Wolkberg hiking

Myself and 4 (3 males & 1 Female) others embarked on a hiking trip deep in the Wolkberg nature reserve just outside Tzaneen in the Limpopo province for 5 days. We arrived at our starting point after 6 hours drive from Johannesburg. I must mention that going there in a normal sedan is probably not the best decision i've ever made, but non the less we got there in one piece. Upon arrival we found 2 gents sitting in an office were we had to fill in the registers and pay the fees ( R100.00pp) After the formalities was dealt with we took our gear from the vehicles and done our final checks on the kit and gear. We then took some photos and off we went. After about 10 min's hiking I realized that the half eaten meat pie we bought at the last stop was still inside the car and I had to go back and get rid of it as I imagined how the car would have smelled after lying in the sun (30-35C) over a 5 day period. That out of the way we hoped that that was to be the last of any bad luck we would have on this trip, as we soon found out not to be the case! Weather predictions for the next few days was to be wet, wet and very wet. Did I mention that we were going to get wet? So off we went and we immediately start to drop down into the valley approx 800m down. I thought, ah nice, downhill, but totally forgot that 4 days later and quite more tiring that now we had to come out the same way, but that for later. having a 25kg pack on your back and dropping this steep into a valley takes its toll on the knees as any hiker will tell you that going up is better that going down. Halfway down the valley we had our first stop at a perfect spot next to a 15m waterfall. Bags off, snacks out, and resting the feet a little bit, nice! We took some photos, packed up and off we went. 4 Hours later, and after crossing about 20 river crossings of various depths with "regular" water stops in between we reached our choice of an overnight spot, "democratically" decided in a state of wetness. Did i mentioned that it was going to be wet? We proceeded to pitch the tents, get the food going and get the gear as dry as what the conditions allowed us. All of us at that stage probably thought weather they had packed enough socks for this trip.