Drakensberg and Lesotho

14 decemer – 18 december

That Friday I had my final test of the wildlife module in the morning. I did not made it very seriously, because I wanted to leave quickly. We (Jeltine, Anneke, Sanne and me) were planning to leave to Drakensberg that day. After the test we packed our bags and we left. We had a little blue Fiat and we drove the whole way to Drakensberg. We had a stop in the middle were we stayed at a backpackers for the night. The traffic was terrible. There was an accident on the road with a bus. The whole bus lost his way and felt of the road. The traffic was hold up for almost 2 hours and we were very tired of sitting in the car the whole day. We were glad that we could sleep that night. The following day we waned to visit the highest pub in Drakensberg. Therefore you have to drive over the Sanipas, which is beautiful. You can drive the first part with a normal car, but later on you need a 4x4.

Unfortunately that went wrong, so as I was driving on the road I felt into this huge pothole! The front left bumper was broken and we couldn’t drive further. The wheel was blocked by the bumper. Things get worse: nobody of us had a signal on his phone! And it was a very hot day. We decided that 2 of us would walk back and 2 would stay at the car. Terrible! After 5 minutes a guy on a squat bike came. We were very happy to see him. He fixed the bumper and he told us that we could drive with the car the whole weekend. Gladly the damage wasn’t that bad and we drove our way to our backpackers at Amphitheater.

This backpacker was great. The view was amazing. You could see the amphitheatre! Or the next two days we booked two trips.
The first one was a trip to Lesotho. The part of Lesotho which we visited is never visited by other tourists. Only by the people who book their trip through this backpackers. It was very exclusive. They drove of down to Lesotho and we visited the local people there. The country is beautiful and the mountains are very green. People are friendly, smiling, and waving when we passed by. We tasted some food (milipap and spinach) and we drunk some home made beer with pineapple taste. It tasted nice and the local people were drinking it like water. They were dancing around in this little house, like it was a small disco!

The next day we went for a full day hiking experience in the amphitheatre. It started great, the view was amazing! I tried to take pictures, but when you’re standing there its way more beautiful than what you see on the picture. The trip was long.. We thought that we were almost at the top, but we weren’t and we had to clime on rocks to get there. It was very hard. Older people also joined us, so or them it was hard to keep up. When we reached the top, clouds were everywhere around us. We couldn’t see a thing!!! Gladly they were gone after a while and you could see a green valley in front of you. It was amazing. I can’t describe it.
They way back was even longer. We walked or to hours down through a valley and we had to climb down on scary stairs made of steel. I am sure that this wasn’t allowed in Holland. You could fall of very easy..
It started getting cold and we still weren’t back. The clouds started to come closer and we were surrounded by them. It started getting colder and colder and my lips turned blue. We walked for 1 more our and at around 19.00 we reached the car again.. We were so tired; I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore.
When we were back in the backpackers we took a dive in the colourful swimming pool: relax…

The last two days were amazing and I am glad I had the opportunity to experience them.
The next day we started driving at 08.00 in the morning and we arrived in Port Alfred at around 19.00. It was a long drive, but we were glad to be home. We ate at Links Ostrich. The ostrich there is unbelievable. I will miss it when I’m back in Holland…

Now, I’m going back to campus for a couple of days and on that Sunday I will leave with Pauline to Durban for Christmas.