The Dragons

Posted by Sam in South Africa, World Trip 2007/8 on 06 6th, 2007 | one comments

The last stop of the SA adventure will be the mountain range of the Drakensberg….. or in English, The Dragon Mountains. It is 200km long and is a barrier between SA and Lesotho. The area Ellie and I picked was the Sani Pass region as its the only way for 200 km you can get in to Lesotho from the East. We thought we maybe able to get the slug up the pass and drive around Lesotho for the day but more on that later.

Again the hostel was great, it had no tv, no music no Internet just panoramic views of the Drakensberg and a big log fire which was the centre piece in the common room. It was bitterly cold in the night and it was great to sit around warm the toes and chew the fat with the other travellers. Oh yes the travellers, we met some rather random people there. There were two German that have travel ed overland from Europe to South Africa. One of these guys had been travelling for 4 years and he looked crazy with his Sideshow Bob hair cut and Billy Connolly beard. He had some great stories to tell us, my favourite being the one where he had over stayed his VISA in some random Africa country and instead of throwing him in jail they fine him and cut of his dreadlocks hence why he now looks like Sideshow Bob.

The 1st day we were there we took a tour up the Sani Pass as we were told the Slug wouldn’t make it up the ‘road’. We met our tour guide called Michael and he was such a great guide. He told us pretty much everything about the area, from flowers to tracking animals. He was a bit like a South African Ray Mears. We started the drive up the pass which 1st takes you to SA boarder control (which is really a hut) it only seems to be there for the novelty value, but im sure they have very important job to do!

I’m so glad we didn’t attempt it in the Slug as the road was very tough. We were getting shaken around in the Land Rover so god knows what it would be like in Slug. The road track was snaking around and just going up and up until we hit snow, yep more snow. 2843 meters up and you reach Lesotho and the highest pub in Africa called the Sani Pass Lodge. We had to stop off here and have a drink and some amazing homemade bread (I love Bread). The view was incredible looking back down the pass in to SA. Lesotho couldn’t be more different than all the parts of SA we had visited so far.

Thick snow covered the empty Plato with only a few loan teenage farmers wondering around attending to their flock of sheep.

Highest Pub in Africa….. didn’t sell absinth, oh well

During the night everyone at the hostel was up for drinking games. It was just like the Olympics with USA, Dutch, South African and German all competing for the international drinking title of the year. The game was ping pang pong, I would explain the rules but hadn’t got a clue what was going on. Anyway just like the Olympics the UK came last and I had a hangover.

We decided to stay another night so we could do some hiking in the National Park where there was a great 12km walk taking us along the side of one of the many mountain rivers.

Ellie thought it would be a great idea to fall in one of the rivers, Aww poor Ellie. But I was a true gentleman and just laughed at her for about 5 minutes.

The last couple of days were spent back in Pretoria just chilling out and spending as much time with Ellie before I left for the next leg of the Journey. I was so sad to leave Ellie and SA. I had just the best time with her, Ellie was a great travelling companion she will be meeting me in China now.

So my hot list in SA follows.
1. Shark diving
2. Kurger Park
3. Bread from Spar
4. Grape Fanta
5. Baboons and Monkeys
6. Nestle Mint Crisp
7. Coffee Bay
8. Island Vibe Backpackers in Jefferys Bays
9. Sani Pass & Drakenburg
10. Cape Town
11. The Blue Slug
Next stop Riga, see you there

UPDATE, here are the photos, sorry I’ve been a bit slow with updating the next part of the blog, Russia has been a busy time and I can’t find a cafe with USB connection. I’ll sort it out soon.