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Tuesday August 1st, Injasuthi, Central Drakensberg, Natal, South Africa The sun sets at 5:30 these days.
We took in a local show of falcons and falconry in the afternoon. Lots of these small touristy places around every where. They obviously knew their stuff and it was fun, and learning time for all of us.
However, we arrive and find ourselves in a wonderful hidden valley in the middle of the Dracks. The accommodation is, for a wilderness camp very good - beds, gas stove, hot water even! etc - all mod cons. As it is all on a generator, there are no plugs in the walls (I'm running on batteries), and lights out at 22:00. (Candles available at the store, R1.00 each).
Saturday 29th, and we are off to Von Heinegens pass for the look out (at 6500 feet, that's a climb of about 2000 feet). We then decide, after stuffing ourselves with sugars and chips, to find one of the caves that another party we climbed up with is heading for to stay the night. Neither we, nor they can find it, so we all come down together. They try a short cut and get totally screwed up and lost. As there is a 2 year old with them, and it's getting dark, this is no longer funny! Worried grand parents head out as we arrive 15 minutes before it gets black! It's taken us 7.5 hours up and (with a few miss turns to dead ends of our own) and back. It was 10Km to the cave, which we find out later, was literally, "just around the next bend" where we turned around. Twenty Km up and down rugged hills - great character building experience all round.
TOTALLY AMAZING stary nights here; the whole milky way and constellations very bright and clear. The old saw of reaching out to touch them seems easy to believe here. Sunday 30th: not looking forward to this...... time to "fix" the machine: Before it was shipped, the batteries needed to be balanced due to the loading of one of them (it's 24 V system using 2 x 12V batteries), but as I've tapped off of one 12V for the alarm, and to run the radio (which was stolen anyway), the batteries become unbalanced taking 13V & 16V on charge. So, I need to turn them around occasionally. Originally, I was also going to put a 24V DC/ 12V DC converter in, but this was also stolen on the voyage to Durban. The original idea was to use the batteries to charge the back up batteries (don'tcha jus' love those Price Club gadgets?),and also feed 12V into a 12V - 120VAC converter for the lap top etc. Having all these bits stolen makes it much easier. Now, we will simply charge everything in our rondavels, and not use any 12V devices in the vehicle. With only two spanners and a degree in electrical engineering, I manage to swap them around and it works! Encouraged by my incredible success, I finish off the screwing and bolting that I did not have time for back in TO. For my final encore, I check the oil - after several hours, the final tally is that it needed 4.5 litres! WOW, and it still ran? No wonder it was getting hot! Short hike to the hills before dining. The missus wants to do the cave experience, book for Monday night. We go for a night drive to the gate and back, (about 12 Km) nearly collide with 2 eland on the return. No boilings, many stars. Monday 31st. comes, we are going out with an organised tour to see some bushman cave paintings at "Battle Cave"on the way to our
cave. We have to take everything except water. They are so proud of the purity of the streams, that you are actively encouraged to It's quite a trek to "Battle Cave". 5Km of fairly easy hiking (if you ignore the blisters in my new shoes of course). The Koplimae Smiths, true to form, are totally disorganised, we have no backpack, so make do with an old Firehall Sports hockey bag slung over my shoulders. This for all sleeping and some edible materials. We also have food and photo stuff (Aiden & Ilge). It's 3 - 4 hours to the first cave, and that's half way to our room for the night.
Back half Km to our turnoff. The guide heads back to base, and we begin our ascent to "Marble Baths Cave", hoping we find it before dark. There is no way we can get back to Injasuthi if we blow this. The bag I'm carrying get heavier as we go up into the higher altitudes. The path is mostly easy, but occasionally gruesomely steep. Fantastic views as we climb up the valley. There are many places with sheer drops of a hundred metres or more down precipitous gorges, as we hike ever upward. We snack on frozen peas - very tasty!
The cave has all the mod cons that we would expect: a spectacular view, a roof, straw on the ground. Parts of the straw also have various animal dropping on it. At 5:30, the sun sets, we get into our sleeping bags, light the candles and tell ghost stories. It's pitch black in here - no moon till much later. We are all too tired to even look at the stars and a restless night is had on the hard floor. We finally awake at dawn - after 11 hours of fitful snoozing.
Breakfast - beans (again, room temperature), miscellaneous left overs (see above list etc). The kids head off to the marble baths, and go for a swim. It must be less than 5 degrees in this water! Going back is going down hill. There is actually time and ability to look at the surroundings now. Lots of spectacular scenery I'd missed with my head bent down yesterday. This way is much better. Get back at 3:30, and god bless em, the caretakers, seeing we were late (you have to sign out for treks with estimated time of arrival before you leave), reserved the last rondavel for us. YIPPEE! Hot baths all round and surprise! There's food in the store freezer. Apart from what's left of my feet , everything was really wonderful. 20Km uphill & down dale in 30 hours. We sleep well this night! Distance travelled this entry: 100 Km. Distance moved on trip this entry: 25 Km |
Thursday, 27th. - The day before we left Champagne Lane, Aiden, Kayla & I went out for an early morning (yes - we were up before
8:00AM!) 
We have booked a few days at a place called Injasuthi. This means in Zulu "well fed dog", and relates to how easy it is for dogs (and
other animals I guess) to live off the local flora & fauna. On the way the cruiser boils again, and we arrive feeling very low as this is
only the easiest hills we are likely to see on our way to Lesotho! Not a happy day.
There is a wonderful semi-retired couple who are here as relief managers, and they go way far out of their way to help in every way
possible. We take a quick 1.5 hour trek around a 
After that trip, we would eat anything and do. True to form, Smitho ends up with huge blisters on both feet as he needed to buy new
pumps - my normal ones, like my jeans, still languishing back in Toronto.....
drink it raw direct. I wonder what is swimming around in it that I cannot see. Do doubt a few samples will be taken upon our return
to find out!
We arrive at 12:30. The cave has some 
After what felt like several days, we spot the cave above us at 3:00PM. We lay out the ground sheet and eat for a solid hour! Bread &
marmite, bread and cheese, bread and rice, bread and bread, who cares! A loaf is gone in 40 minutes, crackers, a can of beans (room
temperature of course), oranges, apples, bananas, a can of peaches, hard boiled eggs, frozen peas, (yes more), crackers, sugary
cookies, frozen corn - at least this will not be carried down with us! We finally realise that lunch had become dinner, and the sun is
setting.
Way down in the valley, the stream rushes through something that actually looks like "marble baths". The kids get the job of fetching
the water. We use a couple of plastic milk containers that will not see much duty after we get back.(Remember I said we were not
organised).
August 1st.: Ablutions are anything you can get away with without tumbling down to the valley hundreds of feet below. There are no
flat areas here, period. (You can work out the detail yourselves).
