South Africa – Travel to the Drakensburg – Tour Day 5
Travel
The 5th day of the South Africa, August 6, we traveled in our big bus from Johannesburg down to the Drakensburg Park in Kwq-Zulu Natal.
It was our first ride south in Johannesburg and it look similar to other directions. Lots of houses.
There was a layer of smoke over the southern part of Johannesburg that I hadn’t noticed much in the city. You can kinda see it in the 2 photos below. Lots of fires to heat and cook results in this layer of yuck in the air. Kinda like Denver in the winter.
Love these duplexes with each half painted a different color. And a huge sea of them.
And like everywhere else – gotta have the satellite TV. Somethings are universal.
The drive south was beautiful. We took the scenic route by the Sterkfontein Dam – an interesting combination of water storage and hydro electric station that is part of the Tugela-Vaal Water Project. They pump the water around depending on if they need water or electricty.
Mostly it was just beautiful to drive by for this tourist.
Water.
More Water.
The mechanism to pump the water back up the mountain is here. But it can’t be seen as they covered it all back up after building it. Very cool.
Lunch
We had lunch near Winterton at a place called Thokosiza, shops and an amazing lunch. We had a brownie that everyone talked about for the rest of the trip as it won the award for best dessert. I failed to take photos of my food, but we had some amazing meals.
While waiting for our lunch we got to watch the Weaver birds. We had a lot of bird folks on the trip and I have to admit I’m not much of a bird person although I enjoyed the few that made themselves very obvious.
Weaver
The nests of the Weavers. Pretty clever houses hanging in the tree.
There were aleo all over South Africa and many beautiful flowering ones at Thokosiza. I did some sketching and plenty of photography also. We were all swarming about taking photos of the birds and flowers (and shopping).
To Cathedral Peak
We stopped into a rug weaving/candle making place nearby and then loaded back in the bus for the drive up into the Drakensburg mountains. One of the top holiday destinations in SA and for good reason – it’s incredibly beautiful.
Our destination was to Didima Camp- near Cathedral Peak.
The drive up up to mountains was amazing. Through a tribal area (Zulu? I wrote that down but later remember being told they were not zulu so not sure).
I took a zillion photos of the homes and when I get them processed and up on smugmug you will see many more.
I’m pretty sure views like these would be rather expensive in a place like California. Gorgeous!
Photos out the bus window are an artform that I sometimes mastered and sometimes didn’t.
The mountains had a very similar feel to the Colorado Rockies but also very different. They were gorgeous. It was late afternoon when we arrived.
First view of Cathedral Peak.
Cathedral Peak from my hotel room – my view for the next 3 nights.
Posted by Lisa in: art adventures
Tagged: drakensburg, south africa
Great pictures Lisa!! I have been following your African adventures with interest and glad to see these new additions. Really in expectation of your art creations. Thank you!!
Great pictures Lisa!! I have been following your African adventures with interest and glad to see these new additions. Really in expectation of your art creations. Thank you!!
Sorry… forgot to say great post – can’t wait to read your next one!
Great photos! I especially love the one that looks like an agave, or maybe some relative thereof. Makes me want to do an agave quilt, for old time’s sake.
Also, it’s interesting how much of the scenery kind of looks like NM.