Into the Mountains
Trip Start
Aug 18, 2004
1
7
11
Trip End
Sep 01, 2004
Drakensberg Mountains, South Africa
Monday, August 23, 2004
What I always have to remind myself of is that other countries in the world are a different size to the one I live in back home. There, a 2 hour flight can get me from Stansted to the south of France. Here it gets me from Cape Town to Durban. If I hadnt taken the flight, it meant a 24 hour bus trip. No thankyou!
This time, making sure I had the window I had a fantastic view of the landscape beneath. Again, its perfect weather so hardly any clouds and a clear view of the desert below (Little or Great Karoo, I think) South Africa have just got into the budget airline market with a couple of companies that offer low cost flights. Although I booked this with one of those companies, the flight ended up being with British Airways. ?! Meant that we got food though!
Spent the night in Durban before getting an early start (do you see a pattern here!) to get to the bus station for an 8.45 am Greyhound bus to Pretoria which only goes once a day so you cant really afford to miss it. My stop was Mooi (pronounced mooey!) River, 2 hours down the road. Mooi means beautiful and the town, although by any means far from beautiful was full of character. A complete change from the kind of uptightness of Cape Town where you wondered if a mugger was lurking around each corner, everyone seemed to know each other and stop and chat or wave from their cars whilst passing on the roads. I was waiting on a lift from Lionel, who was picking me up from the backpackers in Kamberg. Bang on 11am he turns up in his pick up and off we go, via all the shops in town, out to the hostel which is a good 45minutes drive into the middle of nowhere.
It is really really hot, but in a different way to the coast. This is really dry heat, the kind I imagined it would be in Africa. No humidity just the heat and its actually quite bearable.
The backpackers is also a working farm with horses, chickens, cows and goats of which there are quite a few kids (so sweet). Lionel also breeds dogs and has a gorgeous 6 month old puppy called Precious (no hobbit jokes...). The view from the front porch is stunning (I promise to post the pictures) and its not difficult to imagine staying here for ever and ever.
Saw a kingfisher diving for its dinner in the little lake (dam) in front of the hostel, some big birds flew past making a HaHaHa kind of noise and later in the afternoon a heron appeared.
In the evening Lionel prepared a braai for us all (well not me, cos it was big lumps of steak) and some traditional South African style veggies. Sweet potatoes and squash with another kind of potato that I cant remember the name of but sounded something like Mgumbe ( I'll do a bit of research into that!) with an avocado salad and it was absolutely delicious. Being in the middle of nowhere with no city lights meant that at night we could see hundreds upon hundreds of stars. None of the constellations looked familiar to me obviously but the southern cross (?) was pointed out. I think thats the one in a kind of kite shape. There was a half moon out which prompted some discussion if it was the same half of the moon that would be seen in the Northern Hemisphere... that is too difficult for me to figure out without seeing diagrams so, dad, that's for you to explain to me whether tis so or not!
Aside from me there was a Swedish girl and German, Swiss and French guys staying there, so later internationally we represented our countries while we watched Olympic action. Its amazing that you can be miles away from the nearest house or town, yet watch satellite tv and get access to the internet.
