I'll never forget the day that I saw those stairs and on a small rusted sign I saw the sign "God's window" printed in faded black ink...I'll be honest with you my heart did stop for about a nano-second although I know I'm no fitness godess but knew that I was not even close to being able to walk THAT many stairs in less than an hour. But in my defence there had been a plathora of public holidays, Christmas day plus the mandatory family lunches, breakfasts, brunches etc had been taking a toll on my body all of which were exasterbated by the fact that I there was no way I could gould go to gym when family was around.
None the less like the trouper I am I marched on up the stairs which were envoloped by mist and the forst. All hints of the morning rain were gone except for the faint wiffs of damp wood which was mixed into the humidity of the forest. As I admired my surroundings I soon began to stop noticing the stairs after a while the peace and silence of the forest was occasionally broken by fellow tourists speeding past me only to see them 20 minutes later doubled over panting. This did not phase me bit (but it did however put a smirk on my face s it reassured me that I wasn't so unfit as I thought) as I was too fixated by my surroundings.
After a while I began to notice the steady stream of people coming down the stairs who where followed by the sound of occasional bursts of laughter and out of nowhere I heard a loud voice shout from the heavens "YOUR ALMOST THERE!!!". This in itself gave me even more encouragement to push through that final flight of cobbled stairs. Finally after what felt like days af walking I saw the landing and as I walked on suddenly the sea of tourists parted to let me through like soe scene of a Speilberg film..."God's Window".
Standing on the ledge I could see what looked like the whole of Mpumalanga in all its beautiful lush green glory right below me I could see the villages, the forests, the small towns, the farms which were all dwarfed by the collosal mountain that I had lust climbed. Seeing this made me realise that it was all worth it, even though at times I thought of turning back af giving up but only to climb another flight of stairs. As I turned to start my downhill journey back to the car (which I was greatful was much easier) I realised that what I saw and had been through that day was something that I couldn't describe but that only that small rusted sign said it all "God's Window" which more than enough.
