Rim of Africa 56 day hike Cederberg to George

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Rusti
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Rim of Africa 56 day hike Cederberg to George

Post by Rusti »

Hi guys.

I found an article in the getaway magazine about this hiking trail.. looks great.. can be done in 1 week stages or all at once.. So far the 1st stage in Cederberg is the only route that is allowed to be Un guided. The rest of the trail goes through farms so guided tours are required..

http://www.rimofafrica.org
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niclemaitre
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Re: Rim of Africa 56 day hike Cederberg to George

Post by niclemaitre »

A friend of mine set it up, it's incredible, on a par with the best trails in the world like the Pacific Crest trail, Appalachian trail and the Annapurna circuit
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Rusti
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Re: Rim of Africa 56 day hike Cederberg to George

Post by Rusti »

Hi Nic.

It's really great to see this type of thing happen here in SA.. I've been talking to Galeo from their offices. I think they just need to have some sort of camp site with showers etc at the end of each day.. I don't mind bucket baths for a week or 2 but other people will lose complete interest when they see that. If I'm not mistaken some of the overseas routes have different types of accommodation along their routes. So you can do basic camping (my 1st choice) and then pre set up tents and even b and b''s. . Just opens the doors to so many more clients.. and then you can get stocked up if need be..

I'm in the architectural industry and am currently working on allot of green architecture, solar panels and biodigesters etc so it is possible to have small off the grid structures that can be removed in a few hours if need be.
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niclemaitre
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Re: Rim of Africa 56 day hike Cederberg to George

Post by niclemaitre »

The vast majority of those trails do not have any kind of fixed or temporary ablutions and are far from roads that would allow for the installation, maintenance or removal of the facilities. If you want to wash, there are rivers on the way that you can use and every 5-10 days you reach a point where you can leave the trail and go experience the "luxuries" of civilization. The most they have are small shelters at roughly day hike spaced intervals.

The limited quantities of water available on the more arid parts of the RoA would also preclude this and personally I feel it would detract from the wilderness experience of the trail that they are trying to achieve. There are plenty of proper "slack packing", every night in a hotel trails in SA already, I don't think we need another
Happy trails
Nic

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Re: Rim of Africa 56 day hike Cederberg to George

Post by Rusti »

Hi Nic,

I understand your point and the lack of facilities is also what makes it extremely apealing to me as I also want to get away from city life etc. BUT in order for this project to survive it unfortunately needs to appeal to allot more ppl, especially off season as you don't want to let go half your guides because it's not busy.. If I were to one day do the entire path I would certainly not be able say no to 1 hot shower at the end of each week..

Also the solar, biodigester etc are as green as they get self contained units so no real maintenance needed and water can be brought up from wind mill driven boreholes leaving a carbon footprint of next to nothing. I certainly wouldn't do these on the path but if ppl want to use these facilities they could walk an extra km off the path to get to them hidden somewhere so as not to detract from nature's beauty..

All the best to your friends with this. It really is great to see..
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