Tsitsa Falls, Royal Natal National Park & Durban

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Having left Hole in the Wall around 11am we headed for Maclear via Mthatha, and without any hassles along the way (despite concern on the airwaves due to increased traffic and people in the area due to Mandela’s precarious health condition), we were at Tsitsa Falls backpackers by late afternoon. We arrived to find an old, kind-of-out-of-the-way, farmhouse on a hillside with no-one there apart from a guy saying he was the manager. There were no other guests and the owners (and regular managers) were away on holiday for the week. All good, but it felt a bit spooky as it looked a bit run-down and rustic, there was no electricity and they had pet caracals and mix-bag of dogs who’d had a fresh litter of puppies (the previous night).

Needless to say we made a fire and made ourselves at home cooking soup in the kitchen and baking a big garlic & onion bread. All was well until around 9pm we heard African singing coming up the road, and in the darkness, with no explanation it enhanced the spookiness of the place. With not much to do apart from munch quietly on soup and listen to the singing coming and going as it passed along the road we called it a night and hung out to the morning. In the morning while playing with the caracals, and trying to keep them away from the puppies, we learnt the singing was coming from the Xhosa guys undergoing initiation – all good!

After a quick look at the Tsitsa Falls, which were pretty cool, the day was completed with 8h long drive from Maclear to the Royal Natal National Park in the Drakensberg and we got there after dark. The next morning we awoke to the stunning view of the Drakensberg Amphitheatre and shortly afterwards we set off on a hike up Tugela Gorge to try find the Tugela Falls! Not sure whether we actually got to the falls or not we turned around to make sure we got back to the camp in daylight having witnessed some incredible scenery along the way. The day was ended with a great bottle of Fairview 2005 Goatfather wine and a cool sunset.

The next day we headed down the N3 to Durban where we stayed 3 nights at a Gibela Backpackers near the happening Florida Road. In Durbs we did some admin and got our vaccinations for the next leg up in to Africa (Yellow Fever, Polio, Typhoid, Cholera, Tetanus, Hepatitis and a pile of Malaria tablets). We also went to the Natal Parks Board to see the shark dissection and ate good curries at a few different Indian restaurants. Even though the weather wasn’t the best we still got the feeling that Durbs is a rad, laid back city which would be pretty cool to live in!

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