The Drakensberg Mountains

After the whirlwind days of Cape Town and Wine Country we flew to Durban and rented a car and visited the Drakensberg Mountains.  This is a UNESCO World heritage site and visiting any one of those has always proven worthwhile.  We mainly hiked for 5 days in Royal Natal.  The first few days were from the base up.  This is where we did the The George hike.  The highlight of the trip was the Sentinel hike on the last day.  We hiked all the way up around The Sentinel to the top of the Amphitheater and Thukela Falls (2nd highest in the world).  Without a doubt it was one of the greatest hikes of my life.  It even included the Chain Ladder at 2800m, which was terrifying.

The hike up.  You can see the outlines of the Amphitheater.  Drakensberg means "Dragon Mountains"and it is easy to see why with clouds like this.  One of my favorite shots of the trip is this one.

In the gorge looking up.  It rained on and off the whole day.

The Sentinel hike started off like this from our hotel.  You can see the Sentinel on the right there.

Most of the hike was pretty manageable, similar to this.  I lasted 10 minutes without wanting to use my camera.

Then there was the Chain Ladder. It was two sections. One a 50 foot one and the second a 20 foot one.  These pictures don't do it justice, of course.  2800m up, the wind blowing on a rickety small ladder and, goodness, don't look to your left as it is looks like it drops off for forever.

We had to wait our turn to get there.  Here are some Germans just ahead of us.

And then Meredith on the way up.

At the top.  Relief. Except there is one more section to go now.

Here were the views from the top of the falls.  Days earlier, we hiked up to the valley below.  Amazing.