Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Drakensberg - Cathedral Peak


Hiking in the Drakensberg this past weekend was the highlight of my time in SA so far. It was heaven! The Afrikaans word means 'Dragon Mountains', whereas the Zulu named the place Quathlamba - 'Battlement of Spears'. I will leave it to the photos to share with you how beautiful this area is - with much effort I have managed to reduce these down to about 30 from the over 100 that I took!

Friday afternoon Camilla, Pieter and I drove through Jo'burg to pick up Laurel (a new IISD intern from Ontario), got lost in the city for a bit, and then continued five hours south-east into KwaZulu Natal province. The Drakensberg form the border here between SA and Lesotho - soaring walls of wide green slopes and basalt summits. It rained on and off all day Saturday as we walked six hours straight up into the clouds, but it was so warm that we always managed to dry out between the wet spells, and when we made it to camp in the evening all of the important things in our bags were still dry. The trail itself was fantastic. Lots of steep climbs, but a good long section in the middle of almost level ridge walking, with fantastic views up at the mountains, down into the valleys, and of the flowers at our feet. We even saw some baboons, screaming at us from above after we scared them off the trail, which shook me from the sense that I was home hiking in Canada!

Camp was at Bell “Cave” - actually a large overhang on a steep slope directly beneath Cathedral Peak. Nothing special, except that it provided us with much-appreciated shelter from the weather, which began to turn downright stormy by evening. We drowned our sorrow, at the loss of what would have been an amazing view from the cave, in bottles of Amarula and Whisky, while jumping around trying to keep warm. I lost the pot lid to the wind, which pulled a fast one on me by first drawing me away from the stove to run after the metal wind guard, and then seized the lid and whipped it out of site around the corner while I stood flat-footed and cursing. We retreated early for much-needed sleep.

Sunday morning Pieter and I scrambled up to the summit, which was the cherry on top of a wonderful weekend. Cathedral (3,004m) was first climbed in 1917. I love scrambles, and this was a great one. A couple of delicate, exposed spots where slipping was out of the question, but otherwise good, secure, heart-pounding, quad-burning climbing. And the view at the top!! We got lucky with the weather, which closed in as we were descending, and had clear views all around. Again, check out the photos - it was spectacular.

A long walk back to the car and Monday morning my legs were SORE! But they will recover, and a few more trips back to the Drakensberg - including Lesotho - are an absolute must. This is a South African treasure.

Photos here: http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/philipkakins/album?.dir=/3bc2

3 Comments:

At 2:34 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Beautiful pictures Pip! That is what life is all about. Inspires me to make sure I get out into nature more(and take a more active role in making sure it is maintained for our children to enjoy) - hopefully (on both counts) with you:)

 
At 10:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey pip,

wow that must have been a beautiful hike...i'm thrilled to be able to see it. I'll show sam nexy time he is over. so i signed up for skype--how do i find you?

steve

 
At 4:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi p!
just got blog from collen! its 4am got 2 go 2 bed!hope u r well .will write later. is your email the same as old pip "last name"@hotmail.com?ill send there?

cheryl

 

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