After making our packed lunches and then having breakfast we got onto the bus and made our way to the trail start point, in the hills behind Pilgrims Rest. The weather was cloudy and misty to start with but cleared by mid-morning and the rest of the day was sunny,warm and very pleasant - that is until the sun went down and the chill returned.
As we walked alongside plantations of pine trees we passed Morgensons hut, apparently not as good as the hut we are staying in tomorrow, and continued along part of the prospectors trail winding our way downhill to a stream and then uphill beside it before finally emerging onto to open hillside. We saw signs, i.e. poo, of eland, porcupine and an unspecified cat and disturbed a mountain reedbuck. We also saw the product of controlled burning i.e. fresh grass and thriving protea bushes - they require burning to release their seeds and regrow. We then had an interesting downhill section - made worse by yesterday's rain. Finally on reaching the bottom we had lunch before embarking on a section along a disused railway which was overgrown with brambles in places - we could have done with secateurs. Despite a slight unintended deviation from the route we made the final bridge across the river by 1245.....Admire met us with the coach and took us into Pilgrims Rest for some well deserved r&r - we decided to have a cappuccino others went to see the robbers grave - we were back at the coach by 1.55pm as we were going to the local gold mine outdoor museum. We had a very interesting talk on the history of gold mining and a demonstration of panning for alluvial gold. The site was set up as it would have been in the 1860s - individual claims, a tented camp, the gold commissioners office and some of miners equipment. It was very interesting - we left at 3.15pm as we had one more walk and needed to ensure a daylight finish. Consequently we were taken in the bus to the start of 'forest falls' trail which took us all the way to Graskop and our accommodation for tonight. Today's photo was on the last leg of the walk - spot the deer - I didn't know I had photographed it - we didn't see it until we started walking up the track and it moved yet you can see it clearly on the photo albeit does blend well with the colour of the track!
We walked a total 18km today - not easy nor difficult so not a bad start!
We arrived at the lodge about 1730 and freshened up before joining everyone else for a chilly BBQ.