..:: Kaalvoetsolo-dot-coza ::..

I am Jaco Swart! On the 15th of January 2009 I will embark on a "kaalvoet" (barefoot) stroll around all borders of South Africa. This walk has been apersonal dream of mine for many years.

My route starts at The Castle and follows the coastline via Cape Point, False Bay, Cape Agulhas and further along the East Coast up to Kosi Bay on the Mozambique border.

From here I turn inland, staying as close to the border as possible, around Swaziland, up the western boundary of the Kruger National Park (outside the park), up to the Limpopo river where I swing westwards along the Zimbabwean and Botswana borders to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Here, again, I have to walk outside the park, along its southern boundary, until reaching the Namibian border and then south to the Orange river. The next leg of my route follows the Orange, through the Richtersveld, to Alexander Bay. And then, finally, southwards along the West Coast, back to Cape Town.

For obvious reasons, SANParks have very strict safety regulations regarding travelling through their Big 5 reserves,and therefore I have not been able to obtain permission to walk through these parks.

The motivation behind this epic walk, is an oath I made some years ago when I was involved in a very traumatic accident. At the time I was a guide on the popular Blackwater Tubing route on the Storms river, when a totally unexpected flash flood hit my group and washed 14 of my 19 clients into a very dangerous gorge. I followed them, thinking that I may be able to help, but in the process we were swept over a six meter drop where my left knee was shattered. About a kilometre further downstream, I managed to grab onto a log that had been wedged into a crack in the rock face. There I hung on for the next 27 hours, praying continuously, until volunteers from the Mountain Club of SA found me and I was extricated with the aid of an SA Airforce helicopter.

Of these 14 clients, only one survived the accident with me. Five others, with my other three guides, had managed to safely reach the banks before being swept into the gorge. During my time there, completely isolated from the world outside, I promised God that I would do a big walk to say thank you, if I survived and recovered sufficiently from my injuries. It has now been almost nine years, and after six operations, my knee has recovered very well. The time has come for me to live up to my promise.