I feel like I am part of a secret club, except there is no secret and there is no club.
Twice a week, I meet a bunch of trail runners at Beach Break B&B and we scamper down the hill, off the tar and into the wild.
Depending on group size, weather and light conditions, we run into the Nahoon Point Nature Reserve and into the bushes or we head immediately along the beach to Corner and beyond.
In winter, we start running into the sunset and finish with a moon rise.
We hop, skip and leap down paths full of roots as obstacles; we hug the wind-swept cliffs to the soundtrack of waves smashing the rocks below.
If the tide is low, we pick our way down to the mossy rock shelf just above the water line and go round the front of towering cliffs complete with nesting peregrines.
I lived in East London for more than two decades before I saw Bats Cave in all her glory, worried about safety as a lone runner.
In our group, if the light is right, Bats Cave is a regular feature, and we always stop to peer over the drop into the pool below.
If pristine, it glows with a turquoise and mauve tint and sometimes we jump in.
If roiling with powerful, swirling foamies, jumping in would be a deadly decision and we move on.
We carefully make our way up to the cliff top for sweeping views with Nahoon on the left, Eastern Beach on the right and the East London harbour in the distance.
The city skyline lights twinkle back at us; it all looks so pretty from this angle.
We often navigate the slippery steps taking us above Mermaid’s, with a quick trail back on to Corner to touch the wall before running helter skelter parallel to the waves as we head back to the start and back to reality.
Trails hour is a portal to adventure, right in the middle of suburbia, capping the end of a working day.
Around 5pm, I slip on my trail shoes, leave my life behind, skip out the house and return revived and refreshed.
As we were walking home the other evening, after an epic trail dodging lightning bolts, fellow trail junkie Joy Gowen asked: “Why don’t more people do this?”
Why, indeed?
The raw, natural, stunning beauty of Nahoon is on our doorstep, showcasing the very best of what East London living has to offer.
If you can run, you can run trails.
I only ran road until this group came on my radar and now I almost only run trails.
For me, it’s pure fun, but the benefits in fitness and strength can’t be denied.
Trails have made me a faster, stronger road runner when I do need to put in some time on the paving.
It’s an escape from reality for an hour, for give-or-take 5-8km, depending on speed or lag breaks.
Our trail group isn’t a club with a kit and politics.
It’s a twice weekly play date with mates who also like to run wild.
