Friday, January 29th, 2010
They call South Africa a world in one country, and now I’m starting to understand why. when you travel here, you travel from stunning landscape to stunning landscape, it’s just breathtakingly beautiful. When I left Jozi the other day, it took a while to actually get out of the city. After about 4 hours of highway had lunch in a place called Harrismith, and not long after that the mountains…I don’t even know what to say about the Drakensberg, it’s just too big and impressive to describe.
Drakensberg: getting closer
And the photos don’t do it justice either. I met a girl who lives in a little wooden cabin in the mountains, and they invited me to stay there for the night and go horse-riding with them the next morning.
Night in the mountains
So quiet and peaceful….I was tired from the long drive and all the impressions, but I couldn’t fall asleep, just lay there in the dark, listening to Africa being Africa and feeling like Karen Blixen.
Up early. A bit chilly, but the moment the sun comes out it’s so hot that the steam comes off the dew on the grass.
More Drakensberg
And then we went swimming in their own private swimming pool:
Brave girl, icy water
I jumped out almost faster than I’d jumped in. I couldn’t believe how cold the water was! The girl’s father said we were both mad. Good way to wake up though 
We had a quick breakfast and then went to meet the transport: HUGE beautiful horses. There were 10 of us alltogether. I was a bit nervous, it was my first time on a horse, and it’s a long way down. But within the first 10 minutes I forgot all about being nervous, it was all so stunningly gorgeous, and my horse was very good. We rode for 4 hours, taking a circular route back to the cabin. It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had.
Horses on the skyline
Another amazing experience was how sore my ass was afterwards…especially the next morning 
I hated having to leave, but I had an appointment in Durban scheduled for early Thursday morning, so I had to get going.
Tags: 2010, Africa, Drakensberg