Snowy Drakensberg - Injisuthi Day 2

Early friday morning I woke up with a slight hangover. A quick shower helped get rid of that & a good cup of coffee. Once everyone got up,we started to sort out what we were going to take with & shared the load equally.

Eventually we were all ready, had our "photo shoot" & our 5 hour hike began. This hike is not difficult but it does prove to be quite hard in the beginning stages as its mainly inclined which tends to take your breath away, as does the scenery. There was not much snow around us,mainly on the higher hills & mountain tops. We did however come across a few patches of snow along our path where we took the opportunity to build our little snowman "SNOWY  THE SNOWMAN"(original I know). Damn our hands got numb, the snow was just too cold.

The few rivers that we crossed were very low which I found quite surprising because one would've thought they would have been flowing due to the snow melting.

En route to the cave, we were LUCKY to spot 5 Eland & 3 Reedbuck. They were quite amusing in the way that they all looked in the same direction at the same time. These animals are so majestic, its mind boggling to think that they date back to the days of the bushman.

Close by on another path, there were 3 other hikers who ended up staying with us on our first night in the cave.

They had been heading towards another part of the berg but unfortunately the snow was too thick so they had to make a detour to our cave. They were very nice folks. With a good sense of humour & good knowledge of the berg, it made conversation very easy.

 

Soon night crept in & dinner was being cooked while we drank "berg coffee".

Our menu was boerewors & smash with tomato & onion gravy, super delicious.

Simple food becomes luxury when you are far away from civilisation.

The Drakensberg & probably every other place similar makes one appreciate such simple things.

As its pitch black, you become very aware of the sounds of the night & one of the ladies thought she heard a Civit or a genet nearby by when she ducked off to the toilet.

 

Now I'm not quite used to sleeping in caves & hearing of this news made me a little bit paranoid so for the first 3 hours I got some solid sleep,but after the whiskey wore off it was touch & go.

My mind was busy keeping me awake so all in all I got about 5 hours sleep...