Vanishing People and Beautiful Highs - Gillooly's Farm Hike
Getting lost and meeting people that vanish is enough to make anybody freak out. Let's just say that Friday was quite an adventure.
As we drove into Gillooly's Farm, the sun was just starting to work it's mid morning magic and we looked forward to the 7km hike. Walking through Gillooly's I was disgusted by the amount of trash strewn about everywhere. Obviously a relic from the previous day's public holiday, as these premises are usually quite clean.
"Do we not have any pride left in our country or ourselves."
What is it with South Africans? Do we not have any pride left in our country or ourselves. What amazed me was the fact that there were beer bottles right next to an empty trash can. Sometimes I am ashamed to call myself South African.
Anycase, failing to find the start of the trail, we decided to just start climbing the mountain on the other side of the lake. Wow. What a miscalculation from my side. About a quarter of the way up, I knew I was in trouble because I was puffing like a recovering drug addict. Man, that thing was steep. It just seemed to go on forever. The fact that my 16 year old companion, Mark, wasn't even breathing hard did nothing for my ego.
I think it probably took us about 20 minutes to get to the top. This included time for taking pictures. If you are unfit, this is definitely not a trail that you want to start your hiking career with. We were obviously walking the trail from the wrong end, because all the trail markers were pointing at us. Logic told us that if we just kept following the trail markers backwards, everything would be alright and we would end up at the beginning of the trail. Logic was wrong. More on this later.
" ... The highways shone silver in the early morning light as they slithered their way to the city's bustle ..."
Once at the top, the view is VERY cool. With the 360 degree view, you can see Eastgate Shopping Center, Johannesburg Central and Sandton. The highways shone silver in the early morning light as they slithered their way to the city's bustle. I think on a clear day, you would even be able to see Pretoria, sorry Tshwane.
The rocky trail wound along the ridge and led us past two marked bomb holes. In the picture, Mark is standing in one of the holes. Does anybody know where these holes come from? Who bombed what and when? Let me know in the comments if you have any clue.
"Can you hear that?" I asked Mark. I could hear someone talking somewhere. I walked closer to the edge of a rocky ridge. As I peered over, I could see a man in blue clothes standing with arms spread. He reminded me of the Jesus statue in Rio De Janeiro. I quietly backed off. I guess the top off a mountain is as good a place as any to worship your god and probably better than most.
The trail winds up and down quite a bit and climbing up a large hill, we came upon a grave. At least I think it was a grave. There was a circle of stones with a cross at one end. I guess it could've just been a get together place because there was no marker on the cross. No names to identify anybody. We sat down and drank the last of our cold drink.
" ... I was enjoying the absence of the usual city din."
"Geez, it's very quiet up here," Mark said.
"Ja, you wouldn't say we are in the middle of South Africa's largest city," I said.
It was very quiet. We couldn't hear birds chirping or insects buzzing. Just quiet. I guess some people would say eerie, but I was enjoying the absence of the usual city din.
Rested we decided to see where the rest of the trail led us. We hadn't seen a trail marker for some time. Lesser people would have admitted that they were lost. But not we. About a hundred meters from the cross / grave we saw a board put up by Joburg Water - No Trespassing. Dammit. Time to turn back and see if we can pick up the trail again.
"By the time we top the ridge, they are nowhere to be seen!"
A man, women and two Rottweilers came walking up the trail. Both the man and women quickly grab the dogs and put them on leashes.
"Do you guys know where this trail is going? There's a No Trespassing sign up front," I said.
"This is the right trail. It skirts the building up front. You just need to stick to the path. It's not that clearly marked, but you can still make it out, " the man said.
"Do you mind if we tag along behind you?" I asked.
"No problem. Just give us some space so we can let the dogs loose, " he said.
We tagged about 30 meters behind the couple. They went over a little ridge in the trail. By the time we top the ridge, they are nowhere to be seen!
Gone! We had a clear field of vision for about 200 meters in all directions and the couple with their dogs were nowhere to be found! If one of those two read this article, please tell me what happened to you. You freaked us out.
As you can see in the picture above, the trail wound up another hill. "Dude, I don't have the energy for another climb," I said. Mark agreed so we headed down hill through what looked like a marsh. What should we find at the bottom of this hill? A locked gate.
"Just call the guard that's sitting over there", Mark said.
"I don't think he will have the key. This gate must be locked by the town council."
We stood around debating this for about 10 minutes before the guard spotted us. He walked up to us and unlocked the gate. Boy did I feel like a moron. On the other side of the gate a sign informed us that we must ask the guard on duty for the key to enter.
After asking the guard for directions back to Gillooly's and receiving a confused look for our trouble, we started walking back.
And walked, and walked, and walked.
We came down from the mountain trail about two kilometers from Bruma Lake. As we walked past Bruma Flea Market, a scary man with long dreadlocks tried to trade us some weed for a picture.
"Wot you gonna do for me, mon?" he asked.
We both ignored him. By that time my mood was pretty foul and my throat was parched. We stopped at a BP Garage to buy some cold drinks and ice cream. I think it was the best Fanta Pineapple I had ever tasted.
Ten minutes later saw us back at Gillooly's and glad to be sitting in the shade of the car. What is the moral of this story? Get a trail map before you go on any hike.
How to get there:FROM N3 SOUTH |
Tariffs:
Free
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