Constantia Nek hike

Once again our middle princess shook us from our holiday lethargy-  it was time for our year end 'big hike'  - the previous year our torture of choice was skeleton gorge.... the beauty and the jelly legs, all still vivid in my memory.

Constantia Nek dam hike-  moderate to easy said the blogs, gentle contour paths with the bonus of three spectacular dams at the top....

and steps, lots and lots of steps....an age old dilemma- to the right is the winding contour path, gently steep, very winding, longer. Directly in front, the shorter version- cut the corners, take the steps, straight up.

I know- what's wrong with me?

Thankfully, the sweeping views quickly distracted us, with many stops to breath  admire our valley.

A note-. realising our folly, we abandoned the steps for the winding Jeep track and eventually our reward was in sight.

I believe there could possibly have been a ' no swimming' sign somewhere, but who walks for 1 1/2 hours in the hot sun to the top of a mountain and doesn't want a quick dip with the frogs.

I could happily have stayed there wallowing with the tadpoles, absorbing that energizing stillness.

Light headed from the altitude, we chose the steps for our return trip, but I suspect the contour jeep track would have been quicker

 As a service to once yearly 4 hour hikers, the code on regular hikers blogs deciphers like this-

Easy- not

Moderate- difficult

Difficult- don't 

 

Now that I've got that off my chest, I can tell you it was well worth it.