Time has flown by, and suddenly it's two months, half way through Jay's trip and I left cold wet London to join him in South Africa. We spent our first night at the Africa Regent Guesthouse in North Durban. I cannot highly recommend this place enough. The decor is African themed with amazing stuffed antelope heads on the wall, African masks and many other African cultural artefacts. The staff were very warm and welcoming, eager to share their local knowledge of the area.
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| Africa Regent Guesthouse, North Durban |
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| Africa Regent Guesthouse, North Durban |
The next day we headed out to the middle of nowhere in the Drakensburgs. Along the way we stopped at Howick, a really charming little town that felt like something out of a Victorian era. Very sleepy and quiet, with a definite 'go slow' attitude.
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| Howick Falls |
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| Howick - Local saleswoman of the year |
Not so charming was Mooi River, a predominantly black township which turned out to be our nearest port of call to civilisation from our Guesthouse (another 45 min drive) which were staying at for the next three nights. The Antbear Guesthouse overlooks the Bushmans River and Giants Castle. It is somewhat off the beaten track, and the local's told us to watch out for the 'donglars' aka huge pot holes in the road.
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| Donglars! |
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| Antbear Guesthouse |
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| Our Room for 3 nights |
On the Tuesday we headed down to the local area known as Giants Castle for some hiking and to view some old rock paintings. Absolutely magnificent, I will let the photo's speak for themselves!
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| Giants Castle |
Unfortunately, or as it turned out fortunately, we were rained out on the Wednesday. Hiking in the rain was not my idea of fun, though Jay was game to give it a go. We headed into Mooi River for some essential supplies, aka Vodka for me and decided to have a coffee at Beannies Restaurant, a delightful place we had literally stumbled upon on our way to the guesthouse on the Monday. We spent a wonderful afternoon camped out there being fed and entertained by the owner Monique. A truly inspirational woman. Beautiful, strong, wilful, and incredibly generous - she refused to let us pay for anything we ate and drank that day (my mouth is still watering remembering her scrumptious blueberry pancakes). Here's a message from Jay: Sitting in a delightfully girlie cafe (to escape the continuous rain). I noticed the remarkably clever format for South African articulated lorries! They split the towed truck into two, thereby creating four sets of axels. This gives them about 40% extra volume of storage, from a single truck! Ingenious!!! Ah now for some more carrot cafe with Chantilly cream... LOL, trust an engineer, I admit I did not quite share his curiosity and enthusiasm for the trucks!
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| Monique |
On the Thursday, glorious sunshine - hooray! I'd arranged the night before for Jay and I to have a horse riding lesson. The sight of Jay in his full 'protective' motorbike gear was very amusing. He was an absolute natural, once he got over the fact that the stirrups did not react in the same way as bike gears.
We checked out of our wonderful guesthouse, to head back to Durban. One of the highlights of the holiday, something I had really been looking forward to was the Karkloof Canopy Tour.
We then headed back to Durban, for another two nights at Africa Regent Guesthouse. I'd been told the steak was amazing in South Africa and I was not disappointed. Check out the Butcher Boys if you are ever in Durban.
Sadly coming to the end of the trip, and time to see some of the wild animals I'd heard so much about and leave on a high. Tala Game Reserve and the Natal Lions Park did not disappoint and I am now keen to experience a real safari.
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| Tala Game Reserve |
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| Natal Lion Park |
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