Safari So Good: to Drakensburg (no dragons)

Animal Count: monkeys, cattle, horses, zebras, nyalas, goats, sheep, baboons, elands, common duikers, 2 dogs and a pig

grassier

The Drakensberg is every bit as fantasy adventureland as it sounds. High, dry grasslands, and a steep range of mountains that ring the area making for late morning light and early evening light, but brilliant starshine. It is the highest mountain range in South Africa, and a good part of it forms the border of Lesotho.

higher

The Zulus call it "Ukhahlamba", which means barrier of spears, while the Dutch Vootrekkers named it Drakensberg (The Dragon Mountains). We call it awe inspiring, as we follow the track up and up, witnessing some of the chains 200km span. We change over to a 4x4 for the last bone-breaking 40 minutes or so, in the dark, sloshing through creaks potholes. The air is biting cold. We finally make it, peel ourselves from our seats and hobble into the main lodge. There we see a huge fire blazing in the middle af a large round room, with two big tablesset for dinner, a snug bar off to one side, and big, comfy chairs upon which we flop with ecstatic sighs.

In the morning we see what all those black masses blocking out the stars were. It was a stunning day, cloudless and warm in the sun. This is a rare thing in July and you simply can't not go tackling those mountains.

see our lovely cabin? see that wall of mountain behind it?

setting off

we could have gone fly-fishing but we chose moutain climbing!

The hike to the vulture nest and back through Stoney Pass is 6 hours, and with winter light, it's best we start soon after breakfast. The first bit takes us to an enormous rock under which the San people, the area's first peoples, used to camp. We know this because they left us drawings of their life. There are dozens of other such artwork dotte about the Drakensberg, but slow erosion of the rocks is hastening their disappearance. At the time of the San, this boulder would have sheltered many from the rain and the wind and the snow. They would have camped here and cooked here. But now, it affords only a bit of shelter from the sun for us, and what in the future for other hikers?

these were drawn with blood....

...but no one really knows what the black came from

Our guide wisely moved us slowly, with several stops to catch breath as we clmbed steeper and steeper.

The last bit up to the top was about 20 feet of sheer rock. We had to find small hand holds and foot holds to bring ourselves up, and we all made it, but I haven't done anything like that in a long time! The vultures that had been circling (not ominously, just because we were getting close to their next) settled down and soared below us to find something a bit smaller and more tasty than us.

At the top we divided, one group to go back at this point, as two wished to go horseback riding later that afternoon. The rest of us headed along the ridge of the mountain, an undulating trail through high grass and occasional rock inclines. We stopped for lunch at about the time we could see the others almost straight down and far below, like tiny fruit flys with no wings and hopefully a longer life span.

this sign was at the start of the hike...

...and this sign was at the end....

The mountains move down a bit more gently on the other side, and we saw horses and a herd of bell-collared sheep moving through the grass. Twice we saw baboons, big fellows, and they moved into the brush when they saw us. Our guide told us that they would take on a woman, but not a man. Thankfully, I have 3 men between me and them!

.....and this was in the middle

my three men preserving me from errant baboons

see those tiny green rooves? One of them has all our luggage

typical lunch stop - I gaze out a the beauty
and the grandeur of the landscape, Martin sleeps,
Griffiths checks his messages and Wolfgang takes photos

The climb down was not pretty. Steep, rocky, slippery, narrow, we moved slowly and folcussed only on the step ahead. This was too bad because it was a fantastic view, given that we were moving down an almost vertical hill, inching along steep zigzags cut into its face. A group of elands eyed us cautiously, moving when they felt we were too close, but always in a forward direction so they got more and more skittish as we came close. Finally they either got smart enough or scared enough to move uphill and we passed their alarmed eyes.