Besides the fact that waking up at 6am on a Sunday morning is totally taboo in my home, it was pouring with rain and really miserable weather outside this past weekend on the day of the Big Walk. But we managed to drag ourselves out of bed, pull on some warm clothes and head off for the train which was leaving False Bay Station at 06h45.

We got to the meeting point in Retreat at about 07h00 and there were quite a few people milling around pulling on raincoats. Luckily we had our raincoats made out of black bags which we could put on to keep dry while we waited. The vibe was brilliant with people dancing and singing to keep warm. It was cold and wet which made the wait until 08h00 very long.

Out of the 4000 walkers that were supposed to meet in Retreat, only 2000 arrived due to the rain but it was a good turnout considering, and at least the money had already been raised for the various charities.

 Eventually the start time arrived and we were off, trying to dodge rain puddles and cars along the way. We walked for what seemed like ages and when we thought we had walked approximately 3km we were alarmed to see we had actually only walked 1 km! This put such a damper on our spirits and we all started wondering if we would actually make another 12 km. By this point my tackies were squelching with the wetness and my hair dripping with water as the wind kept blowing off my rain hat.

When we reached the 3 km mark there was a refreshment station which went down very well. By this point I had developed a cramp in my left foot and my right knee was aching. We had only ever done a 5km walk so this was an extra 8km! After about 5km (at Maynard Mall in Wynberg) we had got ourselves into a rhythm and it started getting a bit easier on the legs. Another refreshment station awaited us at the 7 km station.

A lot of 80 km and 50km walkers walked passed us and we all gave them a huge round of applause every time one of them walked past us. We reached our 10 km point in Rondebosch and it felt good to know that we only had 3 km to go. By this point both my feet were aching, both my knees and the rain started to come down even more.

A lady fell over on the pavement as she had a major cramp in her calf but luckily there was somebody nearby to help her. Our final refreshment station was 2 km from the end. Seeing the “only 1 km to go” was exhilarating, but boy was that the hardest one kilometer to walk as it never seemed to end! There were however plenty of bystanders motivating us to finish.

We crossed the finish line in 2 hours and 30 minutes and we were very proud of ourselves that we had done it in that amount of time, considering it was our first time walking that distance. We received our medals and now could say that we had walked from Retreat to Mowbray in the pouring rain. It was a fantastic experience and we are planning to do the 20km walk next year!