Freezing in the Drakensberg Mountains, South Africa

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Giant's Castle from Highmoor

The Drakensberg are South Africa's mountains, also a Unesco World Heritage Site.  And being the middle of winter here in SA, they'd had some snow. So much so that we encountered many people traveling up from Durban just to see the recent snowfall (which was almost melted). Again, renting a car is the easiest way (and cheaper than getting a tour) to see the beautiful scenery. Highmoor was our first stop and we squeezed in a 3 hour hike across the fells with spectacular views of Giants' Castle (a large mountain monument in the distance). As we walked, it felt like walking in the Lake District. I commented that the hills were like the fells of the lake district and Martin thought it felt like the foothills of the Canadian Rockies outside Calgary, with the peaks rising above.  The walk ended at an interesting cave/overhang where the park actually had set up some tent sites in the cave, next to the waterfall.  Would have been interesting to stay there, but we didn't have the gear!

Sunrise at Highmoor with a frosty tent

It was a chilly night and a frosty morning in the tent, so we had to make some modifications for the following night.  I think we hit -5 degrees celcius on the first night, but woke up to beautiful sunrise over the hills.  It was nice being so far away from anyone, as we were the only people silly enough to camp in these temperatures apparently.  The park ranger was really nice to us though, and offered us some free firewood - I guess he thought we might need it!!  To bad the wood was a little wet, and we struggled to keep a fire going, so it was almost colder to be around the fire than in the tent!
We took a morning walk to get views of Giant's Castle, a large pinnacle of rock at the top of the wall.  Impressive indeed, but so were the cool icicle-like frost in the mud.  It seemed like the ice had grown from underneath the mud and dirt, creating small pinnacles of crystal/ice (hard to explain).

Tiny Michelle in front of the Amphitheatre

Driving through the countryside was very scenic with the mountains beside us.  We headed North towards Royal Natal National Park, which contains a prominent mountainous feature called the Amphitheatre.  A very impressive rock wall that is apparently 8km from end to end.  We made our way through some local villages, enjoying waving to the locals, and following buses of kids waving out the back window.  All the while, with the views of the Amphitheatre getting closer and closer, bigger and bigger!
We really enjoyed Royal Natal.  A great little campsite with towers of rock in different directions.  A short hike after we set up camp, followed by a much warmer night including some very dry firewood, and a hot water geyser that provided us with hot water for soups and noodles!!  Yum.  The fire 'rocked', but we wish we had the makings for smores!!
We hadn't really done much hiking (or exercise for that matter) in a while.  It was good to get the legs stretched out again, and we did some solid hikes in the Drakensberg.  None more impressive than the Gorge walk towards the base of the Amphitheatre!  A 14km hike there and back, which followed a riverbed and eventually up a tight, skinny gorge.  The end of the hike was supposed to be a tunnel, to impressive views above, but we never found the 'tunnel'.  Only a ladder network, with some pretty steep climbs up the walls, which we found much easier going up than coming back down.  No idea where this supposed tunnel is!

Martin overlooking Monks Cowl

On to Monks Cowl, and a later arrival because of the long morning hike let us relax when we arrived.  We had some leftover wood to make another nice fire, and went to bed warm again.  The morning provided another beautiful sunny day, with some more stunning mountain scenery!  We took an aggressive hike up to the Sphinx (a rocky outcrop that looked like, strangely enough, the Sphinx), and then continued up to the low berg.  A plateau before the Big mountains, with flat grasslands, and weirdly a group of baboons!!  What they were doing up there, I have no idea, but they were running around the grasslands.  A lovely walk to the base of towering Monks Cowl (I believe it is the highest peak in South Africa), but a horrible walk back down.  There were so many rock and log steps built (and in places not required), that our legs were REALLY hurting from the extra stresses on our knees.  No real reason for all these LARGE steps, and a pretty poor trail because of this.  Why they couldn't make it a smooth, steep trail I have no idea!!  We were cursing a little at the end, but really enjoyed our time in the Unesco World Heritage Site of the Drakensberg Mountains - Thanks for the recommendations Ken and Thora!!   *Stub