The Drakensberg 

We enjoyed our night at Silverstreams so we were in two minds whether to move on or stay another night but in the end we decided to head off. Whilst packing up camp we received a visit from a hooligan goat who persisted in trying to get into the car or if not push his head into your groin as hard as he could!

Now usually I'm not adverse to a head in the groin but this one had sharp horns which turned sharply from side to side! As we were trying to fend him off the camp owner drove by to ask if we had enjoyed our stay, seeing the goat she said oh just shoo him off, he's a very naughty goat! Easier said than done I muttered, what's his name? Oh we just call him 'D2' she replied after the name of the road we found him wandering on and he just sort of adopted us, pity he wasn't adopted by the local butcher was my only thought.

The scenery as we headed further into the Drakensberg became even more spectacular, small mountains started to give way to full blown peaks, the place was certainly starting to live up to expectations.

We had decided to stay at a place called Lotheni partly because it was a do-able distance and partly because on the map it looked quite remote. We hadn't booked but were hoping as it was so out of the way that there would be space available.

The drive is an interesting one as Lotheni is situated at the end of a dead end valley so once you leave the main roads the scenery becomes even more spectacular and you drive through villages which seemed totally cut off from the world. 

We arrived at about 4pm and as suspected they had space, in fact they had plenty of space as we were again the only ones camping. Lotheni also has chalets which are situated in the main rest camp, but the campsite is 10k further up the valley as far as the road can go so you are completely isolated from everyone else, lovely. Out of the 20 campsites we picked one called Eland which has a lovely big acacia tree with masked weaver birds nesting plus it was the furthest into the valley and had unrestricted views of the mountains.

The scenery really was absolutely stunning and as we were completely alone with no one for at least 10km it seemed even more lovely. We were booked in for one night so we would be using the roof tent which would afford us full advantage of the view. That night the stars seemed to fill the sky and the moon came up over the mountains with baboon barking in the distance, for the first time we started to feel that we were at last bush camping.

We awoke in the morning to a lovely sunrise and complete isolation, it was very hot without a cloud in the sky so we decided there and then to go to the rest camp and extend our stay for another night. However, no sooner had we paid our money and started back from the rest camp than the sky started to cloud over with thunder in the distance. We raced back to camp as Sue has left some washing out, as we approach we see a troop of baboon running away - luckily we hadn't left anything out which they could nick but it meant we had to be more vigilant.

The rest of the day the cloud got worse and started rolling up the valley till the views we had in the morning were totally obscured by the mist - this wasn't looking good!

By 5am the next morning it was raining heavily, this definitely wasn't good as  the one thing I hate doing is packing up in the rain plus it is not good to pack the tents away wet. We got up at 6.30am when the rain eased off a bit and just managed to get the roof tent down and packed before it started again.

We leave Lotheni at 9.55, the road through the valley and beyond is either dirt or gravel for about 40k plus it was flooded in places so it was slow progress. By 11.40 we had not seen another car going our way but at least we had hit tar, we were on the Nottingham Road going North.  By midday we have reached a town called Mooi River and civilisation they have a Wimpy where we have lunch!

 The plan was to stop in the northern area of the Drakensberg where you have evocative mountains such as Cathedral Peak and the Champagne Castle but the continuing bad weather was making us think again. We continue on and at Hokozisa found a tourist office which amazingly had an internet cafe attached.

Checking with the tourist officer we found the weather was bad throughout the Drakensberg and you could normally see Cathedral Peak from here but today nothing - they advised us not to bother going on. It was very disappointing to have to quite the Drakensberg without seeing the best bits but we now needed to go to plan B and turn East again - we would head for Kwa Zulu and the battlefields!

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