Get fit for the Fanie Botha!
“It’s like when Frodo runs down the forest path to greet Gandalf,” says my hiking buddy, Rachel Fischer. It’s our first day on the Fanie Botha Trail and Rachel, Annelize Mare and I have just started off from the Ceylon Hut, where the scenery is definitely reminiscent of the Shire in The Lord of the Rings.
The late Fanie Botha was a politician for 25 years in the National Party. When Rachel told her colleagues she was doing the five-day hike that he established, one said: “I hope the trail is more easy-going than the man was!”
Temperament aside, Botha had a vision. The trail opened in 1973 and was the first of a national network of hiking routes that he had planned. He wanted to create a series of connected trails from the Soutpansberg in Limpopo to the Cederberg in the Western Cape – an idea based on the famous Appalachian Trail in the USA, a 3500km route through the eastern states.
Even though the entire network never materialised, the Fanie Botha is a legendary trail and a great way to explore the Drakensberg escarpment for two to five days.
The trail runs through pine plantations, indigenous forests, grasslands and sandstone formations, with a patchwork quilt of Lowveld vegetation unfolding beneath your feet. Remember your swimming costume because there are lots of rivers, waterfalls and pools along the way.
DAY 1 9KM Ceylon to Maritzbos
The first day is just a warm-up. The trail mostly winds through pine plantations.
