Silvia, our Airbnb host, was up with the lark and off to work again before we even had a chance to say farewell and take her photo. We followed her out shortly after and took the motorway to Durban airport as we had a small interior fan problem with the Ford rental, in that it’s not working at all. Europcar swiftly exchanged our car for a Toyota which has some extra comforts but still has the annoying beeping of the horn when you lock it, which drives us both mad.
Driving out of the airport we followed a motorway turning off at a huge shopping mall to get a few days groceries in whilst we are self catering up in the mountains. The supermarket, Pick n Pack, was massive and inside a very upmarket shopping mall. It was very noticeable that we were the only two white people in the mall. Glenn picked up a Pick n Pack loyalty card, always one for a discount!
From here we wound our way through several townships as we ascended into the hills to reach the southern Drakensberg mountains where we are stopping at Underberg for a few days of hiking. After initially going to the wrong address, we eventually found our Airbnb cottage off the road, up a bumpy dirt track, dealing with a rickety five bar gate, and we made it to the farm gate of Spitzkop Cottage. At this point we could go no further due to a very good guard dog (Rhodesian Ridgeback) pacing back and forth along the farm gate growling and barking. The owner Jude, was out for the day but due back any time now so we waited patiently for her arrival and watched the sun set over the Drakensberg peaks. Beautiful. An hour later, and it was now getting dark, we tried to contact Jude to say we were being prevented from getting in the cottage due to the dog. Her reply was ‘he’s only a pup, be back in half an hour’. Eventually she arrived and of course, the dog was putty in her hands. We took up residence in the cottage, lighting a log fire as the temperatures up here are chilly. With the electric blankets on full we snuggled in for an early night as we have another early start tomorrow to get to the park gate promptly for an all day hike.
 |
| Autumn colours as we drove in Underberg |
 |
| The guard dog (more like small donkey) |
 |
| Sunset over the Drakensbergs |
No comments:
Post a Comment