September 4th: Golden Gate and Royal Natal NP

Ok. Lets call this the hesitation day (I'll explain later). I woke up in my beautiful hotel room (right, hotel room!) in the Golden Gate National Park way too early this morning because a rather big group of teenagers had decided to start their day rumbling down the hallways at approx. 7am. Great. I would have been up an hour earlier if only someone had dropped a few predators in the park. But nobody did, unfortunately. Since the mountains are patient and don't run away I decided to sleep in. Good plan, bad execution. But anyway...

The landscape, however, was not exactly as I had expected. No. It was much more than that. It was was jaw-dropping!!! Sure, I've seen Marakele NP, I've seen the mountain ranges in the Karoo and those on my way to Bloemfontein, but this cannot be described nor represented with only a picture. Wow! No predators, hardly any bucks but still wow!! Or maybe wow because I had to get my thoughts off the animals and my eyes onto the landscape.

This is the northernmost end of the Drakensberg mountains which nestle up against the eastern border of Lesotho and it gave me a rough idea of what was about to come. Well...maybe...or...I had no idea. Because that's when the hesitation began to set in. I just wasn't sure whether I should drive all the way down to Giant's Castle NP in the center of the Drakensberg mountains. 250km to see birds (especially bearded vultures) and bucks (especially oribi and elands)? And all this for only two nights down there? Hmm. I stopped several times to look at the maps and trade it off against driving up north right away and staying in a game reserve that has more animals to offer. But after I had passed the Sterkfontein dam and Nicolette had given me a few descriptions of what she knows about the area I finally gave in. Which was a wise decision. Giant's Castle NP was now the declared stage for that day but I was to be disappointed soon.

First of all it would have been a 4 hours drive from where I was at the time and I wouldn't have arrived early enough to get the keys for just about any type of accomodation. And they only had a chalet for 500+ Rand to offer which would have been too much anyway. So I decided to stick around the area I was in and check a few B&Bs. While searching for some braai meat I passed by a "farmstall" where they make homemade hamburgers. Guess who couldn't say no? Yes, the "fastfood junkie". So the actual cheeseburger was great and I then went to a backpackers to ask for a good place to see clawless otters. The guy just didn't care about my seriously articulated enquiry, he rather wanted to offer me some accomodation in his four walls. Desperately. Since the whole establishment more or less gave me that "from dusk till dawn" feeling I decided to decline politely and hit the road again.

Which is why I finally "ended up" in one of the nothern Drakensberg nature reserves, the Royal Natal National Park. And what a beauty this park is!! I, however, still haven't understood why some national parks out there would administered by the government's organisation SANParks and others would be owned by privately run organisations. Anyway. It's beautiful here and very quiet. Suspiciously quiet. No jackals, barking geckos, teenagers, birds, no nothing. Wait! The "from dusk till dawn" feeling starts creeping up my neck. ;) I guess with all the braaiswors, gem squat, butternut, baked potatoes and pineapple in my stomach I would serve as a good meal. Funny thought initially, not so funny when I further get into it. Ahem.

Anyway...after some nice chatting with friends (strange how that is possible even in the remotest places) I am now likely to call it quits for today. I plan to go on a hiking trail tomorrow, maybe I manage to keep the thought alive until then. Have a look at the pictures but be aware that they only reflect a fraction of what I have actually seen today.

Cheers, thanks for reading and have a good night!

Stefan