School holiday change of adventure

We were going to head to the Orange River for the school holidays next week for a three-day trip. Three days of cruising down the river and sleeping on the river bank. While this is lovely, I was dreading the > nine-hour drive each way.

As luck would have it, the river has dropped dramatically in the past week and at 30 cumecs, it is way too low. Our plans have changed and instead we have concocted a local adventure.

This past Saturday we went hiking in the Vredefort Dome, taking Ruben (8) and Kyla (11) with us. At 11km, this was their longest hike yet.

Celliers with Ruben and Kyla.

Hiking with children can be challenging and there is certain to be a bit of sulking and grumpiness at some point. Of course, there was, but they are at the age now where they're recovering quicker, picking themselves up (mentally) and they keep going (they realise that sitting in one place won't get them anywhere). There was only one incident each. Overall, they enjoyed the hike very much and were full of beans about doing another.

Meeting up with Marianne and Liz, my mom. They started ahead of us. We fortunately caught them before the windpomp, where we enjoyed a rest and a lunch-time snack.

husky. cows. windpomp.

My husky friend, Kiska, spent the weekend with us and so he came hiking too. I have a feeling he is afraid of heights (his dad thinks so too). He won't walk on bridges and he was definitely hesitant scrambling up the rocks on the 'waterfall route'.

Kiska was definitely not going to go anywhere near the edge! Ruben took a peak over the 'waterfall'.

Kiska did really well and with an easy pace plus frequent stops in the shade to cool down and lots of water, he made the 11km distance with energy to spare.

Kiska generally doesn't like anyone to be in front of him. But on technical sections where the trail is less clear, he appreciated following Ruben. But when the trail opened, like here, he would pull to get ahead again.

Yesterday, Celliers told the kids about the river being too low and thus the trip being called off. He presented them with a new option: a three-day hike on the Forest Run route, including camping out and carrying our gear. They jumped for it.

Later next week we'll embark on a local three-day adventure, of around 36 kilometres, that starts only 25 minutes from home.