Find freedom in the Free State

I’ve been fortunate enough to hike the Camino de Santiago in Spain, the Inca Trail in Peru and the Via Francigena in Italy, and I can say without a doubt that you’ll enjoy a hike much more if your hips and feet are used to walking long distances.

I did the three international routes alone, but when I got the opportunity to do one of the Sungazer Pilgrimage trails in the Free State, I invited my friend Leoné Fouché to join me. Leoné wants to do the Spanish Camino one day, and the Sungazer is a perfect training hike because the Free State is actually remarkably similar to rural Spain – lots of dirt roads and walking through the veld.

There are a few Sungazer options. We chose the one called Vinnige Willemien, which covers 85 km over four days. We also chose the slackpacking option, where you sleep in guesthouses along the way.

And now we’re here, on a dirt road east of the Witteberg range. Organiser and host Renée Wolfaardt picked us up in Paul Roux at 7.30 am. She poured us one last coffee on the bonnet of her Ford Ranger and then we set off, at a place called Slabberts, with red flags tied to our backpacks.