterile water from them – clean enough
to pour on burns!
The first part of the walk was back up the hill, I must
admit that after all the exercise I have had over the last few days, I found it
tough going. Once the trail flattened out, I was fine and we could pick up the
pace. It was a real hike, with a lot of ankle breaking, tumbling rocks, mixed
with lovely flat trail. We came across the first water hole at the 2.6km mark,
we were keen to get to the end so pushed on without stopping, other than to
take a look and a few photo's.
We were confident this time, that there would definitely be no-one
else there, to our surprise as we rounded the corner, there was 2 fellow
hikers! Luckily they were already on their way back, and told us the best spot
to get in the water. Finally we were alone so we stripped off and went for a
swim. Iain got out, put on his shorts, grabbed a camera, and we took advantage
of the peace to do another photo-shoot.
I must say, that my
confidence is really starting to come back now, and I feel a lot more
comfortable with my body and scars.
I was stretched out on a rock, posing for Iain, and enjoying
the sun, when we both heard a noise, turned and saw another couple watching us.
I decided that ass they had already seen me completely naked and didn’t seem
perturbed, I would just carry on as normal, so we continued shooting.
When we
were done, I swam back to the other side and got dressed. They stayed for
around half an hour then left, so we did some more photo’s in the waterfall. I got in the water with a bit of trepidation as I expected the water coming over the falls to be freezing, much to my surprise it was warm.
It was starting to get hot, so we decided we had better start
making our way back, we filled up the water bottle and the lifesaver bottle,
wet our long sleeve shirts and hats and set off. Now this is where the hiking
boots payed dividends, the track as I said was very rocky in places, I stepped
on a rock and twisted my ankle. Had it not been for the ankle support in the
boots, I hate to think what the outcome would have been. It was throbbing a
bit, but I just ignored it and carried on walking. The trip back was hot, and
we stopped often too wet our shirts, they took at 10mins to completely dry! I have developed a shorts tan, much to my disgust, so in an effort to combat it I decided to walk back in my G-string bikini.
We
got back to camp, changed into costumes and went for a swim in the rock pool.We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, and at 5 we
went back to the upper rockpool to take some more photo’s and have a last swim.
When we came back down, we had the fish we had bought from a
fishing camp in Limmen National Park, so
we ate half for dinner and I used the other half to make fish cakes again.
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