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Published: December 14th 2009
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For this section of our travels we are leaving the coast and heading into the centre of South Africa to the mountain kingdom of Lesotho and the roof of Africa.
We start our trip in the heart of Zululand in a town called Eshowe. The weather is pretty bad and it’s raining hard, to hard for the roof tent so we book into Zululand backpackers and treat ourselves to a KFC. Next day we are booked on a cultural tour into Zululand and our guide arrives to take us to his village, he is 75 years old and a bit mental to say the least. Zululand is huge area of South Africa and is made up of rolling green hills and streams it’s very picturesque with no electricity or running water and very rural. Although a lot of the culture still remains they obviously don’t still wear there traditional outfits or carry shields and spears (I was a bit disappointed).
We go on a village hike to see how they brew their own beer, and also grow their own pot with our guide showing us his prized plant. The highlight of the trip was a visit to the local
school to meet the local kids who were very shy at first but loved having there photos taken. They younger kids showed off some of the local dances they are taught which was pretty cool.
That night we went to a very tacky Zulu show in a recreated tourist village with traditional dancers which was good to see but obviously a bit touristy, however they were carrying shields and had spears!
Up early for a very long drive to the Drakensberg mountains (translates to dragons teeth) which are a world heritage site and also form the border with Lesotho. They are an incredible mountain range. We camped at amphitheatre backpackers with a stunning view of the northern ranges. We got up early the next day for a long day hike to the top of the amphitheatre which is a stunning semi-circle of rock 15kms long with a sheer cliff face of 2km, it’s stunning.
Next day we headed round to giants castle which is on the southern side of the range on route to Lesotho. We camped beneath the peak which is 3377m we did a nice day hike in the area and camped again that night,
in bed early as we were pretty tired.
Our next destination was the sky kingdom of Lesotho which has the highest low point of any country in the world and is an enclave within South Africa. It’s famous for its dramatic scenery and its locals still travel by horses and live a traditional way of life. Getting there is half the challenge with the infamous Sani Pass being our route up. This road is famous in Africa as being one of the steepest off road tracks in Africa and is in no-mans land between the borders of SA and Lesotho. We begin our assent of the pass which is 13km long and winds through the valley with the top section being a incredibly steep section of hairpin bends that take you through the cloud layer that I will admit left me cursing a little with how difficult and steep it is (and also the pounding the landy took) we reached the border post at 2874m and headed to the sani top lodge, the highest pub in Africa for a much needed pint.
Lesotho is very wild and untouched with beautiful landscapes and mountains, we took a drive through
the interior past rural villages and locals still using horses as their mode of transport. We spent the night at Sani top and the view down the pass with the clouds sitting in the valley was pretty special. We parked ourselves on a rock overlooking the pass with a bag of wine and watched the sun go down, we both agree it was one of the nicest sunsets we have every seen. Being so high up, (above the clouds) the night sky was so bright with all the stars shining the brightest I have even seen them. We turned in for the night a little worst for wear (the bag of wine no more) but are woken up around 2:30am by a wind so strong that I thought it would blow the roof tent clean off and down the valley with us still in it so we decide to pack up quickly and spend the rest of the nigh in the cab of the landy, which is the first time we have had to do this in nearly 4 months of travels so not bad going.
Next day we are awake a 5am a little stiff and hungover and
are first through the border at 6am. The drive back down the pass was a lot easier and we decided to head for the coast and a section of SA called the wild coast which was known in Aparthied as the transkei and is the least developed area in south Africa. It has a wild feel that reminded me of Mozambique and is very poor and underdeveloped. We spent the night at Port St Johns which is nothing special before heading to Coffee Bay a legendary hippy hangout and surf spot. The weather was pretty crappy with a lot of rain so we had a stroll on the beach, (for some reason the locals cows like the beach as it is full of them) then we went to see some traditional drumming. I liked coffee bay for it remoteness and undeveloped feel but you couldn’t get away from people trying to sell you either sea food, weed, or magic mushrooms whenever you were out and about.
We stopped at Cinsta for a few days which has an incredible beach and a great backpackers who run activities centred around playing drunken volleyball every evening, then we headed to the legendary
surf spot Jeffery’s Bay home of the supertube waves and rated as the best surf spot in Africa. It’s a great little beach town that would not be out of place in California or Australia and very developed which we kind of liked after the wild coast and we stayed a few days at island vibe right on the beach which had a great party vide to it. From here we are only 750kms to Cape town and the start of the western Cape of SA.
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Lol and Mum
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Again the trip sounds amazing, glad you had a KFC to keep up the energy levels as you were actually hiking. The views from the pass and tops look fantastic. Shorts or bikini, toss up which you prefer, nice to rest those weary bones. The kids smiling faces are a joy natural and happy. How far have you been hiking? Lots of love. xxxxxx