The Naukluft Hiking Trail… ‘Rad and Raw’
By Celine Gimenez
It all started almost 2 years ago when Tim, one of our friends, mentioned “The Naukluft Trail”. According to his friend who did it: “Once you have done this one, the other multi-day ones look like nothing”.
As I checked online, the pictures posted about chains and raw gorges got me dreaming…
Highly favoured, my two SA long-time friends, Jacques and Blake, specialists, professionals and entrepreneurs in the “outdoors field” (Scuttle and Love Our Trails) committed to join and the booking was made! Last minute, a great colleague of mine, Chris (who partnered with me a few times to organize camps on Table Mountain for our students) joined as well!
It was a privilege to be part of their team: they grew up here, spent their holidays in the different African terrains, from coast to mountain trails, from mining to nature reserves, their knowledge was gold to me to fill the numerous gaps of my understanding of this continent of adoption. My Afrikaans hasn’t improved much though… and excuse my English here 🙂
BEST SEASON TO DO IT:
The trail starts on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, from March to October. We booked for the end of July, outside of school holidays, dry weather and nice temperatures. We chose to drive up over 2 days and camped next to the Orange River on our way up and down; a quick sunset swim and a braai is always a good idea on a road trip!
Despite the nice temperature between 20⁰C and 26⁰C during the days of the hike, the cold wind will find you at some stages, and for us, it was on the long unending plateau or the interminable flat sandy uneven river bed… making us dig deep to keep a good spirit! Note that the altitude (roughly between 1200m and 1900m), the dry weather (more or less zero humidity) and the constant dust in the air (it’s a rocky desert) will get to your sinuses!
ITINERARY:
Maps: Make sure that you arrive prepared!
There is no map available on site to take with you. There is no network either, except at the campsite reception but you will hardly be able to download documents. You are shown, on a mapboard, the loop that you will walk, and the signs to follow. Thankfully, Jacques planned for it and downloaded Maps.me for that area as well as the everyday trails. The trail is well signed, but the offline app was very useful when the “steps” were not so visible in the raw terrain. Highly recommended!
Replenishment: You can book for the “replenishment” option.
The team onsite will bring the food prepared for the last 4 days, your extra clothes, as well as frozen meat for a braai at the shelter on that evening! They will take what you want to send back to camp. Make your bag as light as possible for the last 4 days: it’s a great chance to adjust the weight. If you use the replenishment option, you only carry a bag for 4 days, which makes a difference for the rough elevation up and down altogether (3700m up).
Tips: throw a box of naartjies/bananas in the replenishment bag, it is so nice to get some fresh fruit on day 4 and you can also preorder fresh baked bread and drinks for that evening! Highly appreciated!
Route: If the trail is well marked, the route chosen is often surprising.
As straight up as possible, as straight down as possible, on scree, loose and rough rocks… no zig-zag…! Your shoes will take a real knock as well as your shorts if these sharp rocks come too close… We often choose the “zebra trails”, which were numerous around us, as they know best (The Hartmann’s mountain zebra is endemic to the area).
There is much wildlife to be seen, all around (or not seen at all despite the marking of their presence all around!) We are still waiting for the rhino to show up (markings of their presence everywhere, even in places we didn’t think rhinos could get to!) The markings of the kills, the spoors… reflect intense activity in these mountains. It is very rewarding to take the time to look for clues, and details, to try to connect the dots and stop to watch the wildlife running to disappear in front of us.
Multi-day: the route was marked and planned for 8 days originally.
We left with the idea of doing days 7 and 8 in one go, to be able to be back in Cape Town for the end of the week-end.
The reality of time is to take into consideration: the drive + the hike would take 10 to 12 days in total.
As we progressed along the trail, we brainstormed new timing… If you took the time to do it once and if time off is limited, we thought of a 3, 4, 6, 7 days option… Everything is possible.
THE REAL LUXURY:
Some real luxuries we often spoke about on the trail and that we don’t take for granted…it’s a privilege and a blessing:
It’s a luxury to be able to walk the trail: health, wealth, time…
It’s a luxury to be able to disconnect for 8 days: no network, no electricity, no book…
It’s a luxury to take time to do the daily chores: fetch water and sometimes filter it, nap, gather some wood, wash, prepare meals and find the right spot to install the portable shower (yes… the luxury of travelling with Blake from Love our Trails: he always brings his portable shower!) We arrived early at the shelter every day, and the afternoon would just pass slowly but quickly with all these little things to do!
It’s a luxury to naturally stimulate creativity and detox your brain: the simplicity of the repetitive movement of the walk sparkles creativity and leads you to essential deep thinking and activates your memory of long-past songs or moments of life. The immensity of the surroundings humbles you. And at the same time, you are important enough to breathe to see it. If we breathe, then we are here to make a difference.
All in all, I am so grateful to have been able to explore the Naukluft with the best team. The curiosity of the adventure was stronger than the intimidation to go with 3 fit men who are highly trained! Having a community you can count on is a luxury… Thank you, Jacques, Blake and Chris for making it easy for me!
You can find a few blogs online with descriptions of the 8 days of hiking (distances, terrain, water supply, shelter, weather experiences etc.). Our friend Chris has posted pictures and captions for each day on his Instagram account (@chrismorri) and a reel is posted on Love Our Trails Instagram.
If you need extra guidelines and a trustworthy guide advise: www.loveourtrails.com
If you need any good quality gear for any adventure: www.scuttle.co.za
Practical items to pack:
A sleeping bag (down to 0⁰ – Scuttle has got a good one and adds a liner for extra comfort)
A groundsheet (it can be shared) + a mat + a light blowup mattress (thorns are everywhere)
A spot device to just let one or two people know that you have arrived at the next shelter (Can be rented from Scuttle)
For all the practical info about the trail, booking, etc: www.trailsforafrica.com
