HIKING: A SPECIAL AND ANCIENT SPORT

Quathlamba

“A mass of Spears. Named thus by the Zulu warriors before the white man came. Today called the Drakensberg, Mountains of the Dragon, a name given by the Voortrekkers. Evocative names, both equally applicable to South Africa’s mightiest mountain range with its spear-like peaks – reminiscent of the saw-toothed spine of a gigantic dragon.”

Panorama April 1966

This blog is all about the Drakensberg Mountains and its Wilderness area, South Africa. I have lost my heart and soul to this area and every single time I hike these mountains, I stand in awe all over again at this magnificent beauty.

“Listen to the streams as they gurgle from their cradles and you will hear the story of the mountains. You will hear fascinating tales if only you listen! Lie next to a stream and listen to the song of the mountains. The smiling faces of the flowers, dancing in the wind. Venture into the remote valleys or stand on a peak at sunrise or sunset, after snow has fallen, and you will hear a song that you will never forget - the Song of the High Mountain". (DA Dodds)

Hiking adventures, hiking gear reviews, day walks, accommodation, books, articles and photos, all related to these magnificent mountains will feature here.

Should you want to accompany me on a hike, or need some information or advice, please make contact with me. I hope you enjoy the articles.

Please visit the archive for some more interesting stories, photos and reviews.

Please note that all photos on this blog are copyright protected. If you would like to obtain Photos please make contact with the author, Willem Pelser.

“YOU WIN A FEW, YOU LOSE A FEW. SOME GET RAINED OUT. BUT YOU GOT TO DRESS FOR ALL OF THEM.

SATCHEL PAIGE

HIKING: A SPECIAL AND ANCIENT SPORT

Naturally we can add various reasons for hiking being a wonderful kind of recreation. It emerges, however, that it is a sport. “Sport” comes from the Latin word which literally means to be in a harbor or a port and thus to leave behind the everyday work, to relax, to come to terms with yourself, to play, enjoy, indulge in pleasure.

We tend nowadays to forget that sport is largely play. For some it has become a matter of deadly earnest, and this does not only apply to the paid professional sportsmen and women, but also to the spectators.

Sport is not simple ordinary play, however. It is also struggle, conflict. However paradoxical this might sound, sport means to be involved in playful conflict or struggle.

Playful conflict means that sport which is reduced to hard work – and often war nowadays! – is not sport any longer.

But it is also a matter of playful conflict. Any sport involves one in a conflictual relationship with a chosen resistance with the purpose of extracting pleasure from the exercise. The type of resistance will depend on the type of sport – it can be your opponent on the tennis court, or on the rugby field, or height, distance or time in athletics.

Although hiking has many similarities with ordinary kind of sport, there are at least two important differences.

In many of the mentioned sports you mostly oppose another human being. In the case of hiking there are also others with you, but in the very first place you are competing with yourself. It is your own back which has to support the backpack for one kilometer after the other. It’s your own feet which should be able to withstand blistering. It is your own legs which have to withstand buckling on the steep ascents and descents. This involves one of the great advantages of hiking: you get to know your own strength and weaknesses very well.

In the second place, artificial obstacles are only encountered in ordinary sport, while in the case of hiking these are natural hindrances. For rugby you need a playing field, and for tennis a tennis court, while for hiking you need very little – you accept the ups and downs of the trail as supplied by Mother Nature’s hand. One need not buy or erect sporting facilities at great cost. The joys to be derived from struggling with these “natural opponents” are also not artificial, but almost primitive joy of simply being part of nature again.

Hiking is a sport – and then a very special kind of sport. When we come to what it means for the individual, we will see that it is really more than an ordinary sport. Hiking is beneficial to you in a way that other sports are not, because it is, in reality, a complete vacation apart from being a sport to participate in.

Hiking is also the very oldest of all sports. By this it does not mean that people from the olden days consciously practiced it as a sport. Our ancestors, who did not have to sit out their lives behind desks, probably did not realized what a privilege it was to be able to move around on foot. In fact, walking was the very earliest and most primitive form of sport.

The End.

Safe Hiking.