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Published: December 10th 2009
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After relaxing for a couple of days in Joburg post the drive to Durban, I headed out to Sani Pass in Southern Drakensberg. Sani Pass is a mountain pass at a height of 2,874 meters and is one of the places from which you can enter Lesotho, the country completely surrounded by South Africa.
I had planned my trip using local buses (Intercape and Underberg Express). This was my first experience of public transport in South Africa. Intercape got me to Petermaritzburg (which is the place where Mahatma Gandhi was thrown off the train for not being white, an event which started his political journey). Maritzburg is the capital of Kwazulu Natal and is a relativly big city in this rural part of South Africa. The Intercape ride was comfortable, no issues. But the Underberg Express guys had made a major mistake in my booking and I was left stranded in Maritzburg. The only option was to take a 100 KM ride in a minibus taxi (the most basic form of public transportation in South Africa).
As a ride, its not a bad one, but if you have been told all the history of muggings that take place on
those buses with foreigners, factor in that irrespective of who you are, you are probably the richest person on that bus and you are a complete dummy wrt local knowledge, you get a pang of fear in your stomach, especially when you are in a remote area. I probably did the ride with some bravado (I was told its a 15-20 minute ride, turned out to be a 2 hour one), but managed to strike up a conversation with the driver and reached Underberg safely from where I got a ride to the backpackers I was staying in at Sani Pass. Not the smartest form of transport I have taken, but it was an experience in itself (though I didnt understand a word of Zulu when the other passengers were talking to each other).
Upon reaching the backpackers, I discovered to my dismay that I needed a visa to get into Lesotho (all commonwealth countries get automatic visa, except India, Pakistan, Ghana and Nigeria. Ridiculous, but I should have planned better). The alternate was to bribe the border guards and get in upto the pub at the Lesotho border (described as the highest pub in Africa), but didnt sound
like the smartest idea (traveling without visa, even in a small country like Lesotho can land you in a prison)
So decided to stick to hiking in the South African parts of Sani Pass. Next day started early on a hike, hiked for 3-4 hours in this beautiful mountaineous range, its amazing to watch the clouds pass you by and follow their shadows on the mountains. Tried capturing a few of the fleeting shadows on the camera 😊
When you go hiking in this higher altitudes, three dangers (in descending order) that you need to be wary of are -
a) lightening (summer is highly unpredictable weather, thunderstorms can strike at any time combined with very powerful lightening and if lightening strikes, as a hiker, first thing to do is to get off high areas as quickly as possible. Lightening is known to kill humans/animals and also cut big trees into half). When you travel through any village in this area, you will see rubber tyres on the roof of almost every single house, that act as an absorber if lightening strikes.
b) snakes - there are 3 poisonous varities in the Southern Drakensberg areas and
many more that are not poisonous. And the advise given to us was "if a snake bites, dont panic, try to identify the snake or at least try to remember the characteristics/feature of the snake that bit you" 😊 I was pretty sure if a snake bit me, I would die of a heart attack rather than the poison 😊 Anyway, encountered only one snake while hiking, but it slithered away from the road, not bothered about the hikers (was hiking with a british couple)
c) Baboons - unlike the big city ones, here the Baboons are shy and run away, so not much of a risk.
The hike left me with aching limbs, but a degree of satisfaction (thats what hikes always do for me)
Next day, mostly relaxed, did a small hike/drive upto Sani Pass, but was completely cloudy, so couldnt see much.
The last day was spent in traveling back to Joburg, that evening met some friends I had made during my travel to the western cape, post dinner and nightclub, it was time to get home and sleep.
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