Since we first began talking about a semester in South
Africa, Mark has been fixated on Tugela Falls, the second highest waterfall in
the world. Few South Africans had heard about it, but we’ve been planning to
get there (near Drakensberg National Park) and had invited many different
people, none of whom were able to join us. Finally, we bought plane tickets and
went!
The mountains were incredible. The weather was lovely, if a
bit breezy at times. We had a lot of fun hiking and it felt good to push ourselves
a bit.
We rented a car, and we decided that I would be the driver
since I’ve had more experience driving on the left side of the road (in
Zambia), and also because when we’re in beautiful places, Mark rubbernecks like
crazy, trying to take it all in at once! We thought we’d locked the keys in
once and started to freak out, but we stopped to pray, and while we were
praying, Mark remembered that he had put them in the tent. I was just about
shouting “Hallelujah!”
We camped at a backpackers’ hostel, so we were able to cook
our own food. It honestly wasn’t a very nice place, but it worked for what we
needed, and we can deal with cold showers (though we were a bit grumpy about it
since we were expecting access to hot water). The first day, we came back and our
tent was gone! The reception office didn’t know anything about it, nor did the
manager on duty. They phoned the maintenance guy at home and located the tent
in the laundry room! We were never told why it was taken down, and it took two
hours to get all of our stuff back. By then, there was a light sprinkle and we
were quite frustrated.
Day 1: We entered the national park, went to the visitors’
center, and hiked down a ravine toward the bottom of the Tugela Falls. It was a
very pretty hike, and we enjoyed exploring the river. There was a cool slot
canyon. We kept hiking up the riverbed because we hadn’t gotten a good view of
the falls yet. Turns out, there isn’t much water in the falls right now, so we
never got to where we could see it, although we could see the canyon where it
should be. On the way back down the river, we took a short cut and jumped in!
Day 2: We went to another part of the Drakensberg that was
recommended to us – Cathedral Peak. It was about an hour away and there’s a
big, fancy lodge there. We hiked to some small waterfalls in the area. Turns
out there was no trail to the second one we were trying to get to, so we
bush-whacked some and had a nice lunch at the lodge’s restaurant afterwards. We
also avoided baboons on this hike.
Day 3: Woke up early for the 2.5-3 hour drive to the parking
lot where we hike to the top of the waterfall, near the Lesotho border. It was
a smooth drive, though we decided not to push our rental car up the very
pot-holed, rocky dirt road. We parked on the side and were gathering our things
to walk the last few kilometres when another vehicle (4x4) was coming up, so we
were able to hitch a ride with them. A German guy had hired the vehicle and was
doing the same hike, so the three of us ascended together. The views were
amazing, and there was a fun part where you take chain ladders up a cliff face.
We saw a ton of lizards on this hike! Alas, the waterfall was quite small from
the top, too. Still, we enjoyed lunch at the top and Mark took a quick dip in a
pool at the top of the waterfall. We
came down a steep ravine and drove back for one last dinner and sleep at the
backpacker’s hostel.
We slept well all three nights after hiking. We made good
memories and had discussion about dealing with disappointment, what the
difference is from resentment… It was a good trip and we had fun. Glad to be
back in our South African home for one week until we leave SA.
