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Friday, September 27, 2013

Mountain Beauty

(Travel Journalism Student Post)

Waking up in the Drakensberg Mountains on a mid September morning is surprisingly warm, until you see the dark rumbling clouds roll in from behind camp. We threw our rain-flies on our tents for the first time and prepared ourselves for a day of rain and classes. Luckily, Mother Nature helped us out by giving us a partly cloudy day for our walk up to Thukela Gorge. The sun was shining down on us by the time we had arrived at the trail head, and we were all eager to get going.

Stopping an obnoxious amount of times to take photos and to take in what beauty big heaps of rock can be, the hike ended up taking us about seven hours instead of the average five or six. David Bristow's book “The Best Walks of the Drakensberg” states the Thukela Gorge “is the most spectacular walk in the park, and one of the finest of all Berg walking experiences.” The mountains indeed surpassed all expectations. The scenery was astounding, although the trail wasn't for the weak hearted.

The way up was at an incline, with roots and rocks popping out of the path every which way. “ I thought it was tricky to maintain your footing.” Molly expressed after the strenuous walk was over. We also got to do a solo hike for part of the trail, getting to have some personal time, while taking in the sweet mountain air. Reaching the rocky Gorge, we got tot view boulders the sizes of houses and also saw the behemoths up close!


The day was all over immaculate with the weather and the views. We only got to experience a smidgen of what Drakensberg is capable of. Although many of us are walking away slightly sore and blistered, the hike was gnarly.

BY: ANNA (aka BIRD)

Just an example of the enormous rocks - TTS18 on the same hike

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for taking us on the gnarly hike, Anna!
    Amy (Eleanor's mom)

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  2. Way to go BIRD! what an amazing photo. Thank you for being south Africa that much closer to us all! (Patrick Anna a.k.a. Birds father

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  3. Wonderful descriptions...nothing beats a gnarly hike! Way to go!
    Mom

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