Great South African Road Trip: Drakensberg

From Bloemfontein, it was off to Cathedral Peak for a couple relaxing days of hiking in the Drakensberg mountains.

From Drakensberg

The hotel was way out at the end of the road at the base of the mountains, really nice setting.

From Drakensberg

The hotel also included all you can eat buffets for all the meals. To my surprise, all the food was excellent. The one strange thing, though, was that they were a bit funny about hiking. They encourage hiking, but won't give you a trail map, and will give vaguely written directions only for some of the easier trails. I think they want people to take guides with them when they hike. But, when I hike, part of the reason is to get out and be alone. The first day I did a hike up to a rock overlooking the valley. It was a great view, but was very steep in places and did require a bit of rock scrambling to get up. That also meant it required a bit of rock scrambling to get down. I really dislike rock scambles down. It was a good hike, but I will say that the trail was not marked that well and vauguely written directions were a bit too vaguely written. The second day, I did a hike with a guide. It turned out I was the only one going on the hike that day, and so we did a different hike than originally scheduled (actually, the hike they refused to give me directions for the first day). The hike was pretty decent, but the weather was too cloudy to get good views. Got back early, had a snack, a shower, and a nice long nap before going to dinner.

The last day was entirely driving. I checked out of the hotel and made a leisurely drive to Johannesburg to catch the flight home, bringing the Great South African Road Trip to an end.