Human Rights Day

Was up early to an overcast, cool day. Went to the kitchen to have my wake up cuppa. Hubby followed as he wanted to make breakfast seeing that he was not able to on Sunday. I sat with my cuppa looking out the window at the birds while he made a breakfast of bacon, egg and toast. After breakfast Diane and I went onto the computer while we waited to see if the weather would improve so that we could have our hike. We eventually organized our `pad kos’ (picnic) and left just after eleven. The road down to Suikerbosrand was stunning. Just miles and miles of cosmos. Two weeks ago there was nothing and then this time they were everywhere.We arrived and started our hike about ten to twelve. Diane set my new phone to count our steps as she discovered the facility when going through the booklet. Whenever I get an upgrade she checks it out and then shows me what to do. Much easier than me trying to work out the instructions.Seeing that we had so much more time to complete the hike we were able to take our time and appreciate the scenery around us. I am happy to say the cycling has definitely improved my fitness level. I only started huffing and puffing on the second uphill this time. The day had really warmed up and the sun was shining in a blue sky. We had our stop at the same place as last time reaching it after an hour. There were several groups of people around also hiking through. While we were sitting eating our cheese rolls a guy came up from the opposite direction who made me feel good as he was huffing and puffing even worse than I had done. After chilling and enjoying the scenery we carried on going down all the way before leveling out and carrying on along the road side. I could see why the guy had huffed and puffed so much. When we have completed a few more hikes I would like to go from the opposite direction too. We passed two more groups resting with a picnic on the side of the path before going up again. By now thunder and lightning had started up in the distance and we quickened the pace so that we wouldn’t be caught in the middle of the lightning among the rocky kopies - not that anywhere was really rock free, but it felt safer along the level ridges. Luckily the storm activity passed us by after about half an hour and we slowed down and continued enjoying the scenery and hike. When we reached the signposts Diane wanted to take the 10km route but I wanted to try the same route as last time to see if we could find the way up and over the kopies to the car park. When we reached the little stream we relaxed and took some pics before going upstream for a short way to try and find the start of another path. Unfortunately we had no such luck and seeing that it was almost three decided to walk along the road. As I told Diane we had plenty of time to do it in. Diane wasn’t too impressed as we reached the car park at ten past four. I promised her we wouldn’t go that route again but at least we now know for sure that the route ends at the road. We checked the reading on the phone and were pleased and surprised to see that we had completed 18,392 steps. Don’t know the kms but it must have been between 13 and 15 – at least I hope so. Starting a hike earlier is a much better plan as we were able to enjoy the experience so much more and can’t wait to do the next one. Hopefully we will be able to do a hike every second week at least. On the way home we took pics of the cosmos on the roadside. When we got back Hubby was fast asleep so Diane and I chilled with a glass of wine which was interrupted by friends of Hubby who arrived to look at old car parts. Diane and I watched ` Kung Fu Panda on TV while they were busy outside. When they left Diane made herself noodles while I made wors rolls for Hubby and I. It was too late for anything else. We watched our normal of `Numbers’ and ` Flash Point’ chilling with our Milo after which we got on the computer for a while before retiring for the night.