Archive for December, 2011

REPORT ON HIKES DONE BY FLORIDA HIKING

Friday, December 9th, 2011

HIKE:              KORONGO

DATE:      2 – 4 DECEMBER 2011

TYPE:              BASE CAMP

AREA:      MIDDELBURG

Guess what?? Another gem of a hike. Well have we been lucky this year in finding some truly lovely venues and trails to explore. This is a “must do again” one, and we feel one could arrange a lovely year end hike here as well. The owners are very friendly and make you feel right at home, as do all the dogs around!

The lodge is lovely and there are chalets there that could also be booked, there is a game trail that can be done from here with a guide as there are white rhino around. There are two camps with 6 lion in, 3 in each camp, two females and one male, and we were so lucky to see two of the lionesses relaxing (until they saw the dogs!) right by the fence.

You leave your vehicles at the lodge and are transported on a game vehicle to Korongo camp itself. There is absolutely no cell phone reception at the camp, so if you want to let anyone know you have arrived safely its best to do so at the lodge. We were very lucky to see a lot of game on our way to the camp and Frans the driver was very accommodating in stopping to let us have a look and take pictures.

We oohed and aahed upon our arrival at Korongo – a sprawling lawn, swimming pool with a water slide, and lovely accommodation with everything one would need, even towels. The kitchen is also very well equipped. We opted not to have the generator running which would have given us lights etc, as there were more than enough lanterns around. Gladys and Elias took very good care of us the whole weekend, cleaning, washing the dishes, making the fire and cleaning this afterwards as well – total luxury for us!!

The two trails, blue and yellow, are very well marked and give you a very wide variety, the only small change we would like to see would be making the blue trail a fair bit longer. We walked slowly and dawdled a lot along the way but still got back to camp just before lunch time. We did however have a lovely afternoon around the pool and down the water slide!!

In conclusion we could actually not fault this venue and the trails at all and highly recommend this for any hikers or even for someone wanting a relaxing weekend away.

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Report on Glenburn Day Hike

Thursday, December 1st, 2011
 
 
For the last day hike of 2011, FHAAC opted for an outing to Glenburn Lodge, the plan being to do a “short hike”, followed by the buffet lunch offered by the Lodge.
Some folk decided to come only for the lunch, but ten of us set off at around 10.15 a.m., armed with a map showing three possible routes – yellow, red and green.
 
Yellow was our first choice because some of the hikers had not anticipated anything strenuous and had not even brought water (or hats!), thinking we were going to stroll around the beautiful landscaped gardens.  Obviously we were not in true hiking mode, because we quickly lost the yellow dots.  Astri said she had seen them cross the river at some stage, but by then we were long past the mark, and we changed to “red”.  Peter had very quickly chosen to go back and smell the roses in the gardens; Pam and Geoff found their way back to camp easily.
 
Coming over the top of the koppie, we were all so enthralled with the view of the neighbouring,  beautiful Kloofsig Lodge. the tranquil dam, the eland and kudu. the strange small creatures that John and Astri kept pointing out to us, that it was some time before we realised there were no more markers to be seen!  (Must have been the Christmas spirit?)
 
We found ourselves with three options – re-trace our route, re-climb the koppie and follow the game fence back to Glenburn, or continue on down to the road leading to Kloofsig and walk along the tarred road back to Glenburn – probably about 5km further, in the midday heat.  We chose the latter, phoned Sheila once we got to the road.  Sheila very obligingly came with her little car, crammed in the five “seniors” (much to the amazement of the security guard), drove us to Glenburn reception and still went back for the “youngsters”, Narina and Colleen.  Thanks so much, Sheila – you saved our lives!
 
The lunch at the restaurant was super, the choice of food quite astounding.  After our long, “short” hike, we were able to do justice to the spread and had a great time together, as Florida Hikers always do.
 
Even though this was most definitely a good lesson on “how NOT to hike”, no-one complained, everyone was in jovial mood and we all agreed – next year we will do it again and find out where the RED route really takes us.  A lovely venue!
 
Joan

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