After Glenn completed his morning exercises and Yvonne took an Ibuprofen breakfast we decided to take a leisurely drive around Underberg, which is the gateway town for the Southern Drakensberg mountains, on another clear and sunny morning with a winter temperature of 23 degs. The town has one main street with the assortment of shops providing the basic everyday needs, including three liquor stores.
We headed up the Drakensberg Gardens road which is described as a 25 km tourist route with a selection of one coffee shop, one gift shop, a Cheeserie, a plant nursery, a handful of self catering cottages and a Mountain resort and restaurant. As the coffee shop was at the beginning of the route we elected to stop here only to find it is closed on Tuesdays. We never spotted the gift shop or the plant nursery as we wound up the mountain road following the course of the river. However, the views were stunning and the road intersected the Garden Castle and Bamboo mountains and as they towered over us we could clearly see the incredible geology that gives this area its World Heritage site status.
As we past the 24 km marker post on the road, Yvonne remarked that was the distance we had hiked yesterday and unfortunately was still feeling the effects. We then spotted a sign to Castleburn resort and restaurant so turned to follow the road there. A security post prevented our passage as the officer sauntered over with his clipboard we politely told him we were not residents but just wanted lunch in the restaurant. He proceeded to tell us there was no lunch, no food today and based on the coffee shop being closed, we told him we didn’t need to fill his form in and would turn around and go. He then insisted we filled in the form and lifted the barrier to let us pass, telling us to make sure we went to reception. We drove on wondering why he had left us through and as we arrived in the car park we could see plenty of people sitting outside drinking and eating and the smell in the air of the braai (BBQ). The restaurant was set overlooking the lake and green grass and we enjoyed a very good lunch with extremely pleasant views. We were bombarded by several staff checking was everything all right and did we need anything else, which immediately gave Yvonne her opportunity to indulge in some conversation. We relaxed here for a long time, sitting in the warm sun and playing a long and lingering game of giant chess, and with the sun in Yvonne’s eyes, Glenn won.
By this time neither of us were enthused to undertake a steady walk and as the sun lost its strength, the clouds came across and we headed back home stopping by at a liquor store to sample some more South African wines around the log fire tonight.
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| What a great spot for a game of chess |
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| The resort setting |
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| The restaurant |
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| Two tourists |
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