Mother's Day hiking at Suikerbosrand - with my mom

As my mom and I were both under the influence of a nasty flu bug last weekend, we postponed our Mother's Day hike to this weekend (Mother's Day was 8 May here in SA). And a good thing too - we woke to a beautiful day with blue sky and mild temperatures.

A few months ago my mom started walking regularly. She did Tai Chi for the past five years and has been wanting to do something different. After watching the DVD of talks from FEAT Cape Town, she decided that she needed an adventure. She will be doing the 700-odd kilometre El Camino walk in Spain in September and the journey will probably take her five to six weeks - fabulous!

To celebrate her progress we had decided to go to Suikerbosrand, a nature reserve in the South of Jo'burg. I've written about my runs there a number of times (type Suikerbosrand into the search block). My mom was tasked with carrying my small backpack loaded with water and some fruit for a midway stop - practise for her. I took my camera along to take photos.

The main hiking trail is a 10km loop and it has some very technical sections that are rocky underfoot and a number of climbs. For someone who has never really been on trails, it isn't an easy first hike. My mom did brilliantly! This is the furtherest that she has probably ever covered under her own steam and, to make it even more difficult, it was on a tricky trail. It took us four hours, which is a long enough time on foot. By this evening she was feeling it a bit and I'm sure she'll remember (fondly, I hope) her walk tomorrow morning when she gets up - and Tuesday morning.

It's an odd time of year out there - not the fresh green of January. The grasses now have dropped and they're brown. But in the little valleys the trees are still green. We saw two buck in the distance and a small herd of zebra - also a distance away. That was it as far as the wildlife went.

By the time my mom gets back from El Camino she'll be a walking machine; I'll take her on the two-day trail, which we do in a few hours. It goes through my favourite valley in the reserve and we should see more animals on that side.

Mom, well done! I'm very proud of you. xxx

I took the opportunity to try out my hard-earned yoga headstands 'in the bush'. Really not easy on uneven rock with strong winds (approaching storm, thus the dark clouds). But, I got it up and even zapped the L-shaped headstand, which I've been working on. Mom did the arty thing taking pics. In a non-rocky, non-windy envionment I can bring my toes down to the ground and lift them up again - straight legs. Hip-hip-hooray for yoga!