The Hill that was to be a Mountain

So that is a pretty epic title, no? I think it is. Anyway there seems to be a chronic shortage of recreational opportunities in Gaborone and that becomes even more apparent on weekends(especially when water, electricity, and internet are all liable to go out at random). It was from this seeming shortage that Dylan and discovered there is a hill in town that some of the other internationals had climbed.

(Kgale Hill, right next to Game City)

We decided that we would hit the hill on saturday and see what it was like. We had planned to take Onky but there was some miscommunication resulting in his flaking out. The name of the hill is Kgale Hill and sits right on the outskirts of the city.
Between the two of us we really had no idea what to expect but we packed some water, some snacks and my camera and jumped in a Taxi and asked for Kgale Hill. He sped off confidently but as we drew near we realised he really hadn't understood. Finally we made him aware that we wanted to climb the hill and we stopped along the side of the road near a gate. We paid the man and headed for the gate. As we got out of the car about three baboons came over the gate (it was a cattle gate) and looked sideways at us and then disappeared back to the other side. We assumed we would see many more so we didn't worry about a missed opportunity to photograph the Baboons, we were wrong.

We climbed the gate and quickly found the path and headed off. There was garbage and the remnants of fires all over the place so we immediately got the feeling we were in the right place. We carried on for a while and as we did the paths seemed to get lighter and lighter and shoot off in all sorts of helter-skelter directions. We continued on confidently but the paths totally disappeared quite quickly. Dylan and I jointly made the decision to press on see what we could manage without a real path. We pointed ourselves toward the desired peak and pushed on with the reckless abandon only attainable by over confident adolescent boys.
(a picture of the "trail")

The hill got steep quite quick and we had to push through many thickets of what we have affectionately termed the "death plant" (acacia plants, or thorn trees). We managed to get to the top of a rock out cropping but quickly discovered we were no where near any kind of path that we had heard existed. We knew that in order to get down we would need to find a better way, we hoped a trail. We decided that our best chance of finding the trail was to get to the top of the hill.

(view from this point in the journey)

We pressed on knowing full well that we were probably the only people who had ever been on this particular trail. We followed Baboon trails off and on and I saw the largest hare I have ever witnessed but no people. We climbed over some boulders and pushed through some more trees and rocks and we climbed to yet another peak. We knew this wasn't the top but we thought maybe from here we could scout the real trail and find a way to the top.

(pictures of Dylan and I at this point as well as the path across the boulders)

We continued up the hill through the steepest and roughest terrain yet. At this point we had ceased calling it a hill, we knew it as "the Mountain" because we felt like real mountain climbers. Finally we reached the top and the base of the TV tower that stands at the very peak of Kgale Hill. There was a gate with a lock on it but the lock was ajar so we snuck in to get a better look. While looking around we saw some other people and realized not only had we found the top but we had indeed found the path we rushed to the area where the other tourists were.(pictures snapped at the peak)

We asked the people at the top how to get down and they pointed us to a trail. We followed it but honestly we decided that the trail was not as good as the way we had come up. It was an easier climb but there were so many rocks and it was so long that we missed the climb up. The climb down wound all over the hill for about two miles.

(a picture of the trail down)

When we finished the trip down we found ourselves at the front gate of the Gaborone quarry. We were momentarily concerned about being able to find our way back to road to be picked up by a taxi but we quickly found that we were actually very near to Game city. As we were walking to Game city we heard some chanting that we initially thought were "bush people" but as we looked closer we found there were people on the hill with a sizable bonfire chanting and dancing. Later, Biki informed us that it was a church service on the hill. While watching the singing and dancing we also caught only our second glimpse of a baboon in the whole day.

(Church service and baboon)

If you would like to see more pictures of our adventure you can click this link (even if you don't have facebook)
More later,
Lots of love,
Tommy