A fearless trailblazer, her legacy etched in sand and sweat

GEORGE NEWS - It all started with a bucket list of 10 things scribbled down at the age of 14, one of which was to do something that’s never been done before ...

Former company commander at the South African Army Women’s College in George, Anette Grobler was born to challenge norms and defy limitations - especially those we place on ourselves.

Dealing with childhood asthma, Grobler couldn’t do much sport, but winning a bronze medal at the Fina World Masters Swimming Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1990 was just one of many glass ceilings she smashed by means of stubborn determination.

Five years later, in the meantime having achieved the rank of major in the SANDF and serving as company commander in George, Grobler was selected as one of the first-ever women to do the Special Forces entry course (commonly known as the recce course).

After hanging up her boots, Grobler landed every adventurer’s dream job as student development officer at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. The job was initially only temporary, but she knew if she gave absolutely everything, they would have to make it permanent - and they did.

Thirty years later, she is still using her unique skill set to empower student leaders.

Before tackling ‘that thing that’d never been done before’, Grobler completed a series of adventure races with various teams (including a 500km expedition race in the Cederberg), boogie-boarded down the ferocious Zambezi River in Zimbabwe and summitted Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Alone against the elements - and she won

In 2005, at the age of 41, Grobler made history with her first unsupported solo adventure - a 330km walk along the Northern Namib Desert coastline in Angola, including the notorious Death Acre (Doodsakker) where frigid Atlantic Ocean waves, in the absence of a shoreline buffer, crash directly against the dune face, making it impossible to traverse on the high tide. Starting at the Kunene River mouth and ending at Moçâmedes, the project, dubbed Walk for Wheels, was undertaken to raise funds for landmine victims in Angola.

“We were able to hand out quite a lot of wheelchairs,” Grobler said.

Six years and a raft of adventure career highlights later, she set about the unsupported solo mission she is most famous for - walking the entire Skeleton Coast in Namibia on her own to raise funds and awareness for the National Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing College in Worcester - another world first. The expedition was called Silent Steps (which would later become the banner under which she takes fellow adventurers on slackpacking tours).

Grobler uses a portable desalinator in the Skeleton Coast to make drinking water from sea water. Photo: Anette Grobler

With everything she needed to survive, including a satellite phone, some light camping gear, medical supplies and a water desalination device to purify sea water for drinking loaded onto a custom-built rickshaw, Grobler completed the arduous 570km route through some of the harshest terrain known to mankind, in 27 days.

There’s good reason the San people called it ‘the land God made in anger’.

Besides the extreme temperatures, blistering winds and harsh terrain, Grobler came face-to-face with her two biggest fears: being buried alive in quicksand (five of the rivers she had to cross were in flood for the first time in 20 years) and being eaten by any of the 38 desert lions roaming the region then.

“My parents were very worried. I on purpose never contacted them via my satellite phone while on dangerous adventures. I didn’t want them to hear when things weren’t going well. However, they were always the first people I contacted the moment I finished,” she said.

Desert lion spoor Anette came across on her solo, unsupported 570km walk along the Skeleton Coast in Namibia. Photo: Anette GroblerTurning solo journeys into shared adventures

Four years and a few more daring feats later, in 2016, Grobler started offering slackpacking adventures to members of the public right across South Africa, Namibia and Angola - one of those right here in the Garden Route.

“The Wilderness walk is unique because it is unspoilt. You can walk along the beach for hours without seeing other people. The ancient fossilised dunes and the fossilised footprints they nurture are fascinating,” she explains.

Next year, marking 10 years of shared slackpacking adventures, Grobler and whoever is keen to join her will summit the Swartberg Pass, starting and finishing at Kobus se Gat.

Asked what motivated her to do all these extreme things, Grobler explained her adventures and experiences are the firewood that will, in her old age, provide the warmth to want to live. “It’s the stuff we did, not the stuff we still wanted to do.”

Walking the Skeleton Coast, alone. Her parents were very worried but they were the first people she contacted the moment she finished the route. Photo: Anette Grobler