The incredible Drakensberg!!

Hello everyone! So you thought I'd be away for the weekend.. you thought wrong! Of course I'm away, but this is the 21st century and there is internet everywhere so I thought I'd write a blog before I forget today's amazing adventures!! I'm currently at Ampitheatre backpackers in the Northern Drakensberg, which is an awesome hostel with the works (bar.. jacuzzi.. amazing views..) and aside from the odd cockroach or two is fabulous! We got here yesterday evening after a pretty shitty rainy day of 6ish hours driving (not that I drove :p) and found this place we'd booked for two days in the foothills of one the most incredible mountain ranges around. The Drakensberg are rugged but naturally beautiful and just fascinating to look atwith their jagged edges and strangely flat peaks. After some bevs at the bar last night we made friends with a couple of german guys and decided to go on a hike with them today, the 'Gorge Walk' into the Ampitheatre.

Ruth, me, Elsa, Vince & Lily with Royal Natal National Park behind us

Elsa and I stunned at the view into the ampitheatre

The weather was perfect on the hike up (3 hours each way) and the views stunning! I can't even begin to describe how great it really was! In search of Tugela Falls (apparently the 2nd biggest waterfall in the world) we clambered over boulders, climbed a rope ladder up a cliff face and climbed between rocks only to find the falls were hidden by mist. It didn't matter though, we were so proud of ourselves for getting so far and it turned out the mist was actually rain so we headed back. It was a real mother nature experience trudging back to the car for 3 hours with the sky grey and thundering and lightning around us (no Mum, I made sure not to stand in an open space with my hands in the air!!). AMAZING!!

Very proud of ourselves (with Lily)

Now it's just relaxing time in the TV lounge upstairs at the hostel with our new friends, completely buggered from today, my knees are absolutely hating me!! Tomorrow we are going into Lesotho with an organised trip our backpackers does, and after that we don't really know.. we'll just see how we go... there are plenty of things to do around here!!

~Y