A 120km walk in 2 days
An author's odyssey
On the 19th December 2022 I attempted to walk from Mitchell's Plain to Ceres. Here's how that went:
I began walking at 6:30am from my house in Mitchell's Plain with my dog Buli. The GPS said that it would take 1d1hr to get there so I thought that I might be able to accomplish it in 2 days, maybe 3.
My initial idea was to get to Paarl by 6pm and then sleep there for the night. By 9:30am I made it to Kuilsriver Access Park (our 1st 5min break) and by 11am I had walked the entire R300 and got onto the N1 road (our 2nd 5min break) . That was the easy part.
After I walked about 20km I began to feel the effects of the walk on my body. The bag in particular hurt my back since I was carrying canned food for Buli. The trudge towards the Engen One Stop was painful and my legs began to hurt. I arrived at the one stop by 12:30pm, well ahead of time. Surprisingly, I wasn't at all hungry and I hadn't eaten for the entire day. I gave Buli his canned food and then bought myself a pie since I knew I needed it but I only ate half of the pie. I also bought a few energades and refilled Buli's water bottle. Then we took an hour long nap to recuperate.
At 2pm we began walking and I immediately felt the pain of the short nap so I was limping from the Engen One Stop till Paarl. It was roughly 20km from the Engen till Paarl so we took a break every 5km since it was so painful. Luckily the air was cool on Monday. Soon Buli began dragging me (which I was grateful for) as he chased the fieldmice along the road. By 6:30pm we made into Paarl. My body was screaming already and we took the first stop which was at an Engen. I bought myself another energade and later some hot chocolate because I was getting cold. I was still not hungry. I gave Buli some water and he began to vomit the water but that stopped as soon as he got his food.
My cousin drove up and did a quick interview with me before we went to lay down for the night. The attendants at the Engen garage were extremely kind and helpful and allowed me to sleep in the toilet. They even gave me some cardboard to lay on so the floor wouldn't be too cold. They also charged my phone for me. God bless them. So Buli and I cuddled together in the toilet and fell asleep there. That was the end of Day One (Monday).
I woke up at 4am on Day Two (Tuesday), and did some stretches. My body was still very sore, almost every muscle in my leg was stiff and my feet had blisters on them. I bought myself two energades and a score. I also bought myself a sandwich and ate that. Gave Buli his food and water and then we began limping from 5am through Paarl towards Wellington down the R301.
The walk to Wellington took 4hrs so I arrived there at about 9am. I now felt very hungry so Buli and I stopped at a KFC. Buli had no more tins left so I gave him his own Bucket for One as well as myself. Topped myself up with some energades and allowed my feet to rest for 30min. The next part was the worst.
At 9:45am I began the walk up from Wellington to Ceres. I took the Bainskloof Pass since it was the shortest route by foot (although it felt incredibly long). Remember that I was already limping from Paarl and we had another 48km to go. I was limping at a pace of 15min per km, which meant I could only cover 4km in 1 hour. That meant it would take me 12hrs and my estimated time of arrival was 9-10pm. I had no idea how long that road would be.
We began up Bainskloof Pass, the mountain road was tough and winding but we pushed through, sore feet and all. The weather was not in our favor as the previous day because it was extremely hot. Buli began overheating, I could tell by his breathing so we took a 5min break almost every km where we could find shade. He didn't drink much water during our break periods. Each break that we took made my legs feel worse, especially my left knee and my right ankle. Once we got through the winding road we made it to the kloof and kept pushing. A kind man that was staying there refilled our bottles with cooler water and gave me a banana before we moved on.
I kept changing lanes as the road turned so that Buli could keep his feet off the tar and onto the shade. At one point it got very bad and we had to take a very long rest. We found a hole where we could sit in the shade. Here I gave him some more food and he drank three bowls of water.
At around 4pm the sun began setting so there were more shady areas to walk in. Buli's breathing got a lot better but my legs got a lot worse. Our pace slowed down but we kept pushing. My cousin drove past us, gave me some apple juice and went ahead to Ceres to wait for us there. The R301 began to irritate me because I saw no one, there was no place I could turn to for a shop so I knew we had to ration our water and the road seemed never ending. My left knee ached like crazy, my right ankle was swollen, my face was sunburnt, lips chaffed and back hurt. But we kept pushing.
At the end of the R301 was a bridge where we could cross the Breerivier. This was around 7pm and the wind began blowing strongly. It kept pushing me forward, hurting my knee even more. After we crossed the bridge I decided to take another rest before we tackled the R43 which would take us to the R46 which takes us into Ceres. So from 7:30pm to 8pm we napped along the road.
At 8pm I got up and realized that I couldn't walk. My left knee was completely shot, I had to drag it after me as I walked with a swollen right ankle and we still had another 16km to go and it was already dark by then. So I decided to call it quits instead of injuring my legs to the point where they're permanently unusable. I phoned my cousin and he came to pick me up with 16km left to go and we drove to Ceres.
All in all, I walked a total of 104km in two days.
I was very proud of my dog and gave him a proper meal and some TLC. He was actually very eager to climb into the car when it came to pick us up.
A video has been released documenting my walk that you can watch below.
I began walking at 6:30am from my house in Mitchell's Plain with my dog Buli. The GPS said that it would take 1d1hr to get there so I thought that I might be able to accomplish it in 2 days, maybe 3.
My initial idea was to get to Paarl by 6pm and then sleep there for the night. By 9:30am I made it to Kuilsriver Access Park (our 1st 5min break) and by 11am I had walked the entire R300 and got onto the N1 road (our 2nd 5min break) . That was the easy part.
After I walked about 20km I began to feel the effects of the walk on my body. The bag in particular hurt my back since I was carrying canned food for Buli. The trudge towards the Engen One Stop was painful and my legs began to hurt. I arrived at the one stop by 12:30pm, well ahead of time. Surprisingly, I wasn't at all hungry and I hadn't eaten for the entire day. I gave Buli his canned food and then bought myself a pie since I knew I needed it but I only ate half of the pie. I also bought a few energades and refilled Buli's water bottle. Then we took an hour long nap to recuperate.
At 2pm we began walking and I immediately felt the pain of the short nap so I was limping from the Engen One Stop till Paarl. It was roughly 20km from the Engen till Paarl so we took a break every 5km since it was so painful. Luckily the air was cool on Monday. Soon Buli began dragging me (which I was grateful for) as he chased the fieldmice along the road. By 6:30pm we made into Paarl. My body was screaming already and we took the first stop which was at an Engen. I bought myself another energade and later some hot chocolate because I was getting cold. I was still not hungry. I gave Buli some water and he began to vomit the water but that stopped as soon as he got his food.
My cousin drove up and did a quick interview with me before we went to lay down for the night. The attendants at the Engen garage were extremely kind and helpful and allowed me to sleep in the toilet. They even gave me some cardboard to lay on so the floor wouldn't be too cold. They also charged my phone for me. God bless them. So Buli and I cuddled together in the toilet and fell asleep there. That was the end of Day One (Monday).
I woke up at 4am on Day Two (Tuesday), and did some stretches. My body was still very sore, almost every muscle in my leg was stiff and my feet had blisters on them. I bought myself two energades and a score. I also bought myself a sandwich and ate that. Gave Buli his food and water and then we began limping from 5am through Paarl towards Wellington down the R301.
The walk to Wellington took 4hrs so I arrived there at about 9am. I now felt very hungry so Buli and I stopped at a KFC. Buli had no more tins left so I gave him his own Bucket for One as well as myself. Topped myself up with some energades and allowed my feet to rest for 30min. The next part was the worst.
At 9:45am I began the walk up from Wellington to Ceres. I took the Bainskloof Pass since it was the shortest route by foot (although it felt incredibly long). Remember that I was already limping from Paarl and we had another 48km to go. I was limping at a pace of 15min per km, which meant I could only cover 4km in 1 hour. That meant it would take me 12hrs and my estimated time of arrival was 9-10pm. I had no idea how long that road would be.
We began up Bainskloof Pass, the mountain road was tough and winding but we pushed through, sore feet and all. The weather was not in our favor as the previous day because it was extremely hot. Buli began overheating, I could tell by his breathing so we took a 5min break almost every km where we could find shade. He didn't drink much water during our break periods. Each break that we took made my legs feel worse, especially my left knee and my right ankle. Once we got through the winding road we made it to the kloof and kept pushing. A kind man that was staying there refilled our bottles with cooler water and gave me a banana before we moved on.
I kept changing lanes as the road turned so that Buli could keep his feet off the tar and onto the shade. At one point it got very bad and we had to take a very long rest. We found a hole where we could sit in the shade. Here I gave him some more food and he drank three bowls of water.
At around 4pm the sun began setting so there were more shady areas to walk in. Buli's breathing got a lot better but my legs got a lot worse. Our pace slowed down but we kept pushing. My cousin drove past us, gave me some apple juice and went ahead to Ceres to wait for us there. The R301 began to irritate me because I saw no one, there was no place I could turn to for a shop so I knew we had to ration our water and the road seemed never ending. My left knee ached like crazy, my right ankle was swollen, my face was sunburnt, lips chaffed and back hurt. But we kept pushing.
At the end of the R301 was a bridge where we could cross the Breerivier. This was around 7pm and the wind began blowing strongly. It kept pushing me forward, hurting my knee even more. After we crossed the bridge I decided to take another rest before we tackled the R43 which would take us to the R46 which takes us into Ceres. So from 7:30pm to 8pm we napped along the road.
At 8pm I got up and realized that I couldn't walk. My left knee was completely shot, I had to drag it after me as I walked with a swollen right ankle and we still had another 16km to go and it was already dark by then. So I decided to call it quits instead of injuring my legs to the point where they're permanently unusable. I phoned my cousin and he came to pick me up with 16km left to go and we drove to Ceres.
All in all, I walked a total of 104km in two days.
I was very proud of my dog and gave him a proper meal and some TLC. He was actually very eager to climb into the car when it came to pick us up.
A video has been released documenting my walk that you can watch below.
