Wanna run with me?

Lately my favorite running route is Leeu Street (Lion in Afrikaans)...and it is a beast of a run.  It's only 4.5 kilometers but it feels like 10.  We sit at the foot of the Soutpansburg Mountains and sometimes Leeu feels like it goes all of the way up.  Why don't you come with me?  I like to run from the house down to the bottom of Leeu.  That's the easy part, though there is one little hill (that little hill turns into a nice little break on the way back).  At the bottom you turn around and are rewarded with this:

See the top of the hill in the picture?  That's just half way, but I try not to think about that.  In the meantime, there is a slight uphill and we pass Ridgeway College.  This is the high school our children will go to if we still live here.

Just past Ridgeway on our left is a neighborhood and on the right is the velt (the "v" is pronounced "f").  

 And then, out of breath, you reach the top of that first hill and see this.  Do you see that house right in the middle with the orangey-red roof?  That's where we're heading.  

But first, turn around and see how far you've come!

First that little break (remember the uphill on the way down?), then a slow uphill the rest of the way.  This part is mostly in shade and there isn't much of a view because of all of the houses and trees.  And I have to confess that the end of the route is not so triumphant as the beginning.  You stop here at the stop sign.  They're still building in this area so there are workers all around that cheer you on and chat when you stop.  Some mornings that's a lot better than the view.  Remember the orangey-red roof?  There it is behind the half-finished house.  

This was a bright, sunny day, but the best are the ones that are cloudy because the clouds come down on the mountains and you run in a mist.  Feet on the ground, head in the clouds.