Date: 6 August 2022
Distance: 5km
Time: 29:29

Another family outing, this time with Gerry’s mum, sisters’ families and kids, and their children (four generations), brought us to Parys (Paris) next to the Vaal River. According to Wikipedia ‘The name was given by a German surveyor named Schilbach who had participated in the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War and the location next to the Vaal reminded him of Paris on the River Seine. The area of Parys also includes the two townships Tumahole and Schonkenville. www.parys.co.za‘.

The road to Parys from Ficksburg (where we spent the night before with Gerry’s one sister) via Sasolburg (where we met up with Gerry’s other sister) to the holiday resort was challenging as best. A thick mist covered the eastern Free State early in the morning, making the potholed roads treacherous. It was slow going, sometimes getting to a complete standstill to negotiate the best way through or around the potholes, or driving next to the road to avoid bad patches altogether.

This reminded me a lot of our adventures up in Africa. Around 2003, on one such outing, a bunch of us travelled north on a round trip through Botswana (Chobe and the Makgadikgadi Pans), the Caprivi Strip (Namibia), into Zambia to stay on the Sakazima Island in the Zambezi River for a couple of weeks, through Zimbabwe to the Victoria Falls – crocodile and malaria infested countries – and back. One particular sealed road near the bottom of Zimbabwe was in such a bad shape that everyone was driving next to the road. South Africa looks increasingly like the rest of Africa, especially the provincial roads.

Gerry’s oldest sister decided to join us for a walk at this parkrun on a cold and frosty start to the day. It is usually a very small parkrun and we thought it might be possible to place. However, it was a long weekend (Women’s Day on the 9th, and a school holiday on the Monday), and with lots of tourists and holidaymakers, the number of participants rose to 55, compared to the usual less than twenty.

The course description was explained at the start, but since the parkrun started at the same location as a local craft market, and picnic and fishing spot next to the river, parking was very limited and by the time we found a parking spot we were nearly late. According to the parkrun website: ‘The course is a flat, out and back along the Vaal River with 3 loops on the far end to make up for the distance. The course starts at Egweni River Lodge. From the start, run on the grass with the river on your right. Keep on the track through the gate and continue straight. You’ll pass our turnaround marshal and head over 3 little bridges. Stay on the dirt track and keep going until you reach the palisade fence. Head back the way you came until you reach our turnaround marshal and turn back to the fence again, and turn around again at the marshal and head to the fence for a second and third time. Turn around and go back to Egweni River Lodge. The finish is about 100m before the start.’ And: ‘The course is run on a mixture of grass and trail paths. Some sections of the course may accumulate mud, leaves and puddles after rain. Dependent on availability, marshals will be at key sections of the course, or signs will be in place.’

Well, there were no marshals out on the course, and since we missed the briefing, I was a bit lost. Gerry decided to go up ahead, and me and another newcomer tried to figure out the way as we went. It was reasonably self-explanatory, but on the home stretch I did take a wrong track which landed me by the river – a nice little fishing spot, but since I had no tackle I had to make my way back to the course and finish the darn parkrun.

The track underfoot was uneven and difficult to navigate. By going out and back three times I could see where Gerry was in the field. He managed to finish fifth overall (second in his age) in a time of 25:10, and I finished in eleventh place overall, third female in 29:29 (first in my age category).

This was my least favourite of the three parkruns so far, and the multiple times out and back I found to be a bit silly. It is still admirable that such a small town (population of around 8000) has a parkrun, even though volunteers are limited (at least on this particular occasion).

Back at our accommodation, the extended family started arriving for lunch – BBQed boerewors (sausage) and salad. Most stayed over for the night, so more food, some yarns and drinks were shared around a campfire on the bank of the river. Holiday resorts flank the river on both sides and rowdy celebrations and music could be heard up and down the river the night after the Springboks outplayed the All Blacks.