Sable Ranch

Catch and Release

Sometimes life gets in the way, and one forgets to breathe. This was the case for me these past few weeks. I knew the only way to bring myself towards myself was to go hiking. This is the place where nothing matters and I just marvel at nature and what it has to offer. My intention was very clear when I woke up that morning; to go be silly and laugh and I did exactly that. It has been a minute since my amigos and I Amigos hiked together.

We finally found time to go and be together in the mountains. It was scorching hot, dry, and spring day in Magaliesburg (North-West Province). We went to a place called Sable Ranch; it was our first-time hiking at the spot. We were excited for new adventure and new experiences. It is always nice to discover new hiking spots. The place is stunning and offers lots of different activities like 4×4 trails, mountain bike cycling, wedding venue, spa, restaurant and what they call Noble adventures. I like how they preserved its originality. There is a lot to do, they even have picnic spots. My favorite picnic spot is the one by the dam, they set it up nicely on the bank of the dam, with furniture and nice shade, including braai place. I can see myself being seated there for hours and the dam is safe to swim in. It will be nice one day soon to go back for picnic and unplug.

It must have been over 6 km into our hiking when we saw a lovely spot, picture-perfect place. This spot was just before we can get around the corner. They have a big rock written “yes you can”. We joked about it with one of our friends, Patricia who has been wanting to kill us for dragging her to this hike. To her defense though, she did say she was tired, she came because we haven’t hiked together in a long time. We said to her; see you can do it, with the hope that from there on it would just be an easy hike. At this point the heat was just getting worse. To our dismay, when we turned the corner; we came across the” Devil’s” peak, I kid you not. This hill was so steep with big loose rocks, and we realized right there that “yes you can” means hell is waiting for you around the corner. I can tell you we all mumbled vulgar remarks under our breathes. At this point Patricia was not impressed at all. She said she wants to know who decided to be so cruel and create that hill. We had to use our hands at some point, the rocks we’re so loose. We had a good laugh though while we were at it.

Every time we chose a new hiking spot, Patricia goes into the website to see reviews about the place (about if the trail moderate or hard). In this case she did the same, she even posted on our WhatsApp group, circled “moderate” part. She was happy and ready for the hike until she discovered the “devil’s peak”. I guess she now know she cannot trust the reviews because it depends on who writes it.

We have not seen each other for a long time, it was nice catching up and enjoying nature while we at it. We hiked just over 11km, and it was a nice, surprising trail. It starts flat and then for about 2km it’s a climb, so I will say its moderate (Patricia will disagree). About two kilometers into our hike, we were joined by a dog that lives at the Ranch. He hiked with us all the way and when we stopped for snacks and water, he stopped with us. He wanted our snacks, we knew we can feed him biltong, I mean which dog does not eat dry meat. LOL, I don’t own a dog, but I always see some of their treats looking like biltong. I gave him a piece of biltong and he enjoyed it, you could tell he still wanted more so I suggested we also give him boiled egg. Quickly someone said it will be best we google if it is safe to do so, of course we did and google said YES. He was our hiking partner for the rest of the hike, so I suggested we give him a nickname, I named him Buddy. He was really our buddy because we were even sharing our water with him, he was so cute and sweet. Along our hike we came across a herd of Sables, they were gorgeous, never seen them up-close, I was amazed by their long horns.

We had a good laugh and Fabtastic time. It was great catching up through adventure with my Amigos. After the hike we sat at the restaurant to have drinks. A glass of Soda with lots of ice never tasted so good. Great company, good conversations did my soul good.