We kicked off the Rim of Africa 2026 Season with the first of four Training Hikes last weekend. Training Weekends are an essential route to an enjoyable traverse experience. So much of how we feel at the end of the day and the trail rests on how well we prepared. Prep is a combination of fitness (physical and mental), equipment and (most exciting) food.
Arriving at Simonskloof at 2pm we were greeted by our guides, Jurgen and Graeme and first-off they asked us to unpack our gear. It turns out that everyone does something smart and something else when it comes to packing for a hike. The process highlighted missing equipment and dead weight. The group filled in the gaps, shared kit and put extra gear back in the vehicles. The gear talk was an eye-opener, we all have years of hiking experience and we all learned plenty in that hour.
Opening up and sharing the contents of our backpack turned out to be a metaphor for the trail chats as we toiled up the 975m ascent the next day to our camp in the sky. Mountains just do provide the most spectacular backdrop for meaningful conversations.
Great gear learnings were:
1. Old boots from the back of your cupboard that have not been recently worn will drop their soles after a couple of hours. They did. The glue hardens in shape and loses its flexibility. Shoe glue is a fix, make sure you give it the right drying time (tacky not sticky).
2. Packing each days food in its own packet before you leave makes it easier to get out and you can make sure you eat what you were planning to. Undereating when tired does not help the next day’s slog.
2. Just carry a 200g gas cannister, the extra 100g isn’t going to make a big difference to your overall weight and it will warm your tea. Two of us ran out of gas š
3. It gets cold on mountains. Sitting in the heat while packing should not be your reason for leaving the extra warm sleeping bag or puffer jacket in the car.
4. Water bottles or collapsible bags are key items of your kit. Four liters is NOT overkill. Staying hydrated on a long dry hot day is critical. We had good discussions around the merits of tea vs Game vs stock cubes/powder/sachets. We needed the liquids and we needed salt rather than sugar. Revive Daily Electrolytes are inexpensive and pack the salts you need for intensive exercise (I’m sure there are others).
5. Leave the orange cap on your gas cannister when you are not using it. Stuff gets in there and is pushed up to plug your stove jets when you try to cook.
5. Missing kit (what we wished we had) included more cable ties and shoe glue, spare socks, folding saw and gloves for hakea and a small foam mat to take the edge of the hard ground in the evenings around the stoves.
The mountain gifted us with sweat, swims and beauty, we traded for several ringbarked wilding pines and a hundred invading hakea. Thanks to our guides and the group for putting their best feet forward. Sign up for a training hike this year to get a sense of what lies in store on our high mountain traverses in spring – link is on the website or message us.
3 Responses
I was on this weekend and Chrisās report is spot on. Esp the bit about old boots and crystallising glue! Rim guides have learnt about this one and our hiker was fixed up with the contact glue and duct tape in Jurgen and Graemeās āguides kitā.
Have just been guided in Drakensberg and these guides didnāt carry it. š±. All these points are so pertinent. šš»
One Day I’ll join you, but for now I’ll leave you 2 packing tips:
1) bring duct tape. The kind you can tear w/ your hands, but is still incredibly strong. Instead of bringing a whole roll, wind a good stretch of it around each of your trekking poles or a lighter. I’ve done emergency repairs on shoes (not mine) with them.
2) I always bring a meter or so of waxed yarn* and a super strong & sharp needle (both used to repair sails). Wind the yarn round a small piece of card board and stick both in your first aid kit. Can be used for all kinds of things. I’ve used it to repair a shoulder strap that was coming away from a backpack while on the trail.
* some people use dental floss instead
Thanks Gerdi, agreed, duct tape is a staple in our guides’ gear. In fact we are moving to gorilla tape.
My wife sewed her pack together with dental floss which lasted fo some time. Eventually we handed the bag to Aleck McKirdy and it came back as good as new (probably better).
Dental floss cropped up again in a guides’ kit on last weekends Table Mountain RoA prep Hike.