After spending a few hours in Durban we drove up into the Drakensberg mountains. There we stayed at another Drifters Inn and went hiking in some truly wonderful scenery. Our next destination was Malealea, a small village in the country of Lesotho. The winter was probably not the best time to visit Lesotho as the scenery was very dry and brown with little vegetation. During our stay we went horseback riding, which was not exactly a comfortable experience.

Day 10 - July 6

We were woken up at 0600, ate a light breakfast, packed our stuff into the car and left at 0700. Except for a short break we drove for almost four hours before arriving in Durban.

The highway was in very good condition and cars were generally doing around 140 km/h. Still, there would now and then be this phenomenon of people walking in the side of the road. Sometimes we had been driving for a long time without seeing any towns, houses or other kinds of civilization, yet still these pedestrians seemed to appear out of nowhere at regular intervals! We kept asking ourselves where these people were coming from and where they were going!

On approaching Durban, we left the highway and drove the last distance along the coast of the Indian Ocean. This was a a beautiful area with some really luxurious houses. In addition, lots of palm trees started appearing, making the atmosphere very tropic indeed. I've never really associated palm trees with Africa, so this was a nice surprise.

Durban is South Africa's third largest city, famous for nice beaches and a very large Indian community. We parked near the beach (Golden mile) and were given two hours to explore the area on our own. However, Kurt warned us against venturing far away from the beach, as this area was allegedly very unsafe.

Having missed out on Johannesburg, this was our first time in a big African city, so we were determined not to take any chances. May Tina, Lisa and myself first went to a restaurant called "The Windmill" to eat lunch. Meals turned out to be very cheap. I paid about 30R for a large portion of Chicken Curry, so eating out in South Africa is very good value for money, especially when you're used to Norwegian prices. Even cheaper were the drinks which worked out at about 10% of the typical Norwegian price.

After eating we strolled along the beach for a while. It was very crowded considering this was the low season (winter). Apparently, the crime rate in Durban has scared away many tourists, but if this was a typical day, the tourism industry must still be in pretty good condition. The beach area reminded me a little bit of Miami Beach. The colours were similar, but the buildings were much taller here in Durban. It felt quite safe to walk around here.

Finally, we briefly looked into a shopping mall before meeting the others at the car. Nobody had been mugged during our stay in Durban. However, while driving out of Durban, Kurt said he would show us a really bad area, and proceeded to point out the very crowded bus station. Since we were going to catch a bus from there in two weeks, we were not overjoyed from learning that it was located in one of the worst areas in Durban!

On leaving Durban, the road immediately started going uphill. We seemed to be driving upwards forever, and only after a long while the road was getting less steep. We were now high up in the Drakensberg mountains. The scenery around had in the mean time turned completely yellow and there was very little vegetation around, only large open fields with mountain ranges in the distance.

Most of the houses along the road were rather depressing sights, but at a place called Mooi Plaza we came across something interesting. There were quite a few new houses around here, and although they were not particularly big, they at least looked quite nice and colourful. The houses were all in various bright colours. It was almost like coming back to the Art Deco district of Miami beach, except of course that there was no beach, almost no vegetation and the houses were not quite as luxurios (to say the least)! Kurt explained that these houses were recently built for the poor.

Around 1600 we arrived at the Drifters Drakensberg Inn, which turned out to be very nice. Compared to the places we'd stayed so far, this place was real luxury. It was basically a hotel run by Drifters, where the staff cleaned our rooms and cooked dinner for us. Accomodation was in double rooms with private baths and we even had electric heating in the room! The electric heating would turn out especially useful because as soon as we stepped out of the car, we noticed that the temperature was significantly lower up here in the mountains.

We basically relaxed the rest of the day, and today we could really relax because food and everything was being taken care of for us. I even got the chance to play some football (soccer), which was good fun.

We also phoned Borgny in Swaziland to confirm our arrival in two weeks. Actually, we had tried phoning her several times before, without ever getting anything but the busy signal. Surely she couldn't be speaking that much on the phone!? It was good to finally get through because we were starting to worry that her phone might be out of order, which would make it very difficult for us to inform her of our exact arrival plans. (Later we learned that the constant busy signal was due to her sharing one telephone line with the local school, and at the school they were using the phone all the time.)

For the first time, our group didn't have to make our own dinner because we were being cooked for by the Drifters Inn staff. What a great place to stay! Dinner was some kind of meat stew with soup. After dinner we went to bed quite early.

Day 11 - July 7

We got up at 0700 after having slept very well. Today we were going to hike the Drakensberg,so a bigger breakfast than usual was required to give us the necessary energy. We therefore had a typical English breakfast with toast, egg and bacon.

During breakfast we learned that Stijn had been injured in the bar last night, and would have to see a doctor instead of going up the Drakensberg with the rest of us. While sitting quietly in the bar, apparently he had been attacked by a vicious impala, almost ripping his arm to shreds. In Africa you're not safe anywhere, it seems.....

Leaving at 0830, there was a drive of about 25 minutes to the Natal Nature Reserve, where the start of our hiking trail was. The top of the mountain range was visible far away when we started walking upwards a small path. From a distance the Drakensberg don't look all that spectacular, as everything seems "bare" and there appears to be very little vegetation around. However, while walking upwards we quickly found out that this was a false impression. The scenery just got more and more beautiful as we discovered that there were lots of trees and plants around. It was all quite varied, as some of the trail was surrounded only by yellow grass, while other places there were high trees which almost completely kept the sunlight out.

Small worms were hanging from small threads many places along the trail, and these often had to be removed before we could proceed. I guess we walked about 8 km upwards before reaching a nearly dried out river where we sat down and ate some sandwiches we had brought along for lunch. The scenery around was really magnificent, although we were still far away from the top of the mountain. Going all the way to the top would probably have taken us several days.

After relaxing for about an hour we started descending on the same path we had come up. May Tina and me ended up far behind the rest of the group as we couldn't resist stopping all the time to take photos and make video recordings. The scenery was so wonderful everywhere that it was such a pleasure to walk around. It was very different from the Norwegian scenery.

Around 1445 we arrived back at the Drifters Inn. As usual, the evening was spent relaxing in various ways, and this time we really deserved it, having walked at least 15 km. While we were away our clothes had been washed. It was very convenient to get our laundry done in the middle of the tour, as we then didn't need to bring as much clothes in the first place.

For dinner we had chicken and mashed potatoes, all of which was very good. It got even better for dessert which consisted of some sort of cake with hot vanilla sauce. Just wonderful!

During dinner I was concentrating on solving a puzzle given to us by the bartender. It was of the type where a sequence of numbers is given and one has to find the pattern to complete the sequence. Solving it would have meant free drinks for everybody, but unfortunately I couldn't do it (and neither could anyone else). Afterwards, it was really annoying to see how simple the solution turned out to be!

After dinner, May Tina, Lone, Sandra and myself played cards for a while, before we went to bed around 2200.

Day 12 - July 8

After sleeping very well, we woke up at 0630. Again we had a rather solid breakfast (toast and yoghurt) before packing our stuff into the car and leaving at 0730. It was sad to leave the wonderful Drakensberg Inn, but adventure called!

We first drove to a small town called Ficksburg to do some buy some food, snacks and drinks. Although we didn't get around much in the town, it looked really nice, almost like a small American town in the Midwest.

Being a bit short on cash at the moment, we tried to pay for our purchases with May Tina's Visa card. This, however, took ages, as we were first presented with a receipt without a specified amount to sign for. There was no way in the world May Tina was going to sign an unspecified bill in this country, so after refusing, and waiting for a long time, we were finally given a proper receipt.

We then drove for a while before arriving at the Lesotho border at Maseru. Unlike the Swaziland borders, which had been really quiet and peaceful, the Lesotho border was bustling with activity. At this time, I really needed to go to the bathroom, and headed towards the public toilet. I was stopped by Kurt, who told me that the toilet was really dirty and that I would get every virus and disease possible if I went in there.

However, I ignored his warning since I really needed to go. Coming inside, I soon realised that Kurt had been right! In normal urinals there is always water running, but not so here! As a consequence, the stench of urine was almost unbelievable, even when holding my hands to my nose it was really strong! I did what I had to do and got out of there as quickly as humanly possible.

The Lesotho Mountain Kingdom is a small country (about the size of Belgium) which is completely surrounded by South Africa. The population of Lesotho is approximately two million. Looking at the map, one cannot help but wonder why it is an independent country instead of simply being a part of South Africa.

The reasons for this are historical , and basically it is due to the fact that Lesotho (or Basutholand) was a British Protectorate at the time when the Union of South Africa was created, and therefore was not included in the Union. In 1966 Lesotho obtained independence from Britain.

On entering Lesotho we drove straight through the capital Maseru. My initial impression was that things didn't look so bad, but this impression soon faded. It was not long before the tarred road ended and we continued on a dirt road. The scenery around was very dry and dusty with hardly any vegetation at all.

We passed through some small towns and the standard of living seemed to be very low, with hardly any decent houses at all. On crossing a small bridge, we could see people below washing their clothes in the river. All in all, Lesotho looked like a really depressing place to live, although the people we passed by mostly looked quite happy.

We kept wondering how people could make a living in Lesotho. Nothing much seemed to grow in this dessert-like place, and there definitely wasn't much industry where people could work. Kurt told us that quite a few people here supported their family by working in the mines in South Africa.

After some driving we came to the "Gates of Paradise", where we had a magnificent view of an entire valley. However, to us it looked more like hell than paradise because as everywhere else it was so dry and dusty. A bunch of kids gathered round our car begging for money, sweets and whatever they could get their hands on. Someone gave them some sweets and they almost started fighting over it. We were glad to get away. It is always sad to see children this desperate without being able to help.

Around 1300 we arrived at our destination Malealea. This is a very small village, basically in the middle of nowhere. However, in the middle of the village there was a closed-off area where tourists could live in quite nice huts, and this was where we were staying. The area was surrounded by small shacks where the local people lived. Our hut was nice and colourful, but the bathrooms were a bit dirty though, with cold water, no light and located quite far away.

Our group had a whole kitchen to ourselves, so we immediately made some of the usual sandwiches for lunch. Around 1430 we were to go on a pony trek. Horses seemed to be a very common means of transportation in Lesotho. We had seen several people riding on our way to Malealea.

Both of us had been quite looking forward to the horseriding, and were quite excited when we were assigned a horse each. However, the excitement soon faded and we had only been riding for a few minutes before we started regretting the whole thing. It was just incredibly boring and very uncomfortable! I wonder how the cowboys can ride all day!

There was plenty of time to look around at the scenery because the horse was going at an incredibly slow pace, and we were unable to find any way of speeding it up. The scenery around us was typical Lesotho, very brown, dusty and little vegetation except for some yellow grass.

Since neither me nor May Tina had any first hand experience with horseriding before, we both had some guy walking with us in the beginning. However, as there appeared to be no danger, we eventually took complete control of our respective horses. Although this was slightly less boring, there really wasn't that much difference as the horses just kept going at their own rather relaxed pace most of the time (which was probably a good thing since the one time my horse started "half-running", I was bumping up and down and hurting my bottom like never before.)

We finally returned to the village around 1630, both vowing never to go horseriding again! Well, at least we contributed 70R each to the local economy (at least I hope most of the money went to the local people -- judging by the standard of their houses they needed it.) The rest of the group seemed more pleased with the pony trek than the two of us, though!

Back at the village, lucky Lone, who had decided to skip the horseriding, told us what a great afternoon she'd been having. She had met a guy from the village who had shown her around everywhere, including his home and the local school.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing inside the camp area. There was some entertainment from a local children's choir who sang for us while we were sitting around the fire. I don't really like this type of music, but nonetheless they were very talented at singing. Even better was a group of children who had made their own instruments out of various junk. I was really impressed because they actually sounded quite good, and in retrospect I sort of regret not recording more of their performance on video. Compared to the horrible music Kurt had been playing in the car, this was a revelation!

A note on music in the car: There was not very much variety as the only available tapes were "Hits of the 90's", which I soon had enough of, some African music (Wes), which was quite OK, but worst was a tape with country music which included Kurt's favourite ballad "Jessie" . He played this song at every opportunity, and it sounded worse and worse each time we heard it! I think everyone agreed that this song really sucked bigtime!

Eating dinner at 2000, we had another excellent braai. Once again there were lots of meat, salad and baked potatoes. We certainly never starved on this trip! Since all electricity in the area was turned off at 2130, after dinner we just got ready for the night.

It was quite cold outside and we were expecting a cold morning, so we put all our clothes were inside the sleeping bags. I lay in bed reading until the lights went out. Actually, it was quite convenient not having to get out of bed and walk across the cold room to turn the lights off! It was not equally convenient to wake up in the middle of the night needing to go to the bathroom, though. Fortunately, during this trip we had become quite some experts at going to the (cold!) bathroom in the middle of the night, only with a small maglite for assistance.