Day 15 - Ballito to Mtunzini (uMlalazi Reserve) (7/10)

Frustratingly, this morning we discovered a lovely national park a few miles on from Ballito, where we could've stayed last night (should've persisted!) 

Ah well, at least we found it for mid-morning coffee, and catching up with the locals.

We're now travelling north along the Indian Ocean coastline, (though below is first thing in Ballito again)

towards wetlands running along the coast all the way to the border with Mozambique (though I doubt we'll get that far before we turn inland) and reefs which will hopefully be good for a spot of snorkelling.

Meanwhile however we've found another national park (uMlalazi Reserve) where, again, the resident wildlife doesn't look easily spooked.

Though I'm not sure we haven't passed a 1980s time warp at the entry gate : 3 young chaps in a nearby tent are playing Bryan Adams and Billy Joel!

Day 14 - Maritzburg to Ballito (6/10)

A very toasty comfy night's sleep in our Maritzburg B&B but nonetheless we didn't feel equal to tackling Durban on a busy Monday morning in our 4x4 tank! Maritzburg looked genteel and pretty

So instead of the motorway into the city, we opted for the slow and scenic route east towards the Indian Ocean, to Ballito, about 40 miles along the coast from Durban, and from which we're going to travel further north for a couple of hundred miles over the next few days.

Things never go smoothly when you're cross-country of course, so we did go a wee bit astray, but unexpected detours like Nagle Dam (perfect for 11sies) turned out very well,

as did the views as we passed through endless sugar cane fields, accompanied every now and again by a whiff of burnt treacle which we assume signifies a processing plant.

Now at Ballito, which has surprisingly limited campsites so we're unfortunately sandwiched between a tent containing a snoring camper and a family with a smoky BBQ.  I fear we've arrived at the Saffer version of Butlins - we'll be out of here first thing!

Day 13 - Sani Pass to Pietermaritzburg (5/10)

A much warmer night, thank goodness, and another beautiful sunny day.

We took it slowly through the countryside, seeing the Drakensberg Mountains from many angles

and stopping for coffee in many a lovely spot.

The only glitch in the day was my over-optimism that we'd see very many campsites so, yet again, as evening approached, things weren't looking good. In short, we've ended up again under a proper roof rather than in our tent in a lovely little B&B in Maritzburg . 

Day 12 - Oxbow, Lesotho to Sani Pass, RSA (4/10)

We had a very very chilly night in our windy spot in Oxbow (now we understand why the shepherds - in fact all Basotho whether they're out on hilltops in all weather or not - wear, or have handily around their waists, a thick toasty blanket and favour beanie hats! Or otherwise that traditional conical hat which appears on the flag, number plates and label for the local beer, Maluti)

So it was an early start out of Oxbow.  Between Oxbow to Sani Top (at 12 o’clock and 3 on the Lesotho ring-road clock respectively), runs the A1, a beautiful highland route called the Roof of Africa.

Improbably, it features a ski-run and chalet

The road is presently being dug up and widened (and, in parts, blown up)

which delayed us a little!  Though road-building seems to be a theme of our trip so far...

At the tiny settlement of Sani Top is the teeny little Lesotho border post, from which starts a steep zig-zagging pass called the Sani Pass*, descending the face of the Drakensberg escarpment from an altitude of 2874m.  

* confusingly also the name of the town in South Africa where the pass ends and where we made camp for the night

From about 1913, the Sani Pass was a bridal path trade route, with all goods carried by pack-mule (though drivers took spare beasts to replace any slow-coaches, shifting loads to the reserves and pushing any tired beasts over the edge; in those early days, the pass was apparently identifiable from afar because of the vultures and lammergeyers which circled above, waiting for their next meal…)  The Sani Pass proper was “opened” in 1948 by an ex-Spitfire pilot, Godfrey Edmonds. On 26 October 1948, with a team of labourers armed with ropes and assorted blocks and tackle, they manhandled a war-surplus Jeep up the path in six hours.  Then, in 1955, David Alexander and friends began constructing a trade route between Himeville in KwaZulu-Natal and Mokhotlong in Lesotho and, five years later, the Mokhotlong Mountain Transport Co began running eight-ton 4×4 freight trucks up and down the pass!  Luckily for us, in 1994, heavy traffic stopped using the pass and left it to the likes of us.  These days, the Pass is hyped up by the Saffer tourist board as an adrenalin-rush route and it certainly is beautiful and pretty winding and steep

but you'd have to be driving badly to come too much of a cropper!

Day 11 - Leribe to Oxbow, Lesotho (3/10)

After a good cooked breakfast, we set off under a shiny blue sky from Leribe, on the first half of our trip to the (self-proclaimed) Highest Pub in Africa at Sani Top, gateway to the 4WD (apparently somewhat white-knuckle) Sani Pass and then on to the Drakensberg Mountains after the border back into South Africa.  Today it's Leribe to Oxbow and tomorrow it will be the "Roof of Africa" route back into South Africa via the Sani Pass.

Beautiful rocky mountain scenery

with wide valleys and planes, thatched rondavels, and shepherds or cow-herders (often sporting a brightly woven blanket against the cold - one even with the classic Basotho hat). 

Then up super-windy roads looking out from steep mountains.  We're feeling the altitude a little - like being in a ski resort, the sun burns that bit faster and my lips are chapped.  

On arrival at Oxbow, we finally got to grips with our new home

and the age-old task : Man Makes Fire for a late lunch-cum-supper

before which, some local delicacies...

... no, they're not radioactive - just some sort of spicy Wotsits!

Day 10 - Golden Gate Park and into Lesotho (2/10)

We'd planned to travel down from Lindley (or thereabouts) into Lesotho via the capital, Maseru, but our hosts at last night's B&B sang the praises so loudly of Golden Gate Highlands Nature Park that we felt that we had to!  And lovely it was too

From there then, we entered Lesotho via the most northerly border at Caledon's Poor and saw straightaway some Basotho countryside

A quick introduction to Lesotho ("the Kingdom in the Sky" because of its lofty altitude; apparently, it has the highest "lowest point" of any country in the world [1400m] and is the only country to be entirely above 1000m; I'd have expected Nepal or maybe Bhutan to contest this title but allegedly not...). 

Anyway, that potted early history : originally, the Sotho-Tswana people lived in what is now Free State in South Africa.  They were a peaceful farming people, minding their own business, so, when the Zulus started attacking villages and the Voortrekkers encroached on their land, they fled up into the Lesotho mountains. Under Zulu attack, local tribes banded together for protection and, by 1824, the marvelously named Moeshoeshoe had established himself as king and founded a mountain fortress at Thaba Bosiu.  In fear of the Boers' rapidly increasing presence in the area, Moeshoeshoe sought protection from the British government and, in 1868, Basotholand (as it was then called) became a protectorate of the British Empire; it was granted independence on 4 October 1966 (maybe we'll be here for Independence Day).

Day 9 - Stage 2 : into South Africa (1/10)

And so yesterday evening to Johannesburg. Eventually. 

Just as we expected to be boarding, cue colossal cracks of lightning and crashes of thunder right above us. And sheets of torrential rain.  Luckily, the pilot agreed with us that this didn't look an optimal time to thrust a tube of fuel-laden metal into the clouds... 

But landed all safe and sound and the delay didn't matter much as we'd already planned to overnight at an airport hotel, and were collected this morning by the hire company. Below: picking up our home for the next fortnight.

After the usual pick-up-a-new-rental-car run-through, we stocked up and headed happily (give or take a few unscheduled detours getting out of Joburg and south towards Lesotho, and then to Durban on the coast -that's the plan anyway).

In fact, despite best intentions, we didn't make it to a campsite in time comfortably to sort ourselves out and have our first tented night, so we're in a homely B&B in a village (even Mr B&B said it's "more what you'd call farm than actual town") called Lindley. 

With a rottweiler (who likes having her ears scratched)