African Adventures 3 – The Drakensberg Mountains

We arrived in Didima camp in darkness after a few hours drive from the coast after briefly visiting Durban, the last 20 mins quite scarily avoiding locals and cattle wandering up each side of the road through the villages of circular thatched huts. Lines of flame lit up the night as the farmers burnt off the previous summers grassland to encourage fresh spring growth.
Didima camp sits nestled on a spur and consists of individual “bungalows” with fantastic views out to the mountains and a central small conference center and restaurant all beautiful bits of architecture, sitting so well in the landscape.
The following day we climbed a steep switchback trail to Tryme Hill. This 1800m top on a large rounded ridge sits 500 metres above the spectacular gorges on both sides that wind themselves up to the higher 3000m Drakensberg tops such as Cathedral Peak which were a bit beyond Holly and my current back problems being a 9 hour round trip.
Vultures circled above us as we stopped for an early lunch on top and the views were spectacular.
The following day we hired a guide for a gentle walk to Doreen Falls. You have to have a guide to visit the bushman cave paintings the Drakensberg are also so famous for. We climbed above the falls to the cave and he gave a great insight into the significance of the ancient rock art. We then retraced our steps for a very cold swim below the stunning waterfall before returning to Didima camp for a relaxing afternoon reading in the sunshine with fantastic mountain views in all directions.

http://www.didima.info/