After another awesome day hiking further along the southern shores of the African continent, there’s nothing like a swim in one of the epic rock pools that you can encounter occasionally. If you love to explore the road less traveled where few dare tread, then this is the place for you. It’s mostly deserted so you have the entire place to yourself. At most I may see an occasional fisherman once a week at most on these rocky shores. So I have all this to myself and recommend any intrepid adventurer to come join me to try it out.
Mostly the terrain is uniform in its appearance, with steep cliffs, massive boulders, jagged rocks, rock pools, sea and sky, and the occasional vegetation. However, on occasion I come across some odd objects either washed up by the sea or otherwise fallen down the steep cliff side or left here by long gone people. I generally can’t tell exactly how these odd objects came to be here and they definitely seem out of place.
This one I like to call “Stairway to the sun”. It’s a rope ladder that appears to be leading up to new heights in the direction of the dazzling sun, like a stairway to heaven. Maybe it comes off a ship at sea. Who can say for sure? Nevertheless, here it waits for anyone who wishes to scale its heights to the next level of existence. You too can ascend to new heights. The ladder awaits you.
Another odd item is this piece of rope. It’s obviously not that unusual and could easily have come from a boat or could have come down the cliff side but in this place which has zero other signs of human life, it does suddenly stick out as a rare odd feature. There is simply no other signs of human life whatsoever for miles along this stretch of shoreline. So even a simple random bit of rope becomes something like Wilson the soccer ball in the eyes of a ship wrecked sailor, as seen in the movie “Castaway” with Tom Hanks several years ago. The protagonist gets wrecked and stranded on a deserted island for months or years totally alone. He has to live by his wits and almost goes mad in the struggle and solitude. Then one day he encounters a soccer ball and it becomes like a friend to him. Similarly this remote hiking trail is like that in the sense that there is simply no sign of human life and if some rare man-made object does appear, then it gets disproportionate significance.
Here is another angle of the random rope along with a particularly interesting cave that I encountered today. It would make a very appealing shelter, especially for a castaway or shipwrecked sailor. It’s the perfect place to set up a camp, make a fire and take shelter overnight if necessary. Of course the ground cover is seriously rocky as you can see. There is zero sand or soil to make a soft bed so you would really need to make another plan to create a soft enough bed to sleep on.
Another rare anomaly that I came across is this tire. It’s no the first one I have found here and may actually be the third. But the fact that such a massive fat truck tire is lying here at the shore is just very out of place. It’s too heavy to move without exerting huge effort so I don’t know how the sea could have washed it up onto the shore here. Or was it rolled over the cliff edge by some kids to fall all the way down to this point? I have no idea. Still here it sits unmoved from it’s final resting place.
So thus far I have a ladder, some thick rope and a massive tire. Not too bad for a treasure hunt along this otherwise desolate and deserted stretch of Africa’s southernmost shoreline. I can start putting them together as furniture in this new residence of mine at the cave if necessary. The view would be awesome and the rock pools are just sublime. Here is another angle of some rock pools so that you can get the bigger picture and overall impression of just what kind of landscape I am traversing all along this remote, rugged and rocky shore.
I find this hike along the south coast of Africa to be really invigorating and plan to continue for some more months. I will keep you updated with posts and photos as my journey evolves. All one needs here is water and food. Everything else is fine. Perhaps a camping mattress would be a good idea, since the entire coastline is nothing but rock every inch of the way. If this is your kind of adventure, not too hectic but private and clean with wide open space, then stay tuned or, even better, come for a visit and let me know when you’re in the area. I will be happy to meet up with you and show you around.
(photos my own)