As we leave the Johannesburg area, we entered Free State and drove south through a mountain range called the Drakensberg ("Dragon Mountains" in Afrikans). The Drakensberg is a long mountain range, about 1000 km (623 miles) and as high as 3000 m (about 10,000 ft). This area was inhabited by the San (Bushmen) people as long as 40,000 years ago and evidence of their presence are shown in the many rock paintings found in caves.
I stayed at the Amphitheatre Lodge for 3 nights and it was a wonderful experience. This is one of the best-run lodges and not surprisingly, very popular. The staff are all very well-trained and the food was very good and reasonable. My only complaint was that the internet was very slow, even though I have to pay quite a bit for it. Because of its remoteness the lodge has to depend on satellite internet, which is costly and slow. However, the 2 full-days I stayed there was memorable.
On the first day, we took a trip to the Kingdom of Lesotho, which I shared in my previous post. On the second day, we hiked to the Amphitheatre Summit and saw the Tugela Falls, the highest waterfall in Africa. The Amphitheatre Summit consists of group of mountain peaks that form kind of an amphitheatre. It was dry and nice when we started but soon after it started to rain. Not very heavy rain but continuous light rain all day. It made the hike difficult and some of the ground slippery. This is a signature hike in South Africa but it's not an easy hike. In some places the slope was very steep. The rain reduced visibility and some of the peaks were covered by clouds. Nevertheless, it was beautiful on top and coming down, as the clouds cleared a little bit, you can see the beauty of the mountains.
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| Our destination - with a warning sign on safety |
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| A peek at the summit |
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| Part of Tugela Falls |
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| Another view of Tugela Falls |
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| The Descent |
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| Climbing down almost vertical ladders |
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| Beautiful look down the mountains |
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| Another view |
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| The summit |
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| More beautiful views coming down |
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| A closer view of the summit |
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| Never get tired of the scenery |
Sounds like you have had a lot of rain but everything still worthwhile. When are you coming home
ReplyDeleteLuckily the rain has been in the Johannesburg area where I was about 3 weeks ago. I just got into Cape Town tonight. I will be in South Africa for another 2 weeks, then NYC for 1 week and back in Phoenix beginning of April.
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