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Published: September 20th 2011
K - We have just spent a great week “killing time” as we wait for our Indian visas which we applied for in Durban last Monday. We were told they would take 5 to 7 working days so we headed off to the Drakensberg – a mountain region in South Africa. Absolutely stunning – yet again the photos don’t do it justice (have I taken any photos that do anything justice I wonder?!). We energetically did a couple of hikes in the beautiful mountains and treated ourselves to a lovely B&B on a farm where we were upgraded to a cottage. This was fortuitous as there was a big electrical storm that night and the tent would definitely not have been fun. As usual we managed to adopt a couple of stray animals – in addition to the obligatory Ridgeback dog this weeks camp pet was a horse – see photo!
We were lucky enough to be in the area for a performance by the Drakensberg Boys Choir – a pretty famous group who travel all over the world giving performances. They were excellent and the program covered all sorts of music from Psalms and Gospel to Peter Simon and
traditional Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu folk songs. They were charming and exuberant and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
After 3 days we moved on from the Drakensberg to the Zulu Battlefields. We know very little about the Zulu wars so we treated ourselves to a guide when we visited Rourkes Drift and Isandlwana (scene of one of England’s worst ever military defeats – and by a group of guys with spears). Our guide, Evan, was fantastic – he brought the whole thing to life and we will definitely be getting Zulu out on DVD – although somehow I don’t think Michael Caine’s version will be entirely historically accurate.
Having exercised both our bodies and minds we returned for a few days well deserved (?!) R&R in St Lucia, a small town at the base of a Wetlands wilderness area in North West South Africa where we had spent a night the week before. The beach here is deserted and there are hippos and crocs swimming in the estuary but the best feature of the campsite was the fact that it was 3 minutes away from a fishing club who were showing the Rugby! Yes, our trip is now firmly
Did you spill my pint?!
Rhino at Halale, Swaziland. Phew - there are 2 electric wires between us and them.......scheduled around England’s World Cup matches plus any more Mark can squeeze in. If it means we get to hang around in such beautiful locations (and watch Manchester United beat Chelsea) then that’s fine with me!
Having “killed time’ with such a hideous week we were of course relieved to find that our visas had been completed in record time and we collected them this morning. We are now about to begin our trip down the Wild Coast back towards Cape Town.......
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