The Drakensberg

Trip Start Jan 24, 2007
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13
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of South Africa  ,
Thursday, March 1, 2007

Arriving thoroughly rested and relaxed from the horizontal of Mpande and Port St Johns we had to go to big, hot and sweaty Durban. Thankfully the trial was short-lived. We stayed in an awful youth hostel, where we were greeted by a loud drunk welshman and were serenaded at night with God save the queen- aren't the british great on holiday! The next night was much better and we got great information from a local guy working in the backpackers on howto get up to the Drakensberg. First thing in the morning we got a lift down to the local taxi rank and caught 3 minibus taxis the 190kms to the mountains. Tourists tend to use special tour operators and carriers, whereas the local africans all use minbus taxis which are a quick and reletively inexpensive way of getting from a-b. There are no signed taxi ranks, rather long lines of people randomly queueing on the pavement. You ask where its heading and then cram into a 16-seater toyota hiace, usually fitting 20 people plus maize, plus bags, plus anything else they're taking. The taxis then hurtle to thir destination with no cause for concern either over lane markings, traffic lights or road surfaces/hard shoulders Amazing views over Lesotho at 3000m
Amazing views over Lesotho at 3000m
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We got to Sani pass backpackers in one piece and it was lovely comfortable accomodation. A day's hike the next day was spectacular with a stunning gorge descent and plenty of time for swimmming in the water holes and by the waterfalls. Lauren loved it because it was a contouring walk rather than all that pointless up and down, and i loved it because of all the swimming. No people at all- total bliss!
We only a had a few days so we were determined to see the well-known sani pass, famed for being so steep that its only suitable for 4x4s! The 60 quid for both of us to join a tour seemed excessive for a day so we decided to hitch up the pass and were joined by Thomas the swiss, (whose 0.8l daewoo matiz, having completed over 1000kms in lesotho, at heights exceeding 3000m, simply wasn't beast enough for the climb!). The 20kms up the pass seemed daunting but an ealry lift from passing roadies bouyed our confidence but left us only 5kms from our start point. We then ambled and sat on a rock for an hour with not one car passing us. Just as we feared the glorious ascent may not be so glorious, our knight and his lady arrived in their white steed (toyota landcruiser 4x4 with AIRCON!!) and whisked us not only up the pass, but into the kingdom of Lesotho for a 30 min trip and then, after lunch at the highest pub in southern africa, whisked us back TO OUR DOOR. Doug and Nina were a south african couple who have been living in England for 30 years now, and it was lovely to chat with them all the way up and down. They were wonderful, friendly and generous,  making our tour so much cheaper- we owe them!
We got a lift with Thomas the swiss and his beast Matiz (moped in a shell) back to smelly sweaty Durbs and then it was time to head up the coast.
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