Our second Cape Camino walk was this morning. We started at Buitenverwachting and we anticipated an easy walk 6km past Pollsmoor to Steenberg Shopping Village.  Needless to say our 6km walk somehow became 9.7km! Again, we pushed our limits and discovered how much we could do in one day.

We had no idea there was a village behind Buitenverwachting. Obviously, it was on the Cape Camino map description, so it must be there, but we had no idea of the extent of the place. Again the map was a little vague for our limited experience, but it was extremely interesting wandering down the little roads.

We then went through the Cape Academy School, and were again a little map challenged. We walked under a rope barrier as we should have and looked for the path on the left, as the map stated. We arrived in a field where a man was about to saddle his horse and go for a ride. We told him we were looking for a path that went over a bridge and through the reeds. He said we should have gone left where we went right, and showed us the path. I can say that when walking around, you meet the most interesting, friendly people.

We found the reeds!

From the reeds we walked into a fynbos thicket and were then meant to go into a pine forest. We were again unsure if we were on the right path as we were looking for a bridge in a very sandy area. We asked a man and his 4yr old son if they had seen a bridge, and the two of them had a huge debate about whether there had been a bridge in the direction they had come from. The 4yr old said definitely no, and recited that a bridge went over water. We were in earshot of another man and his dog at this point, and while debating whether to follow the path, he had gone on ahead. Next thing we heard him yelling that the bridge was there.

And above we have the reason why the 4yr old said there was no bridge – no water! If there is no water, it is apparently not a bridge!  Okay then.  On to the pine forest.

I had thought that coming out of the pine forest on the road, we would be close to the end of our walk. However, typically this was not to be. We still had to walk past Pollsmoor to Steenberg Village. We seriously considered calling an Uber!

I learnt that I need to aim for a 7km walk, and we will probably end up doing 10km. We all learnt that we can walk 10km and not die!

[Thanks to F for the header picture, done on Pinterest.]