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...

 



Snowed Drakensberg - Injisuthi

Two weeks ago just before the long weekend, South africa encountered alot of snow for a week.
Here in Durban, it came down in buckets.
First it HAILED like crazy,the size of golf balls in some suburbs while others looked like snow had fallen.

For us it was a planned trip (of which many bailed) to the Injisuthi valley where we (3 of us boys) were to hike to the lower injisuthi cave for 2 nights while the others enjoyed base camp.
This opportunity to hike when the Drakensberg was snowing is quite a worry & we took all that was warm.

Thursday morning after getting some more food supplies we left & were hoping we would miss all the traffic & the possibility that the N3 would be reopened,but that was not to happen.
The traffic was quite full as everyone headed to the Midlands to play in the snow & we were very fortunate that once we got stuck in the road block near Escourt,it was only an hour before the wheels started rolling again. Unfortunate to the truck drivers who were stuck for days due to icy roads.They were really angry which caused a huge delay as they were tossing rocks at other cars that were moving.

Once on the road,we noticed that Where we were headed, there was no snow around.
That was lucky as setting up base camp became an easy task.
As that was sorted,the fire got started & the drinks came out & an awesome evening was had by all.

Night fell quick & so did the cold.