Advertisement
Published: September 30th 2018
Edit Blog Post
Day 6
This morning we joined our fellow travellers for the start of our Explore trip.
There are 4 others plus our guide.
Celeste - Canadian ; Keri - Canadian ; Danny - American/Californian ; Nick - English/Cheltenham.
Vern, our guide, is probably around 30, Afrikaans, 6 years UK army, then various jobs in other countries including Canada, been guiding for 3 years. He believes in hunting, a necessary, ecological control measure. And believes the way to kill more animals is to become vegan - as the farmers growing 'vegan' crops such as soya and lentils have to shoot hundreds of animals that want to try to eat the crops. But, he is very good at his job. Except that he drives waaay too fast!
Transport is an 8 passenger van with drop down side windows for safari.
A longish driving day today, heading South East to the Drakensberg Mountains, the world's oldest mountain range. The name comes from the Afrikaans word for "Dragon Mountains", the razor-backed ridges having a likeness to the mythical beasts.
After extended periods of driving at 130+kph on the 120 kph limited motorways Vern was pulled over at a mobile speed
check. The fine? 200 Rand, about £10, and no points system. Nor does he have to pay until his 5 yearly licence renewal.
Not too much wildlife on the way - ostrich and blesbuck.
Brief shopping stop in Harrismith on the way, a coal mining town named after a man who, allegedly, rescued Winston Churchill from a stream during the Boer War ( Winston was a war correspondent at the time ).
Our 2 night stay was in a thatched rondavel at the Sungubala Eco Camp in the heart of the Drakensbergs, a World Heritage area. All power is wind and solar so no heavy duty electrical appliances allowed. There was only 1 full voltage socket in the whole camp for everyone's phones, cameras etc. But we had gone in fully charged so were ok. Not that there was any WiFi anyway. For two whole days!
Cooking and fridges were gas powered, and as it was self catering Vern had to cook, breakfast, lunch and dinner, throughout our stay.
But despite this the units were modern, purpose built, with full en-suite, hot water, shower...
Sleeping at the camp was very dark, and very quiet.
Day 7
What a great place to wake up in.
Vern cooked up a hearty breakfast in addition to cereals, toast. ... useful as this morning it was a 10 km hike (though Vern had said 5km, but Nick's GPS proved different ), half uphill, in what turned out to be 30°C+.
The destination was Lone Rock to see some Bushman wall painting on the rock underside. Not easy to date but thought to be 4-600 years old (there are others in the country, protected, thought to be 40000 years old).
Lots of wonderful wild flowers incl freesias, verbena, daisies, (possibly) orchids, and our first sighting of proteas in what felt like a protea forest.
A good rest, laze and relax was called for in the afternoon before Vern's woodfire-cooked evening chicken layered casserole, with banana toffee pudding?. Though frankly the vegetarian option topped with parmesan was far tastier.
Day 8
Is the longest driving day of this trip, with a 7am start for arrival at St Lucia, almost on the coast, not until 4.30pm, though with stops on the way.
We gave our camp guide a lift to the nearest town, about
20 miles away. Vern reckoned that a taxi back would cost about 50p!
Mile after mile of vast grassland, mostly given over to beef cattle grazing. Isolated villages and people waiting for lifts or local buses. Then we were in Ladysmith, a bustling centre, women in brightly-dyed, full dresses, men in their weekend best. Children barefoot, tugging at their mum's belts for sweets. Nothing changes.
A plethora of British place names - Dundee, Newcastle, Glencoe, Balmoral. Wonder if the area has a Burns Night?
Then on to the battlefields of Rorkes Drift and Isandlwana.
Isandlwana was a decisive Zulu victory as a result of the British being truly outwitted. A few hours later, Rorkes Drift could not be called a 'victory' but around 100 Brits did hold off several thousand Zulus who eventually recognised that the Brits would not give way. Turns out the Michael Caine film 'Zulu' is pretty accurate.
11 VCs were awarded at Rorkes Drift that day, January 22, 1879, but it is felt that was a political decision to distract attention from the appalling Isandlwana result.
Not sure that our Canadian and American travellers made much of this though.
We then pushed on St Lucia where hippos roam the streets at night, before a couple of days of game drives.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.06s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0386s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb