Day 17: Mossel Bay - Swellendam

Total Distance Covered: 1,775 km
Distance Remaining: 235 km

The day started off amusingly. As we packed our bags and were preparing to leave this morning, Kelly & Ikumi accidentally locked themselves in the bedroom. For 10 minutes, the girls struggled with the door, trying to free themselves. Thoroughly amused by the situation and wanting to tease them a bit, the guys were none too helpful in getting them out.

After having breakfast and saying our goodbyes to Kate, Guy, Georgie and Thomas, we hit the road. It was just another day on the long road…we covered a good 144 kilometers and were quite worn out by the end of it all and in a good bit of pain.

We haven’t written much about the injuries and the pain we’ve gone through over the course of the hike, but there have been several hours and days of excruciating pain.

Kelly, Ikumi and Ruan have all struggled with heat rashes (Kelly’s heat rash in particular became quite bad and began blistering). We’ve all struggled on and off with sunburn, although this has, surprisingly, been the least of our concerns. Normally little more than a painful annoyance, the pain of blisters has been the bane of the hike so far. The pain of the blisters is amplified hour by hour as you continue to hike on them nonstop. At this point, new blisters are forming on top of existing blisters and the pain is unbelievable. Beyond the blisters, it is amazingly painful to get up in the morning and to try to keep an 8km/hour pace with sore muscles and cramps. Given the speed we’re trying to maintain, it is extremely hard on the shins and, now two weeks into the hike, the first hour or two of hiking every day is excruciatingly painful. The muscle strain and stress on the bones and joints seems to be accumulating as well. While there were times in the beginning of the hike where a muscle would be very sore or you’d feel like you twisted your ankle, there is now constant aching in the joints and old injuries seem to be coming back. If we all get through this without any stress fractures, it will be quite surprising and a real blessing!

We’ve hiked through blood, sweat and tears. And while it’s been extremely challenging physically, and often quite painful, it’s been an exceptionally meaningful, amazing experience and we are so happy to be making this trek across South Africa. We still have a couple hundred miles to go to reach Cape Town and, while we’re going to be very happy to reach our destination, there will no doubt be a very real sense of sadness as well. We’ve become very comfortable with our daily routine and the constant companionship of 5 sweaty, tired, sore friends. There will, no doubt, be a tangible sense of loss and sadness amid the excitement and joy of reaching Cape Town.

The land is absolutely beautiful here and the natural flora and fynbos of the region is unlike anything we’re used to.

We enjoyed the fine company of Marie & Garrick over dinner and headed off to the Swellendam caravan park for the night. The guys all shared beds and slept on the floor in order to allow the girls to have their own beds. WHAT FINE YOUNG GENTLEMEN!