This post is for the #wednesdaywalk challenge and the #makemesmile challenge collaboration. This collaboration initially took place once a month, but due to its popularity, @tattoodjay (of the #wednesdaywalk) and @elizacheng (of #makemesmile) decided to make it a weekly thing.
If you want to know more about the rules, visit this post by @tattoodjay where you will find all the rules at the bottom of his post after you've enjoyed his beautiful photos from his walk.
Okay...maybe my post today is more about a drive than a walk. But it was fun and I would like to share it with you.
Last week my wife told me that she wanted to go for a haircut. She was referred to a new hairstylist by a customer of hers.
This hairstylist is running a salon from his home in Hillcrest, which is in the Outer West area of Durban, South Africa. We decided that I would take my wife to his salon and while she was getting her hair done, I would find a place nearby where I could take some photos.
Searching for the address on Google Maps, I found that it is not too far from Camelot. Camelot is a nice venue for various activities and functions, situated on a golf estate in Hillcrest.
So, I decided that I would go to Camelot for about an hour, take some photos and be back in time for when my wife is done at the hairstylist. Even though we live only a few minutes away, my plan was to leave home an hour before the time, find the address, and go up to the top of Botha's Hill to take some shots of Camelot while looking down at it from Botha's Hill.
I would then drop my wife off and go to Camelot itself from there.
Even though I added the address to the GPS system in the car, I still decided to leave early enough to have some extra time available. I just like to rather be early and be sure I can go straight to my destination then end up searching for a place and end up being late. I have found that most of the time the GPS is very accurate, but I have had the odd experience where it was not 100% "on target".
And as Murphy wants it, this was one of those days. As I saw a street name where I was convinced that I needed to turn right, this "GPS-lady" told me to continue straight...lol.
It didn't take me too long to realize that we were moving further away from the desired destination. I turned around and followed my gut...and can you believe it? This time she told me to turn in the direction that I wanted to go the first time.
We found the address. But this area is situated on quite a steep slope on the side of the hill. If I just wanted to enter the property it would be no problem. But I didn't want to draw any attention yet by entering the property. And the road is quite narrow in that area, which would make for some maneuvering to turn around. And the driveway makes a sudden drop, which means if you turn into the driveway, it just suddenly disappears and you cannot see a thing. So, not knowing the area, you kind of hope you're still on the driveway until the nose of the car goes down far enough to see clearly again...lol.
So, I decided to go straight and find an area where there is enough space to make a U-turn.
But to the contrary, the road became narrower...and after passing 2 more properties and a sharp bend to the right, we suddenly left the suburban area, and it looked like we were entering some open space on a sand road.
We laughed and said, "let's carry on and see where the road takes us".
The "road" soon became more of a trail than a road and we found ourselves in a sugar cane field. Fortunately, the sugar cane has not grown very high yet, so at least we had a good view.
The trail started twisting and turning and we were descending lower and lower into the valley.
There was no space for turning around. To the left, it was sloping up and to the right, it was sloping down...with the sugar cane being planted right up the trail.
We started encountering mountain bikers coming up from the bottom. I would just move to the side as far as possible to give them space to pass us and with a lot of huffing and puffing and friendly smiles, they would pass us and continue to the top while we would continue down to the bottom...having no idea where we're heading too.
About 20 minutes later and now seriously looking for a place to turn around, seeing that we only had about 30 minutes left before my wife's appointment, I found a spot where I thought it would be safe enough to attempt turning around.
It took some maneuvering (more than what it would at the salon😄), but I managed to turn around.
We started making our way back up the hill again, and this is when we decided that we still have just enough time to maybe make a stop here and there and take some photos of this little unplanned journey...
I stopped to get out of the car and I took the next two photos. By now we were about halfway up the hill again.
The first one is looking back from where we have come...and as you can see, with no space for turning around.
The next photo is looking ahead at the trail we were following to get back up the hill...
Looking out over the valley with a suburban area, called Assagay, visible in the distance on the other side of the valley.
In the next shot, I also captured the car to give you an idea of the terrain. I pulled over slightly to the side of the trail (as I did when encountering the cyclists), which left us on the edge to the left. You can see it is quite dense next to the trail and being inside the car makes it difficult to see what is happening on the surface. In many areas, it was also wet and muddy and I definitely didn't plan on getting stuck there...
Then, a few minutes later, I stopped to take the next shot from inside the car. There wasn't any space to comfortably get out of the car. We were approaching a sharp bend to the left.
I remembered from coming down, that directly after this bend there was quite a steep uphill waiting for us. There was a little stream running across the trail which made it wet and slippery.
I realized that I needed just enough speed to keep momentum and to keep traction, but prevent us from spinning going up the hill.
We've made it around the bend and up the hill without any problems... Going up, especially where there was water, was a bit more tricky than going down...
A few minutes later, this is the view of the trail (again from inside the car).
Admiring the color from inside the car that nature provides us with.
In the next photo, we were a little higher up and looking out over the valley again, with a suburban area (Assagay) also visible on the other side of the valley. In this photo, you can also see the "line" (close to the top of the hill to the right). That is actually the trail where we would soon be driving on our way out. That gives you a good idea of the slope to the left and the slope to the right that I was referring to earlier...leaving no space to turn around.
In the next photo (the last one for today), we were back at the top. Enjoying a lovely view over the valley. From here you can also see various trails running through the sugar cane.
After having some great fun, I got my wife to the salon on time for her appointment.
I checked later on Google Maps. I get the impression that we ended up in an area where some mountain-biking trails from Giba Gorge are running through. That explains all the friendly cyclists we found along the way. I was having just as much fun, I just wasn't as tired as they were...lol. Even my wife admitted to me that she actually enjoyed the ride and had some serious fun going down the trail in the car.
And that's it for today folks!
Thank you for reading my post! I do appreciate it!
