DAY 21:
We woke up early, and my dad was going to take us back to where we came down from. He picked us up around 9am, by this time, we were frozen to the bone. As we tuned in on the weather channel, we saw that a cold front has hit the country, and we were in for quite a surprise. Dad decided to drive up the Maanhaarrand road, which leads all the way to the top. Once we got to the top, we got out of the car, but my dad got back in immediately. The difference in temperatures was staggering! It literally took my breath away, scared the shit out of me too!
It has been a long, long time, since I last felt such extreme cold. Could hardly breathe, and when I did, felt like I froze inside out. Maria still had shorts on, so we changed and put on everything we had in our packs. Ironic, isn’t it? We send home all excess clothing with my sister yesterday, and now today, we need those. Dante and Katryn were equally cold, but if we kept on moving, and if, by any chance, we couldn’t anymore, and had to take a break from hiking, we all cuddled closer.
For the first time, since we’ve begun, we could see for miles and miles. The air was so cool and crisp, that it was the clearest day ever. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and so the cold didn’t really matter after a while. This was the furthest we’ve hiked in a day, thus far, and don’t ask me how far exactly, remember, no GPS, but I could see our starting point when we came down the mountain. We’ve hiked almost the entire day, and we were all exhausted. Out water was almost finished, and it was getting dark. The wind was howling, and we had to stand fast, or be blown of your feet. We decided to make our way down, hoping to find a warmer spot, and some water.
By now, we weren’t hiking anymore, we were stumbling over anything that was in the way, dark already, and too tired to speak. It was here, that my mother phoned, to ask if we were fine, and warm enough. We told her we were making our way down, and she insisted that they pick us up, as they were only 10kms away. Didn’t take much to convince us, and so we headed for the nearest road, to establish exactly where we were.
We were waiting for 5 minutes, which felt like 5 hrs. We were ready to keel over at any minute. Ooh, those limbz, didn’t feel like mine at all. We got to the guest lodge, just before 7pm. We had a drink or two with some of the guests, and then went for a warm bath and bed. I passed out, stone cold, the minute my head hit the pillow. Bliss…
