Blogs from Drakensberg, Free State, South Africa, Africa

As you approach the Northern Drakensburg, you feel mesmarised by the dragon mountains covering the horizon. Baboons run wild across the road while african children burn the land while hunting with dogs. The smell of smoke lingers in the air, while you are met with beautiful lakes and misty mountains. At only 3482 metres above sea level, this place truely is a hikers paradise. While in Johannesburg I met a couple of lads that showed me some photos of the dramatic landscapes in the Northern Drakensburg. They warned me hiking in the mountains isnt cheap and getting there is difficult on public transport, but even on a backpackers budget, I knew the challenge was set and it had to be done. The Northern Drakensburg is a remote part of South Africa, close to the country Losoto. ... read more

Shortcut's in Africa. What NOT to do Just thought I'd give a quick account of a great idea we had, when travelling from the Drakensberg mountains south east of Johannesburg, to Rustenburg, north west of Johannesburg. It was a Friday, and to avoid the renowned hectic traffic jams that stop the city everyday, we thought we'd drive along the R24, a national highway that cuts around the city. When we turned off the major highway, there was a sign that said 'Potholes, next 5km'. If you ever see this sign, please take it seriously. There were a couple holes in the road, but nothing too major. Not straight away at least. We stopped and swapped drivers, so I was behind the wheel, and as we cruised along, the road kind of fell away in front of ... read more

After yesterday's long drive, I was really looking forwards to today's 6 hour walk in the Drakensberg. Sadly, it wasn't to be as I was struck down with major leaking from both ends at about 19h00 last night. All through the night, I communed with nature being unable even to keep water down or in. Come morning, I lay there very sorry for myself but decided that a mug of Rooibos with two sugars would be good. Not so. I communed with nature again! Whilst the others went off for their walk, I sat in the sun attempting to drink water and, after being free for 3 hours decided to walk down to the entrance block where there was a shop. I took the scenic route across country and arrived at the shop totally exhausted. What ... read more

South Africa - Drakensberg Monday 15th March Our next stop is the Drakensberg Mountains, the range of mountains running down the eastern side of South Africa and including Lesotho. url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/whereissteve/4535542815/" title="The Drakensberg Mountains by WhereIsSteve"img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4535542815_ff5e678b68.jpg" width="399" height="299" alt="The Drakensberg Mountains" / img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4004/4535543933_9303d42551.jpg" width="441" height="299" alt="Sungubala" align=right / url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/whereissteve/4535545297/" title="Night Sky From Our Campsite by WhereIsSteve"img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2756/4535545297... read more

The Great White Toyota hunting tour - arriving in Cape Town and getting to the Kruger Park Well, we’re now more than 2 weeks into this African journey and have spent 2 days in Cape Town getting our truck (Toyota 4x4) sussed, signed over to us, packed and on the road, 6 days travelling to the north end of the Kruger Park (averaging 700 k/day) and 8 days in the park coming south peering at every bush and clump of grass and avoiding elephant dung so as to not crush the beetles (averaging 20 k/hr) and dropped Jennifer at the J’burg airport to report back to school a week late. No time so far to sit and write nor time to find internet cafes (not that there are any in the KNP- well I didn’t look). ... read more

June 20, 21, 22 For the past two days it has been cold and both Chris and I were walking around with closed up noses and feeling a bit off, so we have spent our days tucked under the blankets with boozing medicine. On 21 June we decided to try out the Pizzaria that we heard about and took a drive to the Tower of Pizza. We had the most fantastic pizza that I tasted in a long time. All the pizza names have been named after the different peaks found in the mountain range. Very original. They had shovels made into chairs and though it wasn’t as comfortable as a normal chair it was unique and gave the place a great atmosphere. The restaurant was built in an old colonial style, surrounded by big trees. ... read more

June 19, 2009 We woke up to unpleasant weather, it was freezing outside and we had no intention to get out of bed in weather like that. So we watched Pirates of the Caribbean. When the movie finished we came outside to see that the day has turned out to be perfect, and packed some lunch to go do some hiking. We went on the Gudu Falls trail, and I think both our lungs was about to pop out, the steep incline we had to pass was ready to kill us. We frequently stopped to catch our breath which sounded like steam trains letting off steam. It was a horrible feeling and I thought I was going to faint. My walking stick became a tool to keep me up. When we reached lookout rock I didn’t ... read more