Hennops – Hadeda Camp
16 – 18 September 2011
By Betsie Snit
Participants: Tonie & Bertha Lazarus (Leaders), Sebastiaan Lazarus, Johan Marais, Lesley van Vuuren and Betsie Smit.
Apologies: Elaine Deysel (took delivery of a new car – lucky girl!), Carin le Roux (had a teaching commitment) and Erica Meyer.
Friday, 16th
Lesley & I arrived at the base camp finding the Lazarus’s already settled: tent pitched and relaxing. We were quite surprised that the group shrunk to a mere 5.5 hikers (the .5 being little Sebastian).
We also received the news that one of our leaders, Tonie, left his hiking boots at home and would not be able to hike with us! The first thought was: ok, rugby on Saturday morning, good plan, but where is he going to find a TV??
The upside was that the two rooms (6 bunk beds each) could be overtaken by us!
As the sun was setting, Tonie made a fire and the braai started. After a nice supper, we got into the discussion about starting time for the next morning. Some people wanted to sleep late, but we had some enthusiastic hikers wanting to start early. Eventually we all tucked into our sleeping bags for a well deserved rest after a hectic week at work.
Saturday, 17th
The morning started bright and early at about 07h00 with everyone having coffee, rusks, etc. and getting ready for the day.
We left the camp at 08h30 and proceeded to take the slide across the river – FUN!! Bertha went first and the rest of us followed. Two hikers (not going to mention names) decided to go together but were a bit heavy, so Bertha had to use muscle power to pull them across the river.
As Tonie forgot to pack his boots, he stayed behind and enjoyed a morning reading and just doing nothing, whilst the rest of us were hoping to build up a bit of a sweat, on the 11km long Krokodilberg route.
We set off at a good pace with our newly appointed leader – little Sebastian!! (Of course with mother Bertha on his heels!) I tried to overtake our little leader, but was blocked at every gap I thought I had.
Being a small group we made good time, i.e. not having many breaks. We all looked forward to the stop at the picnic site anticipating a nice cool down swim in the pool. Surprise: the water was freezing – couldn’t even keep our feet in the water for long! Our shortest and youngest hiker had no problem with the cold water and had lots of fun in the pool. We eventually arrived back at the camp at about 12h40.
The rest of our Saturday afternoon was great: some went for a snooze, another erected a very fancy stretcher and read for a few hours.
Saturday night was a blast: Bertha and Tonie made us an unbelievable tasty seafood potjie – prawns, hake, etc. Ate way too much!
Sunday, 18 Sept
Sunday morning started early once again and we set off for the shorter Zebra trail with Tonie joining us this time: wearing Bertha’s boots! Bertha had to lead the way wearing her Crocs. This route followed through the game camp of the property.
We saw quite a few animals, namely Zebras, Impalas, Blesbok and Swart Wildebeest. The veld on both days was very dry and vaal, but there were however a few small plants in flower.
A good pace was set and we were back in the camp at 10h30. Johan left after arriving back and Lesley and I soon followed. We arrived back home at about 12h30 which left us lots of time to get ready for the dreaded Monday ………
What a relaxing weekend in good company!! And the plus was it’s so close to home – looking forward to a repeat!
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