Exploring the Spruit on foot

It has been many years - since that Kinetic race where we rode the length of the Spruit up to the N1 - since I've been along the Braamfontein Spruit. Sure, I've done the section at Delta Park and near the Sandton Field & Study on foot and/or bike for orienteering and Kinetic's sprint races in recent years but I'm completely unfamiliar with the rest.

On Saturday morning we had a club run along the Spruit, from the shopping centre on Rustenburg Road in Victory Park. It's a great place to start from because there is ample parking and post-race colddrinks available.

I was accompanied by club members Tony and Francis; and Francis' friend Sheila. Francis is a star recruiter - she has brought friends with her to all kinds of events, introducing them to trail running, navigation and orienteering. Way to go! Gerhard met up with us on the road, a few hundred metres from the start.

Spruit runners near one of the many waterfalls, cascading down old stone walls. 

(L-R)Tony, Gerhard, Francis, Sheila, Lisa

We had a nice and easy pace, enjoying the sights and the river. The trails are in good condition - used by dozens of mountain bikers and a couple of runners - and we passed friendly people. True to AR Club fashion, we did a bit of a 'creative' section as we neared William Nicol - an overgrown section off the Braamfontein spruit (may be the Sandspruit?). We headed out for an hour and then turned around. It worked well.

Total distance, as measured on Google Earth, was around 14.5km. We took just under 2hrs, with lots of chit-chat.

More photos on our AR Club website.