We wanted adventure and we certainly got it. And so began a crazy and fun couple of weeks…
Days 1 & 2: Transit to Joburg
The second part of our trip started in Johannesburg. Markus and I took a bus back from Victoria Falls… it was two long days of driving and one more night of camping.
Day 3: Joburg
We arrived in Joburg late in the evening and had to go to the airport to get the car that would be our mobile home for the next few weeks. Then we had to do a bit of rearranging of plans for the next day, because we realized our 2×4 car wouldn’t allow us to do what we wanted to. So after booking a new hostel for the following night, we went to sleep.
Day 4: Underberg- Khotso Horse Trails
It’s pretty safe to say that we woke up early (meaning before 7) every day of our trip. So we got out on the road and headed south to the Drakensberg mountains. Remember when I said that I would never drive on the left side of the road? Well, I lied. Markus drove the first few hours until we found a cute little town, Harrismith, where we bought some biltong and lunch. This was after a couple of failed attempts to find lunch in run-down, outdated towns. Then it was my turn to take the wheel! We drove on a big highway for most of the drive, so the only real problem I had was adjusting to being on the right side of the car… I kept drifting left. The drive down (once we were away from Joburg) was pretty. You could clearly see that the area was suffering from a drought, but as we got closer to the mountains the scenery became greener. Before we got to our hostel, we stopped at the Underberg Cheesery which had the best garlic and onion feta I’ve had in my entire life. The place we were staying at for the night was called Khotso Horse Trails and as you can guess, there were tons of horses and even a handful of dogs to hang out with us. We spent the evening playing Uno and hanging out with the owners and other guests at the hostel.
Day 5: Lesotho and the Sani Pass
Markus and I woke up and decided to go for a short hike before we headed over to the Sani Pass, one of the entrances into Lesotho (pronounced leh-soo-too). We found a little stream and an area where Markus was able to jump off a ledge and down 6m into a natural pool. Our challenge for the day was getting up the Sani Pass and into Lesotho, which is 21km long and at an elevation of 2900m. Lesotho is the small country in the middle of South Africa, and it’s mostly mountainous. We didn’t have a 4×4 car, which was required to drive up, so we had to figure something out. We ended up leaving our car at a closed hotel that’s under construction, and then hiked through some hills and a stream just to find our way back to the road. Our next move was to either catch a local taxi up, hitch hike or hike up. We ended up squeezing into the most packed taxi van ever (15 people and a bunch of boxes in a 12-seater), then hopping in a hay truck after the SA border. But we finally made it! And just hoped that our car would be untouched when we returned to it the next day. We grabbed a great dinner and had some drinks at the Sani Mountain Lodge, which has the highest pub in Africa! That evening was SO cold because of the high elevation and I even slept with my gloves on.
Day 6: Underberg
Beside the fact that I woke up still freezing, the day started off great. We got to sleep in a bit and then went for a two hour horse ride out to a scenic peak on the mountain. We were so high up above all of the Drakensberg mountains- it was a breathtaking sight. But by the time we got back to the lodge we were freezing cold! We took some photos in front of the “Highest Pub in Africa” sign and headed out of the country. Luckily we didn’t have to walk back down the pass… an old couple saw us walking after we crossed the border back into South Africa and offered us a ride back down in their luxurious Land Rover. When we got back to our rental car, it was untouched! So we hopped in and went on our way to our next hostel, the Little Wing Teepee. It was back behind the town off a long road in the countryside. Not only did they have 6 horses and 9 dogs for us to hang out with (yes, 9!), it was the coolest little place, themed like the Wild West- and we even got to sleep in a Teepee.
Day 7: Durban
After having a delicious breakfast and chatting with the owner of our hostel for a bit, Markus and I headed out for Oribi Gorge. There’s a large, thin rock that hangs over the gorge which is perfect for cool pictures but unfortunately it was closed when we got there. We even tried to find another way in but it was all fenced off. However, the rest of the gorge was still open for us to explore so we walked around for a bit. Afterwards we headed off towards Durban to try and meet up with some friends who had just flown into the area. It didn’t work out like we had planned but we got a beautiful scenic drive along the way and found the nicest little beach just outside of Durban. Dinner was at a steak restaurant in Durban (we even drove by a Hooters… who knew there would be one in South Africa!) and we arrived at our hostel on the Dolphin Coast late that night. The day was a bit long because I came down with a pretty bad cold but I was hoping that the next day I would be feeling better.
Day 8: Saint Lucia
Today consisted of lots of shopping and making our way to Saint Lucia. The drive again was beautiful; we passed tons of tree farms and stands selling fresh fruits along the way. Our hostel for the night was called Monzi’s Safari backpackers and the only bad part about it was the obnoxiously loud man who snored throughout the night. It was a bunch of tents (fully equipped like a hotel room!) set up on decks surrounding gorgeous pools and dining areas. We explored Saint Lucia and even unexpectedly bumped into a friend from our Nomad tour.
Day 9: Swaziland Day 1
Despite not getting much sleep, we were up and ready for a full day ahead of us. We forgot to get a tent (which we would need for the next week) so we went running around town, looking in odd shops until we found one that worked. Then we were off to Swaziland! It’s a small country on the northeastern border of South Africa. We entered through an open game park, so we had to drive carefully in case and animals decided to pop out into the road! Driving through the country was an absolute pain. It only took us a few hours to drive to our hostel but the changing speed limit made it much longer and more annoying than it should have been. It was extremely slow and would change every hundred meters. To make matters worse they had camouflaged, unmarked speed bumps everywhere which would send us flying every time we hit one. Markus wasn’t too happy with me but there wasn’t much I could do. We ended the evening by going to see a movie (only $2 for a ticket!) and pizza.
Day 10: Swaziland Day 2
This was definitely one of the most interesting days of our trip. Markus and I woke up early to go to a small game park that was only about 10 minutes away, which we were told we could drive through in our 2×4. After we got there, things quickly turned interesting. The conditions of the roads were terrible. When we got to one back to a fork in the road, Markus wanted to explore a road we hadn’t gone down yet… but I was over the disappointment of having to turn around and just suggested we go back towards the main road. However, we took the other road and continued on. The drive quickly got difficult. But by the point we wanted to turn around, the road was so narrow that we couldn’t- we just kept driving hoping that the road would put us out in a good spot. There were divots in the road, gaps where we should have been driving, and rocks that were too big for our car to avoid when we drove over them. We eventually hit a hill that was made of soft sand that we couldn’t make it up. So Markus found a water runoff to back into but when we pulled out to get on the road, the mid-left side of the car got stuck on a big rock. So there we were, stuck in the middle of a game park with animals roaming around who knows how close to us. We had no choice but to try and get ourselves unstuck. So we grabbed some rocks and started digging. Markus and I took turns digging while the other one kept watch for animals. It wasn’t working well so we dug a place to put the car jack and then jacked the car up and continued to dig. Turns out we weren’t stuck on one big rock but a pile of very compact little rocks. It took two hours and by the end we were covered in dirt but we finally got ourselves unstuck! And were back in the car, untouched by any leopards, buffalo or anything else. After navigating back out of that road (which was another challenge in itself) we left the park and went to do something more relaxing. The worst part… it was only 11am. So we went back to our hostel for some R&R because our day wasn’t over… we had adventure caving later that night! In the evening we drove out to a mountain and hiked up to the caves. By the time we went in, it was dark outside. That cave exploring was the most intense workout I’d had in a while. I was sweating up a storm and I was so tired by the time we were done! We crawled through really tight spaces, had to climb up and even lower ourselves down to see an underground river. To end the night, we went to a natural hot spring and ate pizza while we relaxed in it. What a day!
Day 11: Swaziland Day 3
Well, today we were supposed to go on a tour of a local Swazi village but they messed up our booking, so we decided to just do the exploring ourselves! We went to the Swaziland history museum where we learned so much about the culture, politics and history of the country. Then we went to nearby shops, one of which was the coolest candle store (Swazicandles). There’s a cool little waterfall we checked out before we saw some really cool traditional Swazi dances performed. The evening was spent eating leftover pizza and watching movies and the first Eurocup game.
Day 12: Swaziland to Kruger National Park
Unfortunately our time in Swaziland was over but this morning we were off to somewhere even better! The most important place in South Africa that I came here wanting to visit… Kruger National Park!!!
Doing the kImpossible 