ESCAPE: Solo on the Baviaans Canyon Trail — five days slack‑packing

{JSON.stringify(article.attachments[0], null, 2)} --> My lungs were screaming, I had no fuel in my tank, and I felt woefully unprepared. I was still getting used to my hiking boots, and I felt about as agile as a panda in bubble wrap. A five-day hike through the Baviaanskloof became a lesson in what to carry – and what to leave behind.

People will tell you that there is nothing quite like the Baviaans Canyon Trail . They’re right. But even more so – there’s nothing quite like the Baviaans Canyon Trail after having one’s first major argument with one’s partner of five years, after visiting the concrete-encased mania of the Owl House in Nieu Bethesda, and leaving one’s aforementioned partner in Graaff Reinet to avoid taking the argument to the canyons.

Taking an argument to the canyons feels a bit 1990s Meryl Streep, and I do not possess the calf or trap muscles for that kind of emotional endurance.

That’s how I ended up, alone, in my trusty Suzuki Ignis, rattling on a dirt road with no signal, into orange canyons, while my partner figured out the bus situation in Graaff Reinet.

I’ve read numerous articles about hikes, adventures, and other outdoorsy stuff – the type of stories where the copy is insignificant compared to the photographs of vistas and expanses. Colours are peppered around like the writer just discovered a box of Crayolas for the first time, and there is little context about the fresh-faced smiling couple traversing a mountain.

I want to know what the experience is actually like. Whether the smiling couple made it to the other side without impaling each other with hiking poles or suffering an unfortunate incident involving trail mix.

The Baviaans Canyon Trail is a brand spanking new five-day (six-night) +-76km slackpacking trail through the Baviaanskloof World Heritage Site — you only have to carry a day pack; a win in my books. The Baviaanskloof is one of the world’s richest centres of plant diversity (proteas, fynbos, the works) as well as having sandstone slot canyons, crystal-clear pools and indigenous forest. In a nutshell, it’s a scenery centrefold bombshell.

We booked our spot at the beginning of the year and opted for July because we don’t like hiking in scorching temperatures, and are too lazy to carry the extra water needed in the summer months.

The countdown was supposed to involve more rigorous training from my end. For context, I am a relatively fit 42-year-old who has done some hiking. I can run 5km fairly easily, and 10km successfully, provided my asthmatic lungs are up for it on the day.

As so often happens, I did very little with my best intentions. And, if I’m honest, I was a lot more focused on the food and snacks.