Highmoor - Day 3

Day 3 - With a very cold restless night in our leaking tent, the morning took forever to arrive. The clouds still remained very thick amongst us campers so it took us sometime to come around & begin our day. After a very lovely warm shower & all cosy in layers of warm clothing, we set off for a small walk around the campsite collecting Agats.

Once boredom crept it, we got all kitted out & went for a hike to caracal cave, which started off cold along a very unclear path. This was our first hike to this cave & it delivered very good results.

The clouds started moving off as the day moved on & plenty of buck were on display for us!! I have never seen so many buck in the Berg as we did today. I counted over 25 at one spot & 20 or so in other areas who never seemed bother about our presence. Found a Berg Adder along the way & a burnt baby buck skull. A little mouse was spotted & luckily got a pic of it. Also plenty of birdlife was around but the Bald Ibis was a really good treat to see, The hike to Aasvoelkrans cave, one might be lucky to see the Secretary Bird near the river crossing where its nest sits ontop of the tree at the bottom by the river.

After a long hike, we get to the last section & boy it was a steep walk down & a really kak walk back up. Nevertheless we got to the cave & the waterfall was not as expected but it cooled us down & enjoyed mother nature.

After much pooping around the cave, I had a little secret hidden in my bag which I snuggled out while my lady was distracted, got semi down on my knee on a rock & gave her some lovely sweet talk, as she turned around, the stunned look of surprise, shock, happiness & beauty appeared right in front of my eyes.

 I  POPPED THE QUESTION TO MY AWESOME LOVE OF MY LIFE & SHE SAID YES.

We celebrated once back at our camp, popping champagne & enjoying the beautiful starry night sky that graced us. It was all just so like "perfect" but the signal was not, so trying to get hold of family & friends was mostly a miss.

 All in all, after a bad start to our trip, we defeated all obsticles, even each other at some times & no matter what happened, at the end of the day we had each other.

Highmoor - Day 2

With Ann & Tom leaving really early for Kruger Park, we sat waiting patiently pondering when we would start this next stage of our journey & how long to reach our destination. Soon Arthur arrives & we set out to beat time & get our base camp set up.

The weather is definately not on our side this weekend & on arrival, we get busy but alas the damn rain & here we were setting up camp in the pouring rain. Once we finished setting up, it all cleared up!!!!!!!!!! I wonder if this is karma getting me back, I don't know.
Even the tent we used (very old one) was leaking & proved to be quite useless throughout the weekend.

Once we were comfortable & out of my irritable state, the fire got started & chillaxing began.
As night crept in, so did the clouds & the cold. You could see them rising between the valley straight for us & eventually we were in a cloud. You could not see further than 10m , its like fog I guess. It was quite something being here & as usual there is always something that happens to us.

For some reason amongst the 4 layers of socks, my feet just would not keep warm & eventually they went numb resulting in uncomfortable sleep...

HighMoor - Day 1

Around about 11am on friday our journey began to the highest campsite in Kzn,we were so eager & really happy that we were finally on our way. We decided That we would stop at spar in Notties for some supplies because we just wanted to get on the road & avoid all the delays which became inevitable as the roads were filled with idiotic speeding drivers (who nearly caused me 2 accidents) all rushing as this was the long weekend for many to get away from city life.

We approached the Cedara off ramp where cars & trucks are starting to jam up & everyone trying to get on the R103 to avoid all of this! We did the same & not even 500m on this road, my car decided it was time for a break, so we broke down with a huge 18 wheeler truck & many many cars behind us!!! We were fortunate that I managed to get off the road which started my "mechanic skills". You would think that people would stop & try see if we needed any assistance but alas we only had 1 taker! I'm not really that shocked about this though, with all the trouble that could happen & does happen. Without any supplies from spar & little food we had, we just sat waiting until we got help .

We were very lucky that our awesome friends parents had not left for Kruger Park yet & after being stuck for 2.5 hrs, eventually got a helping hand & got to their place in Howick where we ended up staying the night while my car was left at their mechanics house, Arthur the 84yr old mechanic.

The weather for this long weekend had been really against us weeks before this journey had began,with miserable rain predictions & we were hoping that the weather would hold up for us. As my fiance always says "maybe it was a blessing & that this was not meant to be". Well maybe this was the case & we ended up 1 more night in comfort but 1 day lost of a holiday.

Drakensberg - Injisuthi day 3 & 4

Day 3 - had me all puffy eyed from the lack of sleep. All I wanted to do was relax in my sleeping bag & try remain comfy which was a mission with all the straw around. If you ever plan to do an overnight stay anywhere, I suggest you take a ground sheet with you. Not only will this stop the straw from irritating you, it will also help provide as an insulator away from the cold ground floor.

Eventually everyone was awake & coffee was being enjoyed by all, the other happy hikers were preparing for their next stage of hiking to MARBLE BATHS. Before we knew it, they were all packed & ready to go. We all said our goodbye's & nice to meet ya's & poof they were gone. They were a very nice bunch of people who are very passionate about hiking.

After breakfast, we headed down to our "kitchen" which was also our "swimming pool" to wash the dishes & got ourselves all cleaned up & then the adventure began...
We went to this overhang near the pool which has some rock paintings on it. Its very hard to see but if you just give it some time & patience you'll soon see it. The rocks are very old & crumbly so I was very careful. We also discovered an old rusted tin which we left hidden as we thought it was left by someone who used it for cooking.

Further up the river, bouncing from rock to rock, just seeing where the river would take us & what else we would find, we stumbled upon a bone quite deep in a pool of water. We managed to get this bone out & it was quite a big bone which had a few cracks on it & yes, it stank. We ended up tossing it back in & continued further up. With the sun shining so gracefully, it just gave us the perfect photo for this incredible view but alas NO CAMERA!!!!!!!
On the way back down, we searched for agates which I collected for my lady who was waiting back at base camp. Although the water was super cold, it never stopped us from jumping in & feeling the cold to the bone literally & very awakening.

As we tried to make dinner we had an ufortunate problem,the Mathias's primus burner decided to pack up which did them proud as it was their grandfathers. We also had another type of pot cooker thingy (we didn't know how to use it) so it got us creative, trying to regulate gas flow which quite didn't work.The wind just made matters worse but we eventually got dinner cooked.
The wind created a kak updraft in the cave & gees we were getting dusted. The wind ended up swirling & it ended up coming from both sides of the cave!
Eventually after full bellies & desert in our hands, we crawled into our sleeping bags to keep warm & just chilled, chatting about future hikes & I hope in the distant future of doing the "GRAND TRAVERSE".

Day 4 - I managed to get some sleep, much better than the previous night but my bags under my eyes showed all that.I had a cold nights sleep & when I got up to go to the toilet, everything just fell into place & explained everything.It was unbelievably snowing, the very first time I have seen snow fall even though I have played in it.I woke everyone up, got the coffee going & then the packing started. We didn't want to get trapped here in the snow so our journey back began. With some strong winds & lots of snowfall we managed to get a few photos & we got to our base camp rather quickly which always seems to be the case.


At base camp, everyone welcomed us back & they were already packing. A very nice hot shower was in my agenda & some left over breakfast. Once we were all packed, we were on the road back to Durbs. But just before we left, I had to take one last photo of this beautiful place & created an awesome panoramic landscape picture.

I hope that I will be hiking here again someday as I have luckily done this hike before in February of which I'll post up soon.