Initially, I was a little unsure how to spend the last few days before I meet up with my new traveling companion, Arianna (a long time friend of mine since college) in Jo'burg. So rather than trying to rush it, I decided to take it slow in the Drakensburgs. This mountain range runs along the border of South Africa and Lesotho. It consists of a sedimentary base punctuated by large basalt escarpments creating a staggeringly beautiful and ominous-looking landscape. It was named 'Drakensburgs' by the Dutch meaning 'dragons', and it's a fairly fitting name. Due to the sedimentary layer, it sort of resembles the Grand Canyon with it's water formed gorges, except that the gorges are all green and mountains soar from out of the plateaus upwards to elevations of 11,000 ft.
I spent two nights in Himeville, in the southern Drakes. I 'splurged' ($16) on a room at the Himeville Arms with it's own Pub, great food and some damn good cappaccino. I spent most of a day hiking in Cobham Reserve laying down about 16 miles. Cobham is supposedly totally virgin and appears as 'it has always been.' Regardless of the semantic meaning of 'always', it was a fantastic place to hike where I didn't see a single soul all day. Of course, truth be told, I would not have minded seeing someone along the way as I got lost as hell. With a nearby baboon troop screeching at me and a waning sun, I decided to high-tail it and run the last 1.5 hours out. Just as I could barely see anymore, I finally found my car. whew. It was all well rewarded though, as the Pub at Himeville Arms had a porter on tap from a Nottingham Brewery about 100 km away. It was not only the best beer I have had since February, it was one of the best porters I have ever had - And I'm not a huge porter guy. Good day.
Wanting to sample the Drake a bit more, I moved up to the central berg region and settled in for another two days. No pub, but a fantastic lodge nonetheless at the base of Monk's Cowl Reserve. Here, the scenary only got more stunning. Looking back over my last several South African posts I realize I have described many of the areas as 'beautiful', 'amazing', etc. So to niether detract from the gravity of those fantastic places I have previously described, nor sound redundant about the central berg, I will just simply decribe this area as 'undescribably beautiful.' Friday, I hiked up to the top of Sterkhorn Mountain (2970 m) offering incredible views of the plateaus, gorges and valley floors. Making it back by mid-afternoon I finished the day off with a swim in the pool/pond at the lodge.
I really wanted to take a swing through Lesotho before heading to Jo'burg. But in hindsight, the Drakensburgs were a real treat with great accomodations and good hiking. So, I will save Lesotho for another trip, another day. Tomorrow, I will head to Jo'burg and finish off the solo-segment of this trip. From there, Arianna and I will try to figure out how in the hell we are going to get to Tanzania. Right now, I only have a few vague ideas, but no plan. I'm not sure if I told her that part.
I spent two nights in Himeville, in the southern Drakes. I 'splurged' ($16) on a room at the Himeville Arms with it's own Pub, great food and some damn good cappaccino. I spent most of a day hiking in Cobham Reserve laying down about 16 miles. Cobham is supposedly totally virgin and appears as 'it has always been.' Regardless of the semantic meaning of 'always', it was a fantastic place to hike where I didn't see a single soul all day. Of course, truth be told, I would not have minded seeing someone along the way as I got lost as hell. With a nearby baboon troop screeching at me and a waning sun, I decided to high-tail it and run the last 1.5 hours out. Just as I could barely see anymore, I finally found my car. whew. It was all well rewarded though, as the Pub at Himeville Arms had a porter on tap from a Nottingham Brewery about 100 km away. It was not only the best beer I have had since February, it was one of the best porters I have ever had - And I'm not a huge porter guy. Good day.
Wanting to sample the Drake a bit more, I moved up to the central berg region and settled in for another two days. No pub, but a fantastic lodge nonetheless at the base of Monk's Cowl Reserve. Here, the scenary only got more stunning. Looking back over my last several South African posts I realize I have described many of the areas as 'beautiful', 'amazing', etc. So to niether detract from the gravity of those fantastic places I have previously described, nor sound redundant about the central berg, I will just simply decribe this area as 'undescribably beautiful.' Friday, I hiked up to the top of Sterkhorn Mountain (2970 m) offering incredible views of the plateaus, gorges and valley floors. Making it back by mid-afternoon I finished the day off with a swim in the pool/pond at the lodge.
I really wanted to take a swing through Lesotho before heading to Jo'burg. But in hindsight, the Drakensburgs were a real treat with great accomodations and good hiking. So, I will save Lesotho for another trip, another day. Tomorrow, I will head to Jo'burg and finish off the solo-segment of this trip. From there, Arianna and I will try to figure out how in the hell we are going to get to Tanzania. Right now, I only have a few vague ideas, but no plan. I'm not sure if I told her that part.
Enjoying the continued posts. Real curious about the journey to Tanzania.
ReplyDeleteYou are never going to believe this...the Center for Hydrocarbon Functionalization GOT FUNDED!!! AAHHHH!!! http://www.er.doe.gov/bes/EFRC.html
ReplyDeletecan't wait to hear how ariana reacts to your "no-plan" news:) sounds like you're doing great...i'll ignore for a bit that your african "go-cart" looks almost exactly like my real car! big hugs...
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