I read about this last night over at the Best Hike Blog, and posted about it today on Gadling as well, but definitely thought it was worth sharing here too. It seems that a new long distance trekking trail is under construction in South Africa, that when it is done, will stretch more than 650km in length through remote mountainous regions along the Cape.
The trail is called The Rim of Africa and on it's official site, the designers say they have taken inspiration from such other trails as The Appalachian and Continental Divide. When completed, it will become the first truly long distance hike on the African continent, requiring approximately 48 days to hike end-to-end. The trail will also be broken up into four segments which can be tackled in 10-12 day increments as well.
The first leg of the trail will open in 2010, and there are a couple of 11-day fundraising treks being organized for next October that will allow backpackers to get their first glimpse of the hike, which will run from the Cederberg wilderness area on the Cape's West Coast to the Outeniqua Mountains, and possibly beyond. You can register to join one of those initial hikes on the website, with the dates being Oct. 4-15, Oct. 11-22, and Oct. 18-29 of next year.
As I mentioned in the Gadling piece that I wrote, it seems that long distance trekkers now have a new item to add to their "life list" of things to accomplish. This sounds like it's going to be an amazing trail that will eventually rival the best long distance treks in the World. There are even plans to possibly link it up with a few other trails, which could bring the overall length to more than 1200km. Seems like I now have yet another reason to visit South Africa, as if I need more. :)
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