Easter Trip to the Drakensberg « Globetrotting

Easter Trip to the Drakensberg

9 April 2013

Over the long Easter weekend, we did our first proper trip out of Joburg (other than the short one to Pretoria) and went to the Drakensberg and Clarens, which are roughly five hours south(-east) of Joburg. The Drakensberg is a huge mountain rage that stretches for around 1000 km, but its most famous part is between the South African province of kwaZulu-Natal and the kingdom of Lesotho.

For three nights, we stayed in a very nice bed and breakfast in Champagne Valley, which is in the so-called Central Berg area. From there, we drove up to Monk’s Cowl and to Royal Natal in the Northern Berg, and did hikes in both areas. The scenery of the Drakensberg is really stunning, with an extremely high mountain ridge that basically constitutes the border between South Africa and Lesotho. Words can not quite describe the sights we took in there, so you have to look at the pictures for yourself. Our B&B was great too, we had a little terrace with mountain view and our own Braai that we cooked our dinners on.

For the last night, we drove via the Golden Gate Highlands National Park to Clarens, which is a nice little town in the eastern part of the South African province Free State. The park, where we did a couple of scenic drives, is another spectacular mountain sight (also in the pictures below). The town of Clarens itself has lots of pretty little restaurants, art galleries, etc., and was a very nice last stop for the trip.

All in all, we had a very good time and saw some beautiful nature – mostly mountains, but also wildlife such as baboons, a black wildebeest, and lots of birds.

Some pictures follow.