My Sheba’s Breast hiking experience from Lidwala lodge has been such a bittersweet experience with funny encounters here and there; I’ve hiked Sheba’s breast four times (three times from Lidwala lodge to the top and once from Mantenga to Sheba). One can never get used to Sheba’s breast, at least I never do because all these experiences have different lessons.
A hiking exploration
In 2018, 27 January (I mark significant dates) I decided I was going to hike because hiking had been in my bucket list for 2 years without fulfilment hence I decided I was going to do it. I tagged my friends along because they’re always up for adventure but little did we know that we were going to have the hardest time of our lives; firstly, we were in jeans, jokes on us! One of my friends was in her sandals and two of us in All-Stars (if you know how unfriendly all-stars are then let’s converse cause you know it all). It was all fun and adventurous at first; climbing the ladders and walking through the forest land, fun, I tell you, until we got to the last ladder, the one that determines your willpower to press on or to call it quits, unfortunately, we had to choose the latter because it was scorching hot, we weren’t dressed to hike and we had ran out of water hence we decided to go back without winning.
If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again
2 years later, on the 20th of March, 2020, we decided to take on Sheba’s breast again, to finish what we had started in 2018. We were ready for it; we wore leggings and free t-shirts and had enough water and snacks for the journey. 2 years later when we got to the last ladder, we literally laughed at how we gave up there but we low-key knew that we wouldn’t have made it in jeans anyway. We had insightful lessons on that particular day and somehow it made us stick to each other because hiking builds friendships; when one feels the need to give up, someone is always there to cheer them up so they keep going, that’s literally one lesson I took with me from hiking because we always make sure that we never leave each other completely regardless of our different walking paces.
Follow the trail
Can’t say my experiences weren’t swelling especially the one we had on the 18th of June, 2020; my friends and I decided to hike Sheba’s breast through Mantenga and down to Lidwala lodge, didn’t we lose the trail on our way to Lidwala? Did we not call the police and the rangers to help us out? One thing I got from that experience was that water is really essential (lol), we ran out of water and it was getting darker cause we were finally out of woods at around 9 pm. Adventurous right? One thing about hiking is that it gets exciting all the time; losing the trail and finding yourself back to life again, the satisfaction and the zeal, all beautiful!
On top of the world, Sheba’s Breast
Getting lost would have probably been my last experience but they never call me a honey badger for nothing hence I went back to Sheba’s breast through Lidwala lodge on the 5th of December, 2020 to construe how we lost the trail in June; however we lost it again, fortunately, it was still morning and we had the energy and enough water (a point to us, zero to Sheba lol) when you’re about to lose the trail, the red flags are always there, it gets shady but we choose not to see them or rather, we’re always eager to win regardless of all odds?
When we lost the trail on that particular day in December, we made sure that we track how we lost it using the map provided by Lidwala lodge. My experience at Sheba’s breast has been the most amazing experience; the views are breathtaking, the calmness of the forest land soothes one’s soul. My last experience was in March 10, 2020, because one success becomes a habit hence I put on my special shoes and enjoyed the walk, it was much easier this time around because I was readily aware of the red flags. They say hiking needs special shoes and a bit of a special soul.
Written by Tandzile Zwane
