Drakensberg
SOUTH AFRICA
Shark Hats & Fat Cats
By AARON
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
After a quick night in Addo Elephant park (where we did see an elephant), we continued our journey through South Africa to Coffee Bay, right on the eastern coast. A hippie paradise, once you navigate through the windy roads full of school kids, cows, goats, potholes and minivans, Coffee Bay calls to those wishing to join a drum circle, smoke some hash, or work on your meditation. Not really in to any of those things, Lyndi and I found the Coffee Shack, which is right on the water and seemed to be more of a party atmosphere hostel instead of a hemp mecca.
Deciding to stay only one night, we actually got quite a lot accomplished while we were there. We hiked up a hill to a nice and very Ireland-like view of the coastline, and we also almost got our tent soaked by the one sprinkler in the entire complex that was for some reason watering the dirt right in front of our tent. Why that sprinkler was there is still a mystery to me.
After moving our campsite to a less muddy area, we were told that tonight was a hat party with free drinks. Where do we sign up? The catch was that you had to make a silly hat out of cardboard for your drinks. Done. So after some creative thinking, I quickly stole Lyndi’s idea for a shark hat and proceeded to make the most amazing cardboard hat of all time. Seeing that I had stolen her idea, Lyndi decided to make a pirate hat instead, and in no time we were off to the bar for the party.
The night was a huge success, with about 25 people all parading around in their hats, and not only did I win the pool competition, but I also took home first prize in the hat competition as well! Lyndi couldn’t have been more proud, yet seemed to know I had it in the bag from the beginning. Maybe it was because my shark hat was totally awesome, or maybe because Lyndi did have a bird poop on her head earlier that day – a sign of good luck, regardless, I’m sure this will be a story for the grandkids. The rest of the night was spent conversing and drinking with the other travelers there, and enjoying the good music that the bar had to offer.
Next morning we woke up early, and departed for The Drakensberg, which is an area of South Africa that has some beautiful mountains and great hiking. Right on the border of South Africa and Lesoto (Le-soo-too), the mountains act as a natural border between the two countries and the views are stunning.
So after a 5 hour drive, we pulled into Khotso Ranch and set up our tent. Finding a spot was easy because after a quick tour of the facilities, we realized we were the only two people there. It turned out to be a good thing though, because after a night pressed into a small bar with waaay too many people, it was good to get some time to ourselves.
The first thing I noticed on this 1,000 acre property was the masses of beautiful horses. First a horse farm and second a guest house, the property is home to sheep, horses, cows and even elands.
The second thing I noticed… was Fluffy. Fluffy is the resident cat of the property and oh. My. Gosh. Is she fat. My aunt and uncle used to have a cat named Sooty, and that cat was fat, but this cat put Sooty to shame. We asked the owners why they didn’t put Fluffy on a diet and they said that they tried, but then Fluffy started hitting them. I’m not kidding – you can’t make that stuff up. So now Fluffy eats all the food she wants, and also enjoys creamed milk as a drink. No wonder she’s pushing 30lbs.
On our first day in Drakensberg, we took Sparky to the national park and did a 4-hour hike up to the “Sleeping Beauty Cave”. Although the hike was nice, we’re still not quite sure why it’s called that. We asked the workers when we got back and they had no clue, so we’ll say it’s because the cave is shaped like a woman. A beautiful sleeping woman.
Getting to the national park there involves driving through a huge hotel community that is armed with tennis courts, swimming pools, miniature golf, pony rides and much more. So after our hike we treated ourselves to a nice round of mini-golf in which Lyndi absolutely massacred me by 8 strokes on 9 holes. I know this because she wrote it down in our little daily journal.
Day two was spent hiking again, but this time on the massive property owned by the people at Khotso Ranch. We hiked up to a lookout point and were even able to see a group of elands grazing near the top. The rest of the hike took us around some smaller mountains and hills and finished with a relaxing stroll along the property’s river.
That night we decided to do a Dexter marathon, so after we caught and released a random bat that was flying around the living room, we settled down with Fluffy, some nice boxed wine, and enjoyed watching a series that features a “good-guy” serial killer who only kills other killers. Don’t judge – it was that or King of Queens.
Our time in the Drakensberg area was exactly what we needed for a couple of days – relaxing, quiet and full of some nice long walks and hikes around the area. This also was the last stop we would make with Sparky, so after driving him around for about 8 days, we would say goodbye to him the next day at the airport in Durban.
I must say, there’s a kind of bond you develop with a car even after a couple of days. Being my first “car” since Lyndi and I left in 2008, after only a couple of days I became accustomed to his left-side gear shift and right-side steering wheel. Sparky didn’t have much power, but when we needed to get through a tough pass, or navigate around potholes, he pulled through every step of the way.
We had both come a long way from that first day outside of Cape Town where a guy in a BMW gave me the finger, and next day would bring about what I can only expect to be a sad goodbye as Sparky would forever be remembered as my first traveling rental car.
