Manificent Drakensburg

grandson leading the way

Breathtaking scenery

How many times do we say we should go and have a getaway and yet the years, months go by, and we simply get swallowed up by day-to-day tedium. Even if it’s not really tedium and it’s doing something we love, I think we should still take that break. It opens your mind and allows you to breath in something fresh, be it the air or simply an idea which arrives uninvited by a new view.

The magnificent Drakensberg has always been within easy reach, yet we only took our children once to enjoy its wonderful sites. I really feel sad about that, but a huge help is that we did go recently with our youngest and her husband and our youngest grandchild. Here’s a thought, never think it’s too late because clearly, it’s not if you simply do it.

My daughter has a thing like a rucksack in which a child can sit, and this is something I would have loved had it been available back in the day. So, she can enjoy hiking while the little lad can sit happily and take in the view which of course is educational at the same time.

One day we all agreed to try one of the hiking trails. I was hugely surprised at all the people who passed us coming down and back while we were just on our way. Lesson number one, get up early and make it to the end and avoid the heat. We will have to practice this another time as the years wasted not enjoying the outdoors and that majestic lump of rock is just sad.

Well, like I said, it’s never too late. The huge bonus was that we got to spend time with the family and when they went mountain biking, we had our gorgeous grandson to ourselves for four whole hours. We gave him back with a huge bump on his forehead which he got two minutes before their return.

On the way through the Golden Gate, I really couldn’t take in the rock formations, the colours and how small and insignificant you can feel by comparison.
What else I couldn’t take in was the chronic road failure we endured on the way home back to Eswatini. At one point we were theoretically lured down a magnificent tar road with hardly a car to be seen. In fact, I think we were the only car for forty kilometres then the reason became apparent when that road turned into a combination of rock and sand for the next forty kilometres. With our eyeballs still shaking like jelly we made through to the next section where the recent heat had turned the tar into a sea of waves where you literally felt the car behaving as if you were on the sea. Then the pothole of all potholes which had, placed within the cavernous gaping hole of its depth and breadth, three huge rocks. These obviously placed in there to prevent a vehicle from complete destruction. The bang when we hit that hole set the windscreen wipers off, items in the car to go airborne and my husband to drain of colour. Unfortunately, I had been a conscientious driver prior to leaving home and had two new tyres put on the car plus a balancing done. Final bill, four new tyres, two rims repaired and two balancing’s.

A happy thought in passing is that as we stood there, in the middle of nowhere, dejectedly trying to change the tyre, a passing taxi from Eswatini stopped to assist us and did the hard work. He could have gone on ahead of us, but he didn’t as we still had a bubble on the side of the front brand-new tyre, and he was reluctant to allow us to drive alone and kept us company most of the way back assuring us that as he would be following, he would look out for us further. Faith in humanity but not in the road surfaces.