Camorhi Reserve to Giant's Castle

Day 5 - October 11, 2006

Our fears about the weather were ill-placed: we woke up to brilliant sunshine! Headed out on a 4-wheel drive open-air truck just the 3 of us and our guide - first to see some huge male white lions and and then several smaller young lions that had just been moved from another area - thankfully all penned in! The Camorhi game reserve is currently being used as a breeding farm. They also had some very young springbok fawns (or whatever young bok are called!) - very skittish but very cute. And finally, we got to see a pair of leopards - one that had been raised in captivity and one completely wild - they were beautiful.

Our next move was on to Harrismith and then south on the N3 motorway towards Estcourt, through some gorgeous scenery of flat-topped mountains (Mike says they are "inselbergs" of Karroo Supergroup sediments and capping Drakensberg basalts - whatEVER that means!). Now we are in KwaZulu-Natal country. We turned off from the motorway for an hourlong drive east on a very twisty road though dramatic mountain scenery, past small villages turning out hoardes of uniformed schoolchildren with big beautiful smiles.

By about 4 PM we arrived at Giant's Castle camp, nestled into the Drakensberg mountains just east of the border with Lesotho. The scenery here is absolutely stunning. Amazing foliage, high peaks - at once dark and rocky and at the same time lush and green as spring is turning into summer. Arrived just before a dramatic thunder and lightning storm. Our shared 2-bedroom cottage with thatched roof is amazing - cozy, with a fully equipped kitchen, nice décor complete with coal fireplace and a spectacular mountain view. We think we could stay here for a week without any problem! Off to the dining lodge for dinner, and then back to our chalet to write something for this blog. Tomorrow we go for a short hike to some caves to see the famous cave paintings of the indigenous San people. Can't wait!

Oct 11, 2006

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