Sunday, February 19, 2012

Untamed- Table Mountain- Skeleton Gorge Hike

The Monday before we were due back to work a group of us (Chuckles, Audrey, Ribs, Durking and his two sisters and their boyfriends) decided to check out a Table Mountain National Park hike that was raved about. One of the hikes up to the top of Table Mountain starts at the base of Kirstenbosch Botanic Garden (15 minutes outside Cape Town city centre) and is ironically (wait for it...) called Skeleton Gorge.

A very beautiful start to an equally gorgeous hike


Aways have Table Mountain in the background


Most of the hike was in the jungle- 2.5 hours to the top

Audrey and I split off from the group and led the way up the stair stepper of a trail. Literally you had to keep stopping because your legs were burning so badly. Thankfully I have always loved running stairs. We made it to the top and waited for the crew. Chuckles and Ribs showed up next. We decided to wait for the "Durkins" at the reservoir at the top of this gorge. Amazingly there was a huge water source at the top of the mountain in the middle of no where. The water was cold, but there were a few other hikers that gave it a try. I of course immediately thought back to Discovery Channel shows about "I shouldn't be alive" and chose to observe from a nice rock.

Jungle to beach in 2 km

View from my rock

After waiting for about an hour and getting more annoyed (those who know me well know patience wise I am not the best at waiting around and organizing a group of people) that the "Durkin's" had not shown up the four of us left to go back to the trial head and see if we had cell reception. Humorously in the time we were waiting at the reservoir ("They will totally come here first before hiking anywhere else") the "Durkin's" had continued along to another 1.5 hour trail.

At about hour 4 of hiking and trying to find the "Durkins" we decided to head back down the trail. By now we were all tired and are legs were shaking, but still had a good 2 hour return trip to the car. I took the lead through the jungle and Chuckles, Durkin and I were making great time until I believe I made a smart ass comment about "I can get down faster" until I was falling on my butt, sliding downhill on rocks half on my shoulder half on my back and the only way to stop was to shove my left hand into the ground in between rocks. The good news is I stopped. The bad news was that I had dislocated me left hand ring finger to an extreme left angle.

Exact place I fell...took a picture on the way up  wanting to show how steep and beautiful the hike was


Once again for those who me know I do not like focused attention on me. Chuckles and Durkin didn't quite know what to do with me. I was shaking, and my fingers did not look right, but I refused to sit down. I don't really remember it, but somehow yanked my finger back into its socket. My hand was immediately swollen and throbbing. Chuckles and Durkin kept wanting me to sit down, but I refused and just wanted to get down the mountain. Mind you we still had 45-1 hour left to hike down.

At the bottom I nursed my hand while we waited for the rest of the crew to come down. I got home iced the hand and fell asleep. The next day at work I asked Dr. Janks (our in house retired doctor who gets asked way too many random medical questions) who told me to watch it, but if the swelling doesn't go down I should get it checked out...

About 20 days later of not using my leg hand that much and buddy taping my fingers the swelling at reduced somewhat, but there was a weird bump on my hand. Finally I gave in to the doctor's orders and went to get an xray. 2 days later, 1 xray and 1 hand specialist visit it was confirmed that I had broken my hand in multiple places during my little hike. I can honestly say that I did not do anything about my hand sooner because I did not want to deal with the logistics of trying to figure out where to go + how much it all would cost. Bad excuse I know mom.


Cant see it that well but this is my left hand palm facing up- fourth  finger down and there are the fractures

The good news is that I had waited so long that it was already healing and no cast would do more than what I had been doing. The hand specialist's direction to me..."Just don't fall on it again." Oh how I love Africa. To all my Oregon friends...at least no boot was needed!


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