Gap Year Experiences

Jules first time

Friday 6 February 2009

This blog update comes to you from the Secret Spot surf camp just north of Durban. We arrived approximately 10 minutes ago and I am already being coerced into writing the next chapter of the pepper adventure by Vince, with prompts of 'make sure you mention how amazing I am' - no inferiority complex there!
We've arrived in Durban after an incredible week in the Drakensberg Mountains, which, I have to say, has probably been my favorite week yet. We arrived in the amazingly picturesque Inkosana Lodge on Friday afternoon, and consequently extended our stay there in order to fit the Australian Open final into our itinerary. As a result, Saturday was a very relaxed day, having breakfast in the very fancy Champagne Sports Resort. Unfortunately after a very leisurely meal we realized that the hotel didn't have the appropriate sports channel which led to a mad dash to another hotel, the 'Drakensberg Sun' where we found an appropriately sized TV screen for such a prestigious final (it took up most of the wall).
So all in all, a very relaxed afternoon, with Lucy and I buying an extremely expensive strawberry daiquiri every time Roger won a set, which, unfortunately, was only two, so Luce, Vince, Doug and I drowned our sorrows while Eloise and Carrie left the hotel in high spirits after Rafa's win.
After our lazy day, we decided to take on the 11k hike up to 'Blind Man's Corner' on Sunday morning. I know most of you will think that 11k is not much of an exertion, but trust me, it is when the route is almost completely vertical the entire way! We lost two climbers to the mountain half an hour in, with Lucy claiming that she had hit her 'brick wall' and could go no further, so she and Eloise headed back to the car while the rest of us carried on.
We managed to make it pretty far up the mountain, feeling very pleased with ourselves, that is, until we came down and realized just how short a distance we had traveled...we'd barely passed the first peak! But all in all it was a fantastic day, with the most incredible views and pretty incredible weather, that is until the last half hour of a descent when we were pelted with rain and got pretty much soaked through!
After our stint at Inkosana we headed to another part of the Drakensberg to 'Sani Lodge' where we prepared ourselves for our two day horse trek into Lesotho.
At 9am we set off from the lodge in a very crusty land rover with our very eccentric guide Matthew and two hilarious swiss guys called Phillip and Robin who provided us with comedy relief throughout the trip. We had a very bumpy ride up to the Lesotho border with Matthew pointing out all the car wreckages along the way, which was very reassuring!
We arrived in Lesotho after driving through the clouds, and, after stopping off for lunch and a swim, finally arrived at Molumong where we left the landy and continued on horseback.
I managed to get landed with a horse that was spawned in the depths of hell - due to the girlish protests of Vince and Doug who wanted horses that were 'so chilled that they're half asleep' - but he definitely helped to make the trip more interesting.
We had an amazingly scenic two hour ride over the mountains to a little village where we were staying the night - with only a few mishaps, including an over-eager Carrie galloping off into the sunset with half the contents of her backpack strewn in the road behind her, and Vince, ever the hilarious joker admitting to have put a rock into my backpack, which I'd been carrying for two hours! Actually, i think a 'rock' is not enough to describe it, i think it was more of a boulder - I'm still plotting my revenge, any tips would be very helpful!
We arrived in our allocated village just in time for sundown, and were bombarded by over-excited children who were utterly charming, taking our complete attention, while their companions delved in our pockets looking for sweets and money! The girls were completely in their element - I think I wouldn't have been surprised if we'd found a little one in Eloise's backpack at the border!
We had a delicious traditional Lesotho meal for supper and breakfast, and spent a surprisingly comfortable night in one of the rondavels - setting off the next morning with a few painful knees and bums on the return journey!
At about 2pm we set off again in the landy for the South African border, stopping off for some very questionable local beer and for a drink in the highest pub in South Africa.
My journey down was slightly less comfortable than the way up, given that I was in the back, being thrown about on the extremely bumpy roads - but thankfully I was distracted by the ridiculous conversations we managed to have with Matthew and the Swiss on the way down, strangely, mostly about spooning, I have no idea how we got to that point!
Anyway, we arrived back at the Sani Lodge for a great meal and, in keeping with our crazy lifestyle, we were once again all in bed before 10pm - so, as a result, now that we're in Durban we're determined to have at least one night where we don't adhere to the bedtime of an OAP.
Tomorrow we start surfing, which we are all very excited about, although I think I can say with complete confidence we will be spending most of it in the water, not on the boards - but we're looking forward to getting a lot of practice in over the coming weeks!

Pictures coming soon
love from us all
Jules x