With money soon to be limited, week long hiking in Mpumalanga is bound to become a little more difficult to plan or budget for. So, many hikers are going to have to settle for a day hike to indulge their favourite hobby.
Day hikers are considered to be the more at risk group, often because they lack certain survival skills or because they don’t plan appropriately.
Day hikes can take you quite far away from the safety of your starting point and a lot can happen out there when you are on your own. If you are about to take up hiking, as a day hiker, for the first time, you should take this opportunity to read up about how you can stay safe while out there soaking up the sunshine.
In the USA, one of the biggest issues when it comes to hiking, is day hikers accidently wondering off a trail and ending up quite lost in the wilderness. And the thing is, this is not a distinctly American issue. Any hiker can lose their way, even the most experienced one can get lost. When the trail becomes a little difficult to navigate, a hiker might be enticed to take a new direction, which is exactly the problem.
It just takes one or two steps in the wrong direction to end up in a little bit of trouble. This is why it is always so important, even when you are staying with us at Bermanzi, to let someone know where you are and to share a copy of your hiking map.
At best, if you get lost, you will either find your way back to base before sunset or someone will come find you. At worst, well, you can only imagine.
Those staying with us at Bermanzi can rest assured knowing that our trails are incredibly easy to navigate and we are always on the lookout for our guests, to ensure their safety. But if you are hiking somewhere else, there are a few things that you can do to make sure that you survive getting lost.
So what can you do if you lose your bearings while on a hike?
- Make sure you have brought along something warm. Even in the hotter parts of our country, the nights can get chilly, and if you are looking at a night in the wilderness, you will want to make sure that you have a warm jacket or something else to keep the chill away.
- Have more than enough water close at hand. You can survive without food for longer than you can survive without water. Dehydration can be a big issue, even for those hikers who are not lost, but just underprepared.
- It helps to have some sort of food ration or energy bars with you, to make sure that you don’t get weak.
- Try to find some shelter. Again, it will keep you warm and it will certainly keep you protected from the elements. If you have a decent backpack, you can perhaps bring along a rubbish bag or a piece of material big enough to give you some shelter.
