Umthwalume to Drakensberg!!!

The next morning before heading north, we stopped by at a TB hospital. It was interesting to see the facilities and talk with some of the patients who were currently receiving treatment while living in the hospital. There were a lot of empty beds (a good thing!) and only one child living there during the time of our visit.

Outside of the TB Hospital in Umthwalume

After our hospital visit we said good-bye to Umthwalume and then had a 4 hour drive inland to Underberg, and then another short drive to Cobham, where our campsite was. Because it was pretty rainy, most of us chose to sleep in the hut that was right next to our site, it had tons of bunk beds and even a flushing toilet (but no electricity…). There was still a little sun when we first got there, so we got to see our beautiful surroundings. I’ve seen lots of mountains in my life, but these were by far the most amazing. We spent the rest of the day hanging out, enjoying a group dinner, and got to bed early for our big hike the next day.

Saturday

We were all a little nervous for our big hike… we were told that it was rare the whole group to make it to the top! The first hour of the hike was completely flat and followed along a stream- and because there were very few trees, we had amazing views the whole way.

In the Drakensberg Mountains

After the first hour, we started heading up. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this was the hardest hike that most of us had ever been on. It was incredibly steep, but luckily the view was incredible.

On our way up the mountain

A few of us (including the two of us) were feeling the altitude, and had to take a pretty long break before we didn’t feel so dizzy. Luckily, it was easy to continue at our own pace so we ended up splitting up. After what seemed like an endless climb, we finally reached the bushman paintings almost at the top. Even though they were only a few hundred years old, they were still pretty cool! After that, the trail seemed to end, and we couldn’t see the rest of the group, so we kind of had to figure out our own way to the top. We thought we had found a relatively easy way, until we were trying to traverse a near vertical drop to get to the top. It was pretty scary, and made some of us realize that we actually do have a fear of heights…. We finally reached the top, but had to scale a rock face (and almost died again) to reach the rest of the group. It was definitely worth it when we got to the top! All of us made it up, and Zed, our director, was pretty impressed. Clouds looked to be rolling in, so we started heading down pretty quick, but luckily we got tons of pictures. By the time we got to the base our feet were killing and we were all exhausted, but Zed pointed out a pool in the stream that we could swim in! It was pretty cold but super refreshing after our long hike, and we had an amazing time cooling off. We then had to walk the hour back to the site- a 6 hour hike in all! We were all sooo tired by the time we got back, and spent the afternoon relaxing and eating.

Drakensberg to....our Penthouse apartment!?

The next morning we packed up early and began the trip back to Durban. After stopping at the SIT house quick to pick up our extra luggage, we got to move into our penthouse apartment at Windemere (an apartment complex right on the Indian Ocean)! Our apartment is HUGE, I think we all went through a little bit of reverse culture shock of our new living conditions. The six of us in our apartment settled into our own beds, enjoyed our first hot shower in a good 10 days, and got prepared for a new week of lectures and classes back in Durban.

This week was quite an adventure, but we're happy to be settled again. We'll be here for another week and a half before we start our independent study projects!

Hope you enjoyed all the updates!

Sala Kahle

Alyssa & Kristen