Leg 2 – Platteklip to Suikerbossie

A small group decided to attempt the 2nd and 3rd leg of the 13 peaks.

We arrived at platteklip Saturday morning, freezing cold, raining, and a strong wind blowing us all the way up Platteklip.  Bella hopped up platteklip like a little spring bokkie, not understanding why her human was taking so long. Once up Platteklip our small group split, I decided to stay with the 2 ladies behind me as my shoes were giving me problems. The first beacon on our list was Maclears, unfortunately, we had no view from Maclears of our beautiful Cape Town so quickly moved onto Grootkop.  Once at Grootkop we saw some blue skies for the first time (that is Cape Town weather for you), we did not stop to enjoy the scenery too long as the wind was quite hectic.  Our last peak of the day was Judas Peak.  We were not sure how to get up to the beacon and ended up on a little detour around the peak to get to the beacon.

Bella coped extremely well with this leg with her non-restricting harness from Trail Hound.  There were a couple of places that we had to assist Bella and I must say, I have never used a better harness while hiking.

So once all 3 peaks were tagged in leg 2 we headed down to Suikerbossie.  This downhill is no joke, but Bella managed to get down pretty well (only needing my help once), the downhill is very steep and our legs were jelly from our long journey.

Once down we realized that our idea of doing the 3rd leg aswell was quite absurd and ended with only the 2nd leg done for the day.

While waiting for our lift back, Bella did her stretching exercises and her BackonTrack jersey did the trick to get Bella back to her young self withing hours.

A very useful tip was the stretches the physio gave us, so every time we waited for the group, I would quickly do some stretches with Bella’s Hind Legs.  I realized she was not as stiff as she was after the first leg.

Bella also had some great protein balls (race food) that she ate every hour, personally, I think that made a huge difference aswell.

We have a short rest before tackling leg 3 this weekend which is from Suikerbossie, over Klein Leeu Kop, Suther peak, and ending at Chapmans Peak Hiking Trail.

Money raised so far R 600 (https://www.givengain.com/ap/vicki-fox-raising-funds-for-huis-horison-29420/)

Sponsors:

K-9 Adventures (trail snacks and pawta bowl)

Trailhoundsa (Harness)

Benlu Collars (Designer Collar)

Backontrack (recovery jacket)

Untamed Animal Health (hip and joint herbs, performance herbs)

Pets in Balance (physio after each leg)