Nicole, lesson learned

Last weekend I almost died.

Okay, not really but being my dramatic self that’s the way I like to put it. Last weekend a group of 6 of us (myself included) decided that we wanted to finally hike the Twelve Apostles. I knew in advance that the hike was not going to be easy, and I knew that it was going to take a long time, but it was something on my list of things to do before leaving Cape Town. If I had it in my mind that the hike was going to be difficult, it thought wasn’t anywhere near matched to how hard the climb actually was. The group of us set out before seven in the morning to start our ascent up a trail called Diagonal. It was extremely steep and had a very rocky path. However, just as expected. once we reached the top the view was amazing! There were valleys mountain peaks all around us, and we still had an amazing view of the ocean beaches that were far below us. However, as our hike continued, the realization that the beauty of the mountains was comparable to their danger smacked us in the face. We ended up getting lost on one of the last peaks of the mountain range, (this is after about 7 hours of hiking mind you) with only about 500 mls of water and one peanut butter sandwich leftover. Since we were desperate to start getting down the mountain before dark, we made an incorrect turn onto a “path” that wasn’t really a path at all, but rather was an INCREDIBLY steep rockslide type of ravine. Once we realized we had to manage to crawl back up and back track, I started to lose it. My entire body was exhausted, and I was so frustrated by our predicament that I was on the brink of tears. Eventually however, by some stroke of luck, after blindly pushing our way through what seemed like endless miles of pricker bushes and spiny plants, we managed to find a path that led down the mountain. (the very same path that we had been attempting to find for the past 2 hours) Needless to say, I have never been so excited to see a paved road in my entire life!! Even more of a comfort was when Ben came to the rescue with Energade and Jungle Bars. I definitely learned a lot from the experience though. I’ve never felt myself be so desperate to do something that I didn’t know if I could. I literally felt like I was trapped on that mountain, and that the only way I was going to get off would be in a helicopter. Luckily for us though, we managed to find our way. But I will make sure that next time I plan to go on a hike as long as this one, that I will have a map and a enough water and food to feed a small army.