Walking in the Drakensburgs (KwaZulu Natal, South Africa)

After leaving Rio de Janiero, I arrived back in East London in South Africa, after a journey taking in three flights via Sao Paulo and Johannesburg airports with some rather long waits along the way.  However, it was all worth the wait as Rachel met me at East London to begin a great three weeks together back in South Africa.

Fortunately Rachel was able to take a break from her Phd research so that we could spend the next couple of weeks exploring the Drakensburgs, a spectacular and remote mountain range that separates South Africa and Lesotho. The mountains cover a huge area so we divided our time between three places - Amphitheatre in the northern part of the range, Injisuthi in the centre, and the Sani pass in the south - as well as fitting in a four day trek called the Giant's Cup Hiking Trail in the southern Drakensburgs.

The drive up from East London was a long one, so we broke the journey by spending a night in Durban on the way. Durban has a large Indian population, so we decided that a curry was in order, particularly has neither of us had eaten a good curry in months! We found a good restaurant close to our hostel which did huge and very tasty dosas and was also showing the IPL cricket - curry and cricket making for a great night in Durban!

Amazing dosa in Durban

Our first stop in the Drakensburgs was at Amphitheatre Backpackers, a fantastic hostel in the northern Drakensburgs, complete with its own hot tub, sauna and pool table. From here we'd planned to do a hike up to the Amphitheatre escarpment to see the Tugela Falls, the world's second highest waterfall which drops a total of 948m. Unfortunately the tour to the falls wasn't running when we were there because of poor weather, so instead we signed up for a day tour in to Lesotho, the small mountain kingdom which is completely surrounded by South Africa. The trip up to Lesotho was a bit cold and wet (and snowy in places), but we did get to see some San rock paintings, as well as visiting a school and the village sangoma (traditional healer).

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Snowy Lesotho

View of the northern drakensburgs from Amphitheatre Backpackers

After leaving Ampitheatre, we headed south to the central Drakensburgs, via a short detour to see the site of the Battle of Spion Kop (the Boer War battleground that gave the 'Kop' at Anfield and many other football grounds its name) and a lovely lunch at a farm shop in Winterton. Our next stop was a national park campsite in Injisuthi, a fantastic little campsite nestled right in the mountains with spectacular views on all sides where we spent three nights. Here we did two full days of walking in the surrounding mountains along trails which we pretty much had to ourselves. We were treated to some brilliant mountain scenery and also some very warm and dry weather considering we were now in to the South African winter, although it did get rather cold in the tent at night!

The mountains above Injisuthi

Shower time!

Our tent at Injisuthi

We then headed further south to stay at the Sani Lodge at the bottom of the Sani Pass (another route up in to Lesotho) from where we set out on a fantastic four day trek along the Giant's Cup Trail, a 60km route through the Southern Drakensburgs. The trail was set out as a five day route, but each day was relatively short, so we chose to condense it down to four days which we managed comfortably, even though we did manage to save the longest day of walking for the wettest day of the four!

Setting off on the Giant's Cup Trail

Along the route we stayed in a series of huts, which though providing welcome shelter were very basic and rather cold at night, particularly as we were the only people staying in them at this time of year. There also wasn't anywhere to buy food along the way so we had to carry all our food and a stove to cook it on, but it was nice to be fully self sufficient with just each other and the mountains for company.

Trying to warm up our hut on the first night

The huts we stayed in on the second night

After completing the Giants Cup Trail, the next leg of our Drakensburg adventure took us up the notorious Sani Pass, a slightly treacherous mountain pass connecting South Africa and Lesotho which can only be negotiated by 4x4. Luckily the Sani Mountain Lodge where we would be staying at the top of the pass was able to send a 4x4 and driver down to pick us up so we didn't have to put our own driving skills to the test! The drive up the pass was spectacular, particularly the final couple of kilometres as the road zig-zagged up a series of sharp hairpin bends along a bumpy gravel road.

Rachel makes a new friend

Sani Pass

Sani Pass

The hostel we would be staying at for the next couple of nights claimed to have the highest pub in Africa at 2874m so the next few days saw a combination of walking and horse-riding in the surrounding mountains, along with making the most of the opportunity to try some Lesothan beer in the bar.

Getting a taste of Lesothan beer

While staying at the top of the pass we hiked up to the top of Hodgson's Peak, a 3250m mountain, from which we got great views down in to South Africa and back in to mountainous Lesotho. We also did a horse ride around the top of the escarpment, although my horse was possibly the slowest horse in the world so what I think was supposed to be quite a short ride took several hours!

Shepherd's hut on the walk up to Hodgson's Peak

Giddy-up!

The view from the top of Hodgson's Peak

Our final night at the top of the Sani Pass also happened to be the eve of my 30th birthday so we made the most of being at the highest pub in Africa and spent the evening 'celebrating' (if that's the right word!) my big birthday. There weren't many other guests staying at the hotel that night so it was a fairly quiet evening, but Rachel had gone to a lot of effort to decorate my room so that it felt suitably like my birthday.

The next few days were then spent gradually making our way back to the UK, as we first drove back to East London before catching a flight to Johannesburg from where we would be flying back to Heathrow. Although it had been a little hard to leave behind the sunny beaches of Rio for the South African winter, we'd had a fantastic couple of weeks walking in the mountains and largely been blessed with great weather, all of which made for a great conclusion to my travels.

Watch this space for just one last blog about my travels....