The truck actually went on a detour today and took us to Spizkoppe which we were meant to do on our way here from Cheetah Park, however as explained we had to get Zac to the doctor so we are making up for lost sight seeing today. We decided that we would walk in the morning whilst it is still cool and be back in town for the afternoon, so at sunrise we headed off (6.45am). 2.5 hours later we arrived and got some vague instructions of potential walks. A guide as available, but at 30USD each, we thought, we have this, we don't need a guide! So we headed off to climb to the top. Scrambling over boulders and walking like spider man up flat rock inclines was fun for the first hour but got a little same same after 1.5 hours and then just plain boring come 2 hours and knowing that we still had to get down. By this point the group had broken into smaller groups of those who were determined to get to the top, those who thought they would (my group), and those that gave up ages ago. Mike, Julie and I were almost at the top when we hit a dead end and could not progress on the path we were taking. We took stock, we were just over 2 hours into the hike, it was 1pm, we had 3 gulps of water left, it was at least 30`, we felt a little sick and we had at least 1.5 climb back down. We took photos, admitted defeat and headed down. It was at this point that the descent was going to be just as hard, if not harder than the ascent. About half an hour later we stumbled across Tegan who was climbing the boulders in her socks and flip flops! She was struggling big time due to massive blisters on her feet (hence the lack of proper shoes) and I had to wonder WTF was she doing this high up! After tears and some of our water she finally voiced that she should never have come so high. Well we were where we were so with little time for self bashing we decided that slow and steady would win the race down. We were going well until we climbed down a rock face to find that it ended in a canyon that we could not pass - we all nearly cried. At this point we got sight of the fast ones coming down from above. Considering I was the motivational leader and the most steady on my feet in our group, it was a sight for my sore eyes and legs to see them coming. We then descended as a group of 7 and Rory was willing to run ahead and check paths before we nursed the then extremely struggling Tegan, Mike and Julie down. I have never been so happy to see the truck and walked straight to the water locker and downed 500ml of water in what seemed like one gulp even though it was warm and grossly over chlorinated. Again Julie cried, but at this point it was survival of the fittest. I refilled my water bottle and climbed on the truck to get a rehydration sachet into me as quickly as possible. We had been on the mountain for 5 hours!! We had thankfully worn lots of sunscreen but we were hot, tired and signs of dehydration were showing. There was another walk we could do, which was supposedly shorter and you got to see a bridge that has naturally formed in the rocks. We unfortunately had to save that one for our next visit to this area as I feel that had we tried it would most certainly have been the end.

In true African style, no paths were sign posted and we ended up following piles of rocks (cairns) which we hoped for signs that this was the path, but without arrows or any indication of the direction to take, where next to useless. I just hope that they were not tributes to those who had fallen before us and were actually there as a means for marking out a path. Guess it will be postcard purchases that will show me the other highlights of the rock formations, however there is still a sense of achievement having spent as long as I did on the rock, climb as high as I did and be able to come back without broken bones, scratches or cuts.