Sky's the limit

We headed South West and stayed in the small town of Himeville where Phil had stayed with his folks and had very fond memories. Himeville has one of the last forts erected in South Africa and was created to keep the white settlers safe from the Zulu. The fort has been turned into a wonderful little museum full of antiques donated by locals and a few quirkily taxidermied animals.

Our main reason for going to Himeville was to experience the Sani Pass 'road' which provides a spectacular ride around hair-pin bends into the clouds to the kingdom of Lesotho. At 2865 meters this is the highest pass in South Africa. Since this road is strictly for 4wd - very steep, narrow and strewn with rocks and potholes - we took a tour with the friendly and knowledgeable Dane who not only drove us to the top but provided information on just about every detail along the way.

Once we made it over the pass and past Lesotho's passport control we headed to a little village where we got a tour of Mya Elaina's house and tasted some of her delicious home-brewed beer and home-baked bread. With the taste of beer in our mouths, we headed over to the Sani Pass Pub, the highest pub in Africa, to sample some of their wares including the local beer, Maluti, and a delicious mulled wine and rum concoction called Gluweiss. We kept a watchfull eye on our drivers to make sure the treaterous road back down was no more dangerous than necessary. Although the drivers were dry, the heavens opened on the way back down providing a beautiful rainbow-filled view of the valley below.

Drakensburg: Dragon Mountains

We decided to rent a car for the first 10 days in South Africa so we could take in the amazing Drakensburg mountains which would be more or less unaccessible by bus. We headed to Central Drakensburg and stayed at the incredibly situated Inkosana Lodge. It offers pretty unbeatable views and very delicious soup as well as three huge but well behaved dogs. For such a remote area, it was surprisingly busy but that may have been because it was a long weekend.

We did a few day hikes - one from Monk's Cowl in Central Drakensburg and one from near the Amphitheater in Northern Drakensburg - both of which were stunning. It was nice to stretch the legs again, climb up the trails and amble on top of the plateaus. The only downside was that it was a little damp and threatening rain so we didn't aim for particularly long hikes incase the weather turned against us. We managed to spot a very cool Drakensburg dwarf chameleon which kept us entertained for 10 minutes while it climbed up a stalk of grass.

Big bad Jo'burg

We played it safe when we were in Jo'burg, especially given all the bad press it gets. We didn't want to become just another few statistics. Reports say that the city's crime is decreasing because of the highened security for the soccer World Cup that is only about 80 days away. From the minute we got there, it seemed like everyone was gripped by World Cup fever - instead of killing tourists they seem to be making a killing off the merchandise.

Slowly easing ourselves into it, we headed to East Gate Mall, a halfway house between Africa and not Africa. We got the last bits of gear that we needed (at a great price!) and spent some time in Spur, one of South Africa's chain steak places. Yum yum.

We also took a day tour of Soweto, or the South West Township (So-We-To). Soweto is where Jo'burg's non-white population was moved in 1904 so they would be away from the whites but close enough to use as workers. It now houses more than 2 million people and has a range of neighborhoods, with some being incredibly affluent (but lacking the razor wire found in other Jo'burg neighborhoods) and others being fairly poor. We took an awkward walking tour of one of the poorer neighborhoods which was uncomfortably cut short when it became apparent that we had not brough any small money to distribute to locals for being able to view their houses (our guide had neglected to tell us about exactly what would be on our itinerary). But dispite that little hiccup the tour was fabulous and gave us a chance to visit the Nelson Mandela museum - which is housed in his former residence in Soweto - and Hector Pieterson Square which is dedicated to the uprisings in the late 1970s.

Our tour took us through central Jo'burg which seems edgy but not the militarised 'no-go' zone we were expecting. The size took us by surprise, though - the city is massive and contains loads of highrises, many of which are unoccupied because of the trouble that happens after dark.
On the way back from Soweto we got a glimpse of the new pixelated pumpkin-esque stadium where the final game will be played. Another upside of the World Cup is that the roads are being upgraded which is slowing things down for some people but working out quite nicely for us.