This Grassy Park man had a memorable first-time hiking experience, but not the kind you'd expect — his ended in a K9 search and head injuries.
Ebrahim Dawood, 36, was found with head injuries and severe bruises after he had gone missing on Sunday night after hiking at Newlands Forest.
According to his family, he had allegedly been robbed by three skelms and pushed on to a ledge, but it unclear as how he sustained the injuries.
Ebrahim separated from his cousin Sulaiman Achmat, his wife and their cousin, when he decided to take a different hiking route to get to the top.
Sulaiman said that after the group had got lost, Ebrahim decided to take a longer route to get to their destination.
“We started out hiking at 11am but we got lost and ended up at a hidden area. We were provided with two directions and Ebrahim decided to separate because he wanted to climb.
“We got to the top first. When we tried calling him, his phone was off. We waited for him for an hour but there was no sign of him. We went back down to do a check but he was not there after we had waited for an hour,” said Sulaiman.
He said they left the forest at about 6pm to drop off his wife and cousin at home before he went back to continue with the search.
“When I came back there were still a lot of people around. I asked around but no one had seen him that is when I decided to call the police,” he said.
The search continued through the night and Ebrahim was found at about 2am yesterday. He was not himself. The only thing he could remember was that he was mugged by three guys who pushed him on the ledge.
"Hiking is something that me and my wife just started and Ebrahim decided to join us this weekend,” he said.
Wilderness Search and Rescue spokesperson Johan Marais said their launch was intensified yesterday morning after the hiker could not be located on Sunday night.
“We deployed members of our K9 unit with the dogs. One of the search parties found the missing person. Although he was able to walk out, he was found to be disoriented and dehydrated.
"On closer inspection, it was obvious he was mugged in the course of last night, and suffered other minor bruises," said Marais.
The incident happened a day after a tourist died after he fell while hiking on Table Mountain on Saturday. His body was found on Sunday morning by another hiker on the Platteklip Gorge route.