When it comes to hikes in South Africa, they say that the Amatola Hiking Trail is one of the best, most scenic, and toughest hiking trails. What does one pack for a hike? What should be on that hiking pack list?

I wrote the content below shortly before my eldest son did the Amatola Hike last year. I hoped it would be of some use for speeding up the planning, buying and packing process when my youngest son did the Amatola Hike this year. It did help.

Below is the content I wrote last year, before my eldest son did the Amatola Hike:

My 14 year old son recently went on the Amatola Hiking Trail hike with his school class. The Amatola Hike was his first real hike, and we underestimated how long it would take to pack his hiking rucksack. Going to sleep just before midnight the night before the first day of a 4 nights and 5 days hike is not such a good idea, but this is exactly what happened after we first made sure his hiking rucksack was packed with all he may need during the Amatola Hike.

The full Amatola Hiking Trail is 5 nights and 6 days, but my son’s class were doing a 4 night and 5 day Amatola Hiking Trail route.

It was actually the preparation and organizing of the items that were going to be packed into the hiking backpack that took the longest time. I’m going to be referring back to this article myself, next year, when my younger son also does the Amatola Hiking Trail with his school class. So hopefully next year it won’t take as long to get that backpack ready! We want him to pack roughly the same things into his hiking rucksack that his brother did this year.

My older son is over 6 foot tall, and weighs 79kg. He’s fit (ran a 15 km road running race two days before the hike, in 80 minutes) and healthy, but as this was his first time walking with a hiking rucksack on his back, we wanted to try keep the weight of it beneath a quarter of his weight. So we were delighted when it weighed in at a little under 16kg. Even so, that hiking rucksack still felt so heavy!

Tony has been looking at alternatives for little gas cookers on the Internet, (only after Basti left on the hike!) to try avoid having to get and pack a little gas cooker as well as two little gas cylinders for Zooty next year. Tony found some ideas, and we may use these ideas next year – if we don’t, the little gas cooker and two gas cylinders didn’t really take up all that much space in the hiking rucksack, and weighed next to nothing.
So, that’s one thing covered on the list of items of what we helped my son prepare and pack into his hiking rucksack the night before the start of his Amatola Hike adventure.

Packing for a 4 night 5 day Amatola Hiking Trail hike in the Eastern Cape in South Africa (besides the little gas cooker and two little gas cylinders already mentioned.)

Hiking clothing:

He left home on the Monday morning wearing his good running shoes (we couldn’t afford to go and purchase new hiking boots)

a good pair of thick sports socks,

thin and lightweight tracksuit pants,

thin light shorts beneath the tracksuit pants,

a tshirt,

and a thin long sleeved tshirt over the short sleeved tshirt.

Clothing packed in his hiking rucksack:
two more short-sleeved tshirts;
besides the one he was already wearing, another thin and lightweight long-sleeved top – sort of a cosy one, meant for sleeping in at night if it was chilly, keeping his (normal; not cosy) other one to hike in;
warm tracksuit pants mostly intended for sleeping in;
three pairs of shorts (no swimming costume taken, otherwise may have packed just two pairs of shorts besides the one he was wearing when he left for the hike);
besides the sports socks he was wearing, two more pairs of sports socks, and two pairs of thick woollen hiking socks;
undies for each day;
a windproof and rainproof anorak with a hood;
a sleeveless zip up fleecy top – warm, lightweight and cosy, but not waterproof or very windproof;
sunhat (sporty cap);
warm beanie

Food parcels or food packets we prepared and packed for the hike:

Generally the meals each day were to be breakfast, mid morning snack, lunch, mid afternoon snack, and supper.

Ahead of time, we worked out that my son would need:
4 breakfasts (ate at home on the first morning);
4 lunches (we made the 5th lunch a snack one for the school bus trip home);
4 suppers;
10 snack packs (two a day, with the last one being for the school bus trip home)

We jotted down ideas for breakfasts, lunches, suppers and snacks, and went shopping at Pick n Pay in Beacon Bay in East London.

The two little gas cylinders we got at Cape Union Mart in Vincent Park shopping mall, as well as water-purification tablets, and a plastic roll sort of the size of a roll of wine gums with 15 little tightly-rolled tiny wet wipes in it (to soak, unravel, and use to clean a plastic food bowl, or to wipe small injuries clean before putting on plasters or bandages.)

We had also added other hiking items to that hiking packing shopping list before going to Pick n Pay in Beacon Bay, like large and small plastic sandwich bags, sticker labels, a little torch, batteries for the little torch, a cigarette lighter, small shampoo, small toothpaste, two 750ml water bottles (containing water), sachets of powder cooldrink, and plasters

We wanted to keep the meals fairly small, and wanted to have 3 little snacks in each of the 10 snack packs. If Basti didn’t eat all his mid-morning snacks, he could add one or two to his lunch. If he didn’t eat all his mid-afternoon snacks, he could add one or two to supper, or have as an after supper snack.

So for the 10 snack packets, with 3 snacks in each packet, we needed 30 snacks. For variety we chose to get at least 10 different snacks, 3 of each.

His snacks included:
sliced biltong (a R30 packet split into 3 smaller packets);
chilli-bites biltong;
Tuc biscuits (little packs with 6 Tuc biscuits in a pack);
energy bars or cereal bars;
rolls of wine gums;
small packets peanuts;
fruit bars;
fruit flakes;
mini-cheddars (little packets of little savoury biscuits);
Melrose foil-wrapped cheese triangles;
small crisp apples (he insisted even though they were heavier and bulkier than the other snacks) – at least we packed them for just the first 3 days, so that the hiking rucksack would become lighter and less bulky the more he ate 🙂

breakfast was Oatso Easy for two mornings, and Cuppa Snack for the other two mornings

lunch was a fair-sized muffin (individually wrapped and bought muffins);

for lunch and supper on Monday, the first day of his Amatola Hiking Trail 5 day hike, my son wanted sandwiches, so I made cold meat and cheese sandwiches early on the Monday morning, and his packet labelled “Monday food” went in at the top of the other packets (with the one labelled “Friday food” at the bottom of the pile of 5 packets.)

Each of the 5 packets contained a further 5 packets each (plastic sandwich bags) labelled for eg Tuesday breakfast, Tuesday mid morning (snack packet with 3 snacks in it), Tuesday lunch, Tuesday mid pm, Tuesday supper) – we’d sorted, packeted and labelled the food packs together, with him choosing which snacks he wanted on which days, and if he wanted them in the morning or afternoon

supper was two-minute noodles and a cup of cuppa soup
(3 different flavours of each for a bit of variety)
remember that lunch also included any of the 3 little snacks left over from mid morning snack time, and supper (or after supper) also included any left overs of the 6 little snacks allocated to that entire day

Other items that were bought or prepared and packed into or onto the hiking rucksack:

sleeping bag, towel, little pot, candle, extra water bottle, big black plastic bag, pain tablets, Arnica D6 tablets, two allergic-reaction tablets, scissors, bandages, Betadine, mercurochrome, vaseline, sunblock, plastic bowl, enamel mug, spoon, fork, camera, roll of toilet paper, 4 pegs and a line of sisal, small packet of bicarb (good for helping reduce painful burns or severe sunburn if the bicarb is wet and pasted onto the inflamed area)

To save either weight or space, we made sure to mostly pack lightweight clothing, and clothes were neatly and tightly folded or rolled. Toothpaste went without the outer cardboard box it comes in. Due to the nature of the food packed, we didn’t pack a knife. A thinnish towel was packed rather than a thick and heavy one.

And that was it! Amatola Hiking Trail in South Africa hiking rucksack of a 14 year old South African all packed and ready.

© Copyright Teresa Schultz 2012 and 2013