Mountain Adventure Day 1

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Mole, our Israeli hitchiker announced that she was ready and that the taxi was on it's way, even though we were clearly not ready. Once in town she dumped her bag on the sidewalk, with purse open and in full view of every pickpocket, scumbag and lowlife in the southern hemisphere and instructed us to mind it whilst she retrieved her bags from the boot. It was with great enthusiasm at the end of our second taxi ride of the day, this one from the infamous KFC spot that we spent the previous day trying to find, that myself and Dani said "See ya!" when she told us she was getting off. On that taxi ride from Durban to Pietermaritzburg we met an old man with decent English who was happy to talk to the two "whities" and who also went well out of his way to show us where to get our next ride even though he was returning home from hospital after being hit by a drunk driver and receiving 25 stitches in his leg! If it wasn't for him we would have spent the day once again looking for a taxi rank! Our goal for the day was to get to Lesotho, or as close as possible to the border post so we could enter early the next day. As we were now well accustomed mini bus taxis wont leave until they are full and when you think you're full there is always room for a couple more bums! By the time we did leave, this time for Underberg we were squashed in the backseat like sardines between a mountain man with a new saddle and another, very stinky man with all his worldly possesions in cardboard boxes. Needless to say, with all our bags the back seat wasn't a very comfortable place to be and although we were heading towards the mountains and the scenery was increasingly beautiful, it was a long hour or so. We found our next mini bus with ease and made a mental note not to get used to the ease of our travel so far, as it was definately not going to be like this all the time! We had to wait in Underberg for an hour before we left although we felt that if all the people milling around the bus waiting were actually to get on it, the operators would see we were full and leave. Here in Underberg we were once again appalled at the willingness of Africans to just throw their litter where they please, even though there are signs not to litter and bins everywhere. We were even more jammed in this time, once again on the back seat and when the driver went screaming past our stop, even after we had explained to him where we were going it took a good kilometre or two for all the African Chinese whispers to reach him and get him to stop. The African Chinese whispers were more like shouts of stop! We looked at each other and decided the easiest way for us to alight would be to use the fire escapes so we tossed our packs out the window and jumped out. No one had to move at all, but even if they wanted to they couldn't as the bus was now in fits of hysterical laughter! It didn't take long to walk back to the back packers, Sani Lodge. The people who run this place offer all sorts of mountain experiences and tours and wrote the Lonely Planet book for Lesotho. We spent the afternoon exploring the open fields and paths at the foot of the mountains including venturing into a swank hotel and availing ourselves of their gardens and facilities! Back at the lodge we met a Swedish lad, Morgan who had lots of travel stories and who also had the same Lesotho plan as us, just get up early and see what happens. We had an early night but were awake soon after as the temperature had plummeted to close to zero and our summer clothes and my flimsy sleeping bag just weren't warm enough. We scouted the living room and once satisfied it was empty, camped on lounges in front of the smouldering fire place for the rest of the night.

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Photos

Braided and Jaded
On the morning of our next adventure, me sporting a new and very hungover melon!

Dani and Mole
Outside a cool but very artsy fartsy cafe in Durban.

Sani Lodge
Looking at our backpackers from the feet of the southern Drakensburg.

Is it a bird, is it a plane...
You thought Aus had mosquitoes!