Walking into the Kamiesberge

From our base in Kamieskroon we headed out into the mountain range to the east of town, the Kamiesberge of Namaqualand, a range of jumbled granite inselbergs which rise out of the sandy plain. It stretches from Garies in the south for about 140km to Springbok in the north. 

The walk was wonderful, a perfect deep blue sky, no wind in the valley, some flowers dotted along the way but mostly it was about the beautiful vistas. It did get hot as the morning wore on, I walked wearing a wet scarf, borrowed a hat and lathered on sunscreen and keep going. Kilometre after kilometre of this scenery that Fred captured on his iPhone panorama setting, the quiet farm roads, where all that distracted me were the bird calls and the odd horsefly.

It's day five of the Ultra Walk and I am eventually leaving my obsession with the numbers behind.

I am just walking.

Frik and Jaco give us the distance markers in the sand and also when the next break is coming. We walk somewhere between 8 and 10 kilometres and then have the stop. Sometimes its our lunch break too.

These breaks are a little bit of heaven.

Jaco sets out a green groundsheet, has a wash tub and cloth for our hands, the table is set with iced tea and water, a piece of fruit and we lie down on the ground, rest our bodies, air the feet, put them up on the little camping chairs, rub vaseline on our feet, or rather the parts of the foot not covered in plasters!

Then 5 minutes is called and we all scurry around to get shoes onto aching feet and start walking again.