Exploring the 'Berg'

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17/06/10

Arrived back in South Africa with a bump. Smoky windy Joburg at 4.30, sun already going down. 6 degrees Celsius outside. After balmy Zanzibar it was a shock to the system, all the clothes that have been annoyingly weighing the rucksack down for the last 2 months, we are now very grateful for. Due to the nightmare that is the World Cup, we can't stay anywhere near Joburg and we had to fight our way round an unfamiliar city in rush hour traffic. Our hope of making it 75km south of the city before dark soon passed. Instead we got to enjoy an amazing sunset while sitting on the ring road. At this time of year there are grass fires burning everywhere and the sky is dirty and hazy. All land owners are required to burn fire brakes along their boundaries before the dry season makes wild fire risk too great. Sadly air pollution always makes the most dramatic sunsets.

Strangely, we made it, in the dark, in the middle of nowhere, to Stryfontien Game Farm. We phoned ahead and were told there was no reception to check in at, but Jimmy, 'the black man in charge', would be waiting to show us to our room. When we arrived another guy was waiting near the entrance to take us to Jimmy and gestured for us to follow him. He then proceeded to run, in the dark, in front of our car quite a distance through the game farm. With the history of the country, it all seemed very wrong. Jimmy was waiting at the hut with a 'braai' bonfire going. The room was freezing so I sat outside wrapped in a huge blanket next to the fire with a glass of Amarula, while Nick desperately tried to tune the TV for football. With freezing extremities and scaring myself silly at every cracking branch in fear of leopard attack, it was a great way to start the South African part of the trip.

Next day, once we had managed to force ourselves out of bed and into the frost (it was -2 and the coldest day of the year so far), we drove south to Kestell in the northern region of the Drakensberg mountains. We stopped at Karma Backpackers. Karma is a lovely home from home place run by a sparky lady called Vera Ann. She and her 2 cats and dogs welcomed us into her home and allowed us to take over her kitchen and private office to use the TV to watch football. It was a lovely place to stay, and it was nice to cook our own food for a change. Inviting Vera Ann to join us for dinner meant that we had great company and learnt a lot about the area.

The houses out here don't seem to have any central heating or insulation against the cold. They are heated only by fires and the occasional wood stove. In the cold times of year there will be one room in the house that remains above freezing. Northern Drakensberg is one of the coldest places in the country. When we went to bed we had 2 wool blankets, a duvet, sleeping bags, liners, thermals and a hot water bottle. Hardly moved under the weight of it all.

Karma is about 50 km away from the Royal Natal Park and we drove up towards Sentinel Peak. We hiked 2 hours along at the edge of the berg. With the hot sun and cloudless sky it was an amazing sun burning day. The views were as good as any I’ve seen, and it easily equals Nepal for dramatic scenery. South Africa has more than it's far share of plateau topped mountains, rising straight up in formidable and largely impenetrable sheer rock faces. To climb them you either scramble up through damp and slippery gulleys or clamber precariously up tall fixed metal ladders. I wimped out of both and enjoyed the view from below. We were already at 2900 metres.

Near Kestell there was a huge township area. Although the houses were reasonably solid the poverty in the area was really evident. Education is poor, if not non existent. People who are born there stay there, there is very little opportunity for a way out. We stopped at a supermarket near the township, and although it was about 4 degrees C and 4 hours until the South Africa vrs Uruguay match, there were herds of people congregating outside in yellow Bafana- Bafana T-shirts to watch the TV's outside one of the shops. The atmosphere was great, regardless of the cold. Everyone here, football crazy or not, has become resigned to the World Cup obsession. We arrived at another guest house today and the hosts apologised because they had to go out. They gave us the keys to their house and told us that they'd lit the fire and left the TV on the footie channel with beers in the fridge. Hospitality in this country is second to non.