Seychelles Day 2: Dengue Loop and Mont aux Cochons trails

A BIG outing today. Danzilles Road up to the start of the trail was already tough - straight up like a VK route. And then the first part of the trail  just continued going up up up. Around 400m climb in less than 2km. Today I decided to do the Dengue Loop. From the start of the trail, the loop and back is listed at 8.4km and hard.

I ran from my uncle's house which adds another 2-odd kays each way - I planned to take another trail on the return.

This is the route that I took - 18.4km. I was out there for around 5.5 hours.

My route was anti-clockwise. Thank goodness. This western side of the Dengue Loop is little used, overgrown, has tree falls and is very indistinct. I lost the trail a few times and resorted to Strava's gist of the trail to get me back on track. At times I thought I'd be spending the night out there. 

The trailhead is a bit overgrown but it cleared in the forest about 100m on.

Mare aux Cochons part of the trail, which looks to have been made for a 4x4 to negotiate.

A bit before I took the trail to start the loop. This is the easy peasy part.

Granite rock. Striking features.

That's the trail going through there. Very visually indistinct. By cutting vegetation, the route will be more visually significant.

Pretty. I had a good drink here. I must have downed about 2.5 litres on the route and could have done even more. My clothing was completely saturated from sweat. I stopped taking scenic photos after this. With only 2hrs until sunset I needed to focus on getting out of there.

From a bit after the furtherest end of the loop, the trail is more used and easier to follow. From the wetland, shown as a lake on the map, it is a veritable highway. By the time I hit this section I was pretty wasted from a lot of scrambling and climb. 

The easier, open trail after Mare aux Cochons, a high altitude freshwater wetland, restored me so I could actually run again. Lots of climb today, lots of sliding and crawling.

On the way back I stuck with the Mare aux Cochons trail, which sort of contours above the suburbs. It looks like it has been used as a 4x4 road in the past. 

On the Mare aux Cochons trail above the suburbs and heading back into civilisation.

I tried to find a trail that would drop down onto my uncle's road - there should be one - but knowing where it is (certainly at the end of someone's property) is the challenge. I ended up following the tar road, logging a few extra kays. I chose a side road that looked like it would have a trail at the end of it that would to  down into a suburb near the main road. I bumped into a guy who confirmed this to be so and he even led me to the start of the stairway. And then a trot through the suburb to get home.

I found lots of fungi. Loaded about 15 different ones on to iNaturalist. 

Not sure what these are. Not funnel woodcaps, not quite oysters either.

A bracket with great pores.

A Tremella jelly fungi. probably witches butter - but a brown one (can be various colours).

This is small. Maybe 2cm high. Certainly a Scruffy-golden Collybia.

This was adventurous outing. That western side is more adventure racing than hiking... I certainly wouldn't recommend it until trail maintenance has been done and there are refreshed trail markers. The yellow stripes painted on to some rocks are too few and they don't stand out. 

When my mom was here a few years ago she joined a hike. She said the trail and markings were quite bad. Some tourists got lost on the same trail for a few days - a big search was coordinated to find them. I can see people getting lost quite easily on the western side of the loop.

Still, it was a good outing and I am glad to have done it and made it out. 

Seychelles Day 1: Anse Major trail

I have 4 great reasons to be in the Seychelles...

1. Long overdue family visit. I was last here 23 years ago. My uncle has been saying "Come visit" for years. Our trip in May 2020 was cancelled with COVID lockdown.

2. Need to renew my passport. I'm fortunate to have a Seychelles passport as my dad was born here. 

3. My cousin Fred is doing an amazing paddling challenge on Saturday. He is aiming to paddle around the main island, Mahe, in a day. I'm going to be assisting with his media updates on Team No Limit . Fred's dad (now passed) and my dad are half brothers (we have a grandfather in common). 

4. It's the Seychelles! That is reason enough. And I can really do with a good break. 

I arrived Tuesday evening and jumped into admin on Wednesday morning with my passport renewal (smooth, efficient and no paperwork - all digital). It will be ready on Wednesday. 

After a drive around the north part of the island and a scoop of cherry ice-cream with my uncle, it was time to hit my first trail, the Anse Major trail. The trailhead is about 3km from my uncle's house so I ran there.

With a high of 29C and a low of 26C and humidity like a steam room, it is hot. The overcast morning turned into a beautiful sparkly afternoon and the trail was great. It is well used and scenic with views of the mountains, see and nearby islands.

My aim is to find fungi and boost the species observations on iNaturalist. I made some finds, with one real gem that I could get an ID on that is not currently logged. 

Tomorrow - another trail. 👏

Edible but not much flavour. My uncle says these are called 'Prune de France'.

Dripping with sweat. Very humid.

Flax-lillie. Small, pretty flower.

View of Anse Major for which the trail is named.

The forests are the places to find fungi.

I was very chuffed with this one - probably a luminous porecap. If it is, it is bioluminescent at dusk.

The crown is mine

Two days ago I got a notification from Strava that someone has beaten my time (by about a minute) for a segment on Strava and that they now had the course record. What? I didn't even know that I had a course record on anything.

I logged in.

Strava segments are "portions of road or trail created by members where athletes can compare times".

The segment in question is a section that I haven't done for a while. I've done parts of it - linking to other trails - but not the full loop that makes up the segment. The trails on the segment are some of my favourites for the very steep ascent, runnability, great scenery, fynbos and good views of mountains and George.

I started to use Strava regularly from about 6 months ago to log the George Trail Running (GTR) challenges. I log the Monday social runs and time trials too so that I can compare my improvements. I don't log my casual outings with dogs. I have a lot to learn about the functionality of this platform.

What I have learned is that it flicked a competitive switch and I needed to get my course record that-I-didnt-know-I-had back. 

I took Rosy out with me this afternoon. We had a nice warm up with a warm-up ascent to the start of the segment. I was feeling good for the climb, which I hike hard, not run.

I started the section at about 16h03, eating up the climb (I took three protea photos because they were just so beautiful) and really focusing on the descent. 

I got on to flatter trails at 16h29. This meant hard running for the next 3.5km. A couple of tree falls lost me a bit of time but fortunately there were no serious blocks.

As it turns out, my previous time was 50:08. I must have been messing around photographing fungi, fynbos and insects. 

I had it stuck in my mind that the time I had to beat was 43 minutes. I knew the overall leading time was 33-odd minutes

I ran 36:20. Strava declared that the crown is mine (in the women's ranking). Hip hip hooray

Even more satisfying is that I am in 2nd place overall. Now I'm looking at how to pull out 3 minutes...

These segments are superbly motivating. They entice you to go out to beat the person that beat you or to improve your ranking for your gender or overall.

Now to see what other segments I'm on and good at... 

Out with the new, in with the old

At an optometrist visit not long after I turned 40, I saw ne optometrist. Just the standard every second year checkup. My optometrist said that at some stage I would find my distance vision to improve and my close focus to deteriorate.

It took a few years but the process is in play and I recently had a check-up, my second since I've been living in George. Where my eyes had been stable for many, many years, they are changing. This was now my second prescription downgraded. I've gone from a -2.75 to -1.75 in about 3.5 years. 

I used to just wear my same prescription glasses for everything - close and far - even though I've always been able to see fine close being short sighted. Two years ago, I got a second pair of lighter prescription lenses for computer work. These are still good. I don't wear glasses for close-up. 

On this recent appointment, I needed to get a new pair of distance glasses at a weaker prescription.

Optical frames are expensive. I wasn't crazy about my last pair and wanted something similar in size and shape to the glasses I had two before. These I must have gone through three optometrist visits, keeping the same prescription and frames again and again. I took them along to try to match up with something new.

I tried a few frames but the upswept styling on the corners of the ones I liked and tried didn't do anything for me.

I ended up having new lenses put into my old frames. The benefit of this is a saving of at least R2,000. It can cost this or more for optical frames - on top of the fees for lenses, and appointment, which amounts to a lot.

For the next two years, if not longer, is out with the new and in with the old - I've got new-old frames again. I'm glad I hung on them.