Adventure With a Purpose: Tankwa Karoo Camino 256 km 2 Provinces 10 days desert trek: cause; Red Cross Children's Hospital Day 1: 6 May 2016

Day 1: Tankwa Camino - Trekking through the Karoo desert for Children's Hospital Trust [Red Cross Children's Hospital]

I had arrived the night before and stayed in a large room with a very comfortable bed and a bath that I could soak in and enjoy! I did some final packing and went off to sleep.

This was the spectacular red sky that greeted us in the morning - "red sky in the morning - shepherds warming" so true as we later would discover.

The Blue Nartjie: one of the many stunning and impressive B&B's in Calvinia housed in a historic building

I did not sleep much last night. So many things bouncing around in my brain. I was both excited and a little nervous as I did not know what to expect. Not much is written about the Tankwa Camino, how tough it is and what to expect. I think that's because it is different for each person. You get what you want out of it and for many a few unexpected experiences along the way! It is referred to as a spiritual journey for many, a time to get close to God and reassess your life. For me it was a little different. I had found God many times on top of the mountains and on my weekly hikes so I was not in search of any profound spiritual experience. I was hungry for another adventure.

I was looking for a truly unique South African Adventure which would be both affordable and showcase our beautiful countryside. Having never hiked in the Karoo this seemed the best option for me. It is also a great adventure if you are a woman alone as it is well organised and safe if you end up walking alone as many of us did. With the rand in its current state overseas adventures are out of reach for the most part so looking closer at home and exploring your own forgotten backyards is becoming far more appealing to those seeking some adventure in their lives.

This was one of the first adventures that I was tackling with very little information, it was a little liberating I might add, I would roll with the punches with this one and being not too far from civilization or away in some desolated and inaccessible place I had the luxury of indulging in this current situation. I was trekking to raise funds for the Red Cross Children's Hospital in Cape Town who needed to raise several million to revamp and increase the size of their ICU wing.

I had checked out the photographs on the Tankwa Camino website and facebook pages and seen that the majority of people were on the older side as well as several "tannies" like me carrying extra weight around the girth so if they could I could. So how hard would this be really?

That I would find out the hard way or rather the painful way several days later and gained new respect for the older wider girthed "tannies" who rocked it!! This was the 7th Tankwa Camino and also the first time so many men had entered.

The first thing as an English speaking person who has a better command of the Zulu language than of the Afrikaans language, was learning to fumble my way through Die Taal. Everyone from the petrol attendant, to bystanders to the beggar in the street spoke Afrikaans. Everyone called me Tannie and I was not sure if I was okay with that yet. It was like going to a whole new world and being immersed into an old culture that is deep in its ways and traditions and I loved it. If you go to little towns in Europe for example very few people speak English in your birth language and just like in Greece everyone speaks Greek, and if you go to Lesotho everyone speaks Sotho and if you go to the Karoo everyone speaks Afrikaans. I loved learning phrases again and listening to the stories and luckily many were on tap to translate what I did not understand or I might have walked to Cape Town by mistake. It was fantastic.

We met early in the morning after a hearty breakfast at the well known infamous landmark of Calvinia, the largest red post box in South Africa an old water tower which was converted into a giant post box by the Calvinia Chamber Commerce and post Office in 1995. Letters mailed here carry a special flower stamp. I am led to believe its the biggest in the world.

the group of walkers for the 7th Tankwa Camino

a prayer and then we were off.

All our luggage was being loaded into the big trucks, lots of excited chatter and introductions while lots of photographs being taken. A word from the Bible and a prayer and we were off on our Karoo adventure. None of us could remember if we were to walk on the left or right side of the road so half walked left and the other half walked right until we got into the grove.

Huge storm clouds were hovering creating spectacular lighting for those of us with cameras. Some people had some serious cameras with large lenses. I had read up that on this trip blisters are a huge challenge and a lot of advice was given. I made the rookie mistake of trying out something new, I had put on nylon stockings then my blister hiking socks and then my thicker socks over. I wore my comfortable well worn in hiking boots that had seen me up to Mt Kilimanjaro blister free. 5 kilometres in I had to stop and take the stockings off they had already started to rub under my feet causing sensitivity and blisters. I could not believe it I still had 250 odd km to go. I sat under a small tree with 3 other blister sisters who had an entire blister kit with them. Many bonding sessions throughout the trek were around blisters and sore feet.

We passed a lot of fynbos and little flowers on the sides of the road and even a dead tortoise whose shell had already turned white. The poor thing had fallen into a hole and could not escape dying in its dug out grave, this Karoo is tough!!

The Tankwa Camino was the brainchild of Rhina and Danie Pieterse who have lived their whole lives in the Karoo and so have generations of their families. They know the Karoo very well and each night we would be told about the land we had just walked on, its history and its people. the legends and of times gone by. Rhina informed those of us a bit rusty in Afrikaans that she had a typed English version for those that needed one.

1st break of the day putting the feet up!!

the 1st 10 km mark

This girls - they had a picnic everyday I found out later that one of them was actually from my church and was a friend of my daughter's - small world. I sat and had tea with them one morning along the route.

the water van bringing water, bananas and juicy apples and nartjies!!

I became camp neighbours with this awesome group of people

Monty feeling the heat and on the lookout for puffadders!

Today we would walk around 22,5km to our first overnight camp, Boskloof. The vegetation of the Tankwa is strangely beautiful, rugged and unforgiving. The amount of stark white skeletons and bones that lay against the sometimes red and sometimes yellow desert sand was a reminder of just how unforgiving it was. Lots of unusual stringy succulents, some resembling seaweed rather than plants, the toktokkie trees and the few sheep we saw with the even rarer hard-skinned farmers we saw were testament to the harsh Karoo conditions. Needed to be really strong to survive and generations had!

Previous walkers had suffered from the never ending harsh and burning Karoo sun, many coming away with serious burns and blistering. Luckily for us we had only 2 hot days, one of 28 degrees and another warmer at 30 degrees then it became cooler and at one stage we had a high of 9 degrees. I used a sun factor 50+ applying it only once and never got burnt at all. We saw a few farms looking somewhat desolated and some even abandoned. This region had not had much rain for many years and we were told the farmers had been praying for good rains this year. Perhaps this was why there was an absences of noticeable wildlife and sheep, perhaps they had died from the lack of water. This Karoo land was a place of survival, only the strong would make it to the next season.

we found this little oasis with running water, shade and soft grass!! perfect lunchtime stop.

There was a good mix of interesting people some had done the Spanish Camino - the Camino de Santiago, Kilimanjaro, the Otter Trail, Fish River Canyon, Argus and Comrades, desert crossings and other walking adventures. I had 2 Kilimanjaro's, European ultra peak and hiked many South African peaks and hiking tails so I felt I was prepared for this walk! But as the days progressed it became apparent that the Tankwa Camino was different and she was not taking any prisoners and actually did not care what your pedigree was, she was going to unleash everything she had at you just to prove you wrong.!

spectacular wild flowers

I arrived within a comfortable time just behind the first group of walkers at our overnight camp with plenty of daylight left. I pitched my tent and the wind had picked up a bit making the flysheet not the easiest to put up. The ground was super hard and would not budge even a centremetre. I was not alone as some had not even bothered to put their tent pegs in. I had chosen a big ass tent this time, a 4 sleeper. I was going for comfort, I even brought along a proper blow up mattress and enough yummy food to feed an army. Bath time was going to be a treat as I had thrown in 3 different types of shower-gels and luxurious body creams. I was going to live like a flipping queen. I had opted to leave my expensive tent which can cope with our high berg winds, snow and heavy rain. I was in the Tankwa Karoo, the desert for heavens sake, what could possibly go wrong, the chances of heavy rain and wind were zero here. Little did any of us know what mother nature had in store for us and little did I know that my "weather witch" for extreme weather was still packed in my Kilimanjaro backpack waiting to have the last laugh.

a busy ladybird!

Our overnight camp for the next 9 nights would consist of 4 enormous potjie pots, an army-brown kitchen tent housing a hive of activity in the early hours of the morning and once again after a long day of walking. We were greeted with mouthwatering Afrikaans Karoo treats with coffee and tea as everyone started to prepare their tents. Suddenly the open desert spaces would be quickly filled up with tired, excited chatter and a groups of multi-coloured tents in all shapes and sizes. We would then collect hot water from one of the large pots on the fire to wash, changing into comfortable and warm clothing, bringing our chairs and plates to the kitchen tent, sitting around the fires to talk about the day, God and a message to carry us through the next day as the desert landscapes gave way to incredible skies. Sunsets made for Getaway magazine adverts, the sun burning holes into the sky as it sunk into the night leaving clear skies with breathtaking views of our milky way, shooting stars and howling jackals hunting as we settled into our sleeping bags, dreaming of sore muscles and blisters, hoping tomorrow will be better.