Drakensberg Meander. Day 6- Friday, 8th February 2025

 

Happy Birthday Terrance. 31 years old, We left Beaufort West around 7am and continued to Matjiesfontein where we had a lovely breakfast. We got into Cape Town in terrible traffic and Michael took Andrew to go and fetch Darren that was landing from Palma to surprise Terrance for his birthday. We were supposed to meet Carolyn and Terrance at the Sky Bar to go and do the rollercoaster but it was cancelled for wind. Terrance was very surprised to see us all happily so and we all went to Van Hunks for dinner. We had a great dinner and a lovely evening.

Amy, Holly and I went home and Michael, Andrew, Terrance, Carolyn went to the shack. We were woken up at 4:30 as someone had smashed Michaels back, side window and stolen his boots and jerseys.

 Today, the 9th of February, we went to Coimbra bakery for brunch and joined by Bertha who we had not seen since Christmas had a great time eating pasteis de nata and catching up.

We are now enjoying a relaxing afternoon at Andrews and Amy's house watching rugby. Tomorrow we return to St Francis Bay only to return to Cape Town on Friday for Deen and Jacqui's wedding.

 

Drakensberg Meander. Day 5- Friday, 7th February 2025

 

We left the Alpine heath resort at 5:30 am and travelled to Beaufort West, the roads were excellent. We stopped in Winburg for a lovely breakfast at a garage. Continued until we got to the Villa Contessa Hotel in Beaufort West, a Karoo experience with a difference.  The building was built in 1896 which makes it one of the oldest Vintage houses in Beaufort west, situated on a corner plot next to a river.

The new owner Edith amazingly succeeded in creating a different feeling to this well designed 4 star Boutique Guest House. Edith was great and we stayed in the Frank Sinatra room, not too much about Frank Sinatra in the room but with a stretch of the imagination maybe :))

I did find a dress and shawl for the wedding and a beautiful Lazy Susan with an inset of mother of pearl and champagne glasses. We went for dinner at the 4 sheep where Michael had above average karoo lamb shops while my salad was awful, floating in dressing plus mayonnaise. We watched the need to grow documentary, very interesting specially the power plant. 

Drakensberg Meander. Day 4- Thursday, 6th February 2025

 

We did gym and then got ready to go on a hike, rained most of the night and day so holding thumbs that it will not rain at the Royal Natal National Park. We drove 12 Km through some dreadful potholes. The roads, scenery and houses reminded Michael of his last visit to the Transkei.

Arriving at the RNNP we were met with a dismal visitor’s centre, Africa at its best/ worse? The place is run down, shelves are empty and everyone doing us a favour. The lady that answered our questions tried her best but was not trained so unless I have become deaf, she swallowed her words. Michael unimpressed, left the building, and as usual I became responsible for the directions and trail information.

Cascades

Another waterfall on the way to the tiger falls

The trail is beautiful and very well marked. We made it to the cascades in relatively quick time and then continued to the tiger falls which was a lot further and straight up hill but what awesome scenery. We saw waterfalls in the Maloti River, the rock formations and buck and so many protea bushes, only just flowering so would be so much more beautiful later in the year.

Tiger Falls

We returned via the same path and if my watch had worked the whole way, it would have said around 9km – did I say straight up wow it was a lot quicker coming back.

As there are no restaurants in the park and at this stage having had no food prior to the hike we were hungry/ angry and found Jokers on Google which is in a Resort close to our hotel. Michael had a steak roll, and I had a Greek salad and some spring rolls.

Yay it also did not rain!! We leaving tomorrow for Cape Town and staying in Beauford West at Contessa Hotel and then doing the second part of the journey on Saturday.

Drakensberg Meander. Day 3- Wednesday, 5rd February 2025

 

On the way to last nights fantastic supper, just before it rained again. Supper was great, a buffet of all sorts of options. Both Michael and I found options that we both enjoyed. 

So far it has rained all 3 days in the Johannesburg style thunderstorm, lots of thunder and lightning sometimes torrential rain, sometimes squalls where the rain comes and goes.

Today after gym we had a lovely omelet for breakfast and then we did the yellowwood hike, I did not take my phone as the description was 'a challenging hike'. I am glad that I did not. Like mountain goats we climbed up sides of waterfalls through bush where the resort does not get to clear, everywhere else was beautiful and easy but several parts were scary!!

Entrance into the resort with all of its entertainment options around the square. A gym, an entertainment area, 5 restaurants of which one is Muzos, bellow are pictures of the instruments found on display.

We went back and did part of the hike again to take some pictures of the beautiful hike and waterfall.

Drakensberg Meander. Day 2- Tuesday, 4rd February 2025

 

Walking to gym, the scenery still catches your breath, looking around, I don't think it compares to anything else we have seen in so many other countries, it has its own unique beauty, a photograph does not do it justice.

Someone else trying to enter the gym, the gym is tiny with loads of equipment. With 2 people in it, we battled to avoid each other. 

These are the trails, today we did the Oribi trail and deviated from the trail somehow so we carried on and did the Cascades trail, so worth it. Beautiful waterfall, as the river is quite high, we had to wade across in our bare feet.

Drakensberg Meander. Day 1- Monday, 3rd February 2025

 

This was our first view of the Drakensberg Mountains as we crossed into the Golden Gate Highlands National park after 10 hours of driving (by Michael).

 We had stopped at Aliwal North and had a lovely breakfast, Michael had eggs benedict and I had an omelet, we continued to Clarens where Michael put in diesel. Clarens is beautiful and we both want to go back and stay in Clarens or in the Golden Gate Highlands National park and travel into Clarens to look at the quaint shops and try the different restaurants.

The Majestic Golden Gate Highlands National Park

12 hours after leaving St Francis Bay we reached aha Alpine Heath Resort, 'aha' is spelled with the 'h' backwards, seems to be a hotel group that owns/ manages multiple hotels.

Its a beautiful resort nestled in an amphitheatre of mountains.

The resort has every thing, 5 restaurants/ bars. Muzo's is a bar that deserves its own blog post, I have never seen so many musical equipment, knowing nothing about music, I had Michael explain the guitars, types of drums, other string instruments, and wind instruments.

The food at the coffee shop we chose to eat at was not great, we think it is because of the 100 guests they have at the resort for a UNICEF conference.

We went back to out cottage, (so much bigger than a chalet) in the pouring rain, amidst a storm that we have only ever seen in the Highveld and it did not cool the place. Exhausted, we went to bed and because of the heat, we found it difficult to sleep comfortably.