A centimeter is not a long distance. Especially when that is the only distance that separates you and high voltage wires, and you are trying your best not to tumble on them. There are a lot of things that don’t seem long at that time, your life being one of them.
It was a warm Saturday, and I lay on my bed half asleep, contemplating on the tough decision, whether to find the remote control or walk all the way to the television and put it on. I decided to do neither. It is only sometimes that I like the decisions that make, and this was one of them. It was a lazy day, you can say, and I had no plans to do nothing whatsoever, so just dozing the day away on my comfy bed seemed to be the plan, until the phone started ringing.
Someone has aptly termed the phone is a necessary evil. You don’t want it to disturb you at times when you are at a critical juncture of some important decisions, like I was in. But sometimes you can’t do without it, so you need a phone, which was ringing loudly by this time. The decision has been taken, I told myself and pulled myself out from the deep slumber I was in, and picked it up.
“Good Morning Vishal, How are you doing this morning?” Mike’s friendly voice boomed on the phone. A weak smile flickered on my countenance as I returned his greetings.
“How about going for a trek up the Zwartkops?”
I needed to get rid of my indolence desperately, and this seemed to be a good idea.
So we were off , Michael and myself , in his Bakkie, towards Zwartkops, a hill in the vicinity. We had a bag full of water bottles, hats to protect from the scorching heat and a sense of adventure in our hearts. We parked the bakkie at the bottom of the hill , and started climbing up together.
It is amazing how our muscles refuse to work when they haven’t worked for a long time, and I realized it when I was climbing. Within five minutes, I was panting , thirsty for water. My legs hurt and I would have given up had it not been for Michael. He was trekking up for the fourth time , and his muscles were more used to this inhuman strain than mine.
Anyways , we were treading up, slowly but surely , with me wanting to take a break every other minute. After a strenuous (for me at least) trek of an hour, we managed to climb all the way to the top. And then we could see it. It lay there , seemingly innocuous , right on the other side of the hill, with waterfalls adorning the entire lehgth of it. It wound itself across the entire meadow on the bottom, with sparkling water running through it. The heat around us made it look more beautiful , and we decided to go down to this river and take a swim under one of its waterfalls.
It is always much better climbing down a hill , and we were running towards the river with our new zest of energy. We were half way down the hill and then we came across the electric fence. Now electric fences in South Africa are like beggars in India . You can find them everywhere, and you don’t want to go near them. They are usually erected for security purposes, to avoid trespassers like us snooping in private property.
We realized the futility of going ahead, an we could not cross it , as a high voltage electric shock was the last thing we wanted on this trek. So we decided to go back from where we came. However the climb all the way uphill seemed futile, so we just decided to trace our way back to where we started by following the dirt track rite next to the electric fence. It was a bad idea we discovered later, as the hill started getting steeper, and gravity was pulling us towards the electric fence.
As the hill started getting steeper, we were actually wriggling on the ground, clinging on to the grass, to prevent from touching the wire. It was a tough task, we had to cope with the steep terrain, the heat and worst, avoid touching the fence. Suddenly the words “An uphill task” gave a new meaning. Anyways, We were making it all right, when suddenly my foot slipped, and I was just a centimeter away from the fence, slipping on the dry terrain. I managed to cling on to the dry grass, but it soon gave away.
Trekking tip: Always cling on to green grass when u are falling, it is strong and has deeper roots than dry grass. : )
Anyways, so there I was clinging on to the grass, precariously just a centimeter away from the fence. Somehow I managed to pull myself back up and reached safer ground.
It was a close shave with death, I thought, and we climbed our treacherous trek up the hill. It seemed a lifetime after we finally found a wider road. Saved!!! I told myself as the walk became easier now, and the slant was considerably less.
Within minutes we reached where we started from. And man we were tired…. We could not stand .. We managed to get into the car, exhausted. AS we were driving out, some locals asked us for a lift. Seemingly they worked in that place. We told them about our tough experience, and the close shave with the electric fence, when one of them asked…
“ Electric fence? Are you talking about that fence that runs along the river?”
“Yes” I said.
“ Oh that doesn’t have electric current running anymore. Its because lots of people come trekking on this hill. We stopped passing the electric current a long time back.”
