A HIKE IN THE DRAKENSBURG MOUNTAINS
another incredible south african experience. the drakensburg mountains are expansive, beautiful, + house many, many amazing creatures! just over their peaks lies lesotho (leh-soo-thoo), a free country within the country of south africa — during the apartheid era, those facing persecution would cross over the border into safety + freedom. the mountain range was also home to both the sani bushmen + bantu peoples. the bushmen were hunter-gatherers native to drakensburg. they moved around frequently + used the cave/rocksides of the mountains as their homes. they specialized in cave drawings, which can still be seen today!
the day before, we arrived at sani lodge — the cutest little hiker’s lodging i’ve ever seen! [the only one i’ve ever seen, actually — it was a very cheryl strayed in “wild” type feel] we had dinner that night + prepped for our big hike the following morning! we rose early to watch the sunrise, a sweet time with a gorgeous fiery sky, ate breakfast, + gathered our final necessities for the 12-miler. once our guides passed out everyone’s lunches + made sure our entire group was accurately prepped, we started off! as we made our way through the wild fields, our guide shared with us that we were in the midst of a butterfly migration — aka a magical few days where millions [yes — millions] of butterflies fly north east in the midsummer season. hiking amidst the prettiest natural rock formations while white butterflies cheer you on? everything we didn’t know we needed — sign me up every time.
one half of our cute guide team, christine! she + her husband phillip wisely led our hiking team through the butterflies + the rocks + to the bushman paintings. christine made sure to point out all the wildflowers we passed — “i’m passionate about wildflowers” was her infamous quote.
once we made it up to the relative “top” of the mountains, our guides split us into two groups + we headed to find the paintings! it was a pretty hot day, being the middle of summer in africa, but i had a terrible sunburn from the previous week [i quickly learned that the african sun + i are not friends], so i wore my raincoat as a shield — it definitely protected me from the sun’s rays but not from the heat, because dang was i hot. that pink penguin-looking being with their arms out in the picture above? yeah, that’s me trying to cool down !!
look at the detailing! the white beads + hair on this guy are my favorite.
the paintings display so much life — i love the sweet portrait of the mother + her baby!
you could glean so much about the bushmen from their paintings. they were very community oriented + all the members of the groups were shown: mothers + babies, hunters, bantu people [they migrated into the bushmen camps], + even a woman giving birth! christine knew so much about all of the individual paintings, like how they painted eland [the red + white deer-looking animals] because they were the most important animals to the bushmen tribes.
we stopped for lunch at a small waterfall that connected to a stream where we cooled down, filled our water bottles, + cleaned off! it all felt very granola :) we all scrambled to find bits of shade under short trees + tiny rock overhangs — it was a nice break with cheese sandwiches [a south african specialty], apples, + chips. high class dining!
after descending the other side of the mountain [which was very steep, oh lord our ankles were tremblin’], we crossed through another river + rounded a bend to face the largest, most beautiful waterfall! oh how i wish we could have gone + jumped in! i’m telling you, south africa has more waterfalls than you would expect, + they’re all beautiful!
we ended our hike by crossing through some wild raspberry fields + picking the ripest ones we could find! there’s something about eating berries right off the vine that makes them taste infinitely better — we crossed through the gate that encloses the mountains + headed back towards the lodge as it started to drizzle. we patted ourselves on the back + got ready for our last night at the lodge :) we love + miss ya, drakensburg!
post by molly garvin
images by molly garvin + maya richert