Day 5, halfway point of our Eco Ventures Namaqualand Ultra Walk

Our itinerery simply says: 'Walk from Arkoep into the Kamies Mountains for lunch at the tea garden of Taaiboskraal. Sulene Archer will entertain you with stories of the area.'

Sulene is from the Karoo and has married a Namaqualand farmer. Their business is sheep and goats and in the flower season she runs her Teetuin and restaurant from the farm. Her story of life on the farm, where they move between their two farms, in the Kamiesberge and in Bushmanland, was fascinating for us city people.

She prepares Namaqualand specials like roasted sheep heads, crumbed sheep tails, in fact every part of the animal, although she draws the line at preparing the testicles even though her customers ask for them. Fortunately our lunch was loads of freshly baked farm bread, lathered with butter and homemade jam and a delicious rice salad.

Even more significant is arriving at the farm, Taaiboskraal, marked our 150km milestone. What an achievement, exhausted, hot, I hung my head under a tap for a few minutes to recover and just so happy to be walking and having this adventure with Fred and the rest of our small band of fellow walkers.

What a milestone, 150 kilometres , day 5, halfway point at Taaiboskraal.

• Walking log: 20th August

150km of 301km.

Body getting stronger with each day, true what they say about walking yourself into fitness.

My feet still need nursing, it takes a kilometre or so to 'warm' up the blisters, but the discomfort is bearable and I no longer fear them. 

Each night I have my foot clinic where Frik patches and plasters. Fred feeling great, he is getting stiffer and a little weary but her is remarkable, strong and like a machine.

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.