Hotagterklip

I arose at 6am after a quite a cool night which left me adding extra layers to my summer sleeping bag. I got a cold shower and ate a hearty breakfast of three 'egg baskets' which apparently is an overlander delicacy of an egg fried in the removed centre of a slice of bread. We also had last night's potatoes and green plums to enjoy. We headed off on the truck through mountain scenery and down to Cape L'agulhus, the most southerly point in Africa and therefore the most southerly point I have ever been to on this planet. The coastline was once again beautiful with copper coloured and grey rocky outcrops. I took a moment to feel how far south I had come and look over the sea towards Antarctica. We took photos by a sign pointing to the Atlantic ocean one way, and the Indian ocean the other way. There was also a large 3D relief of the African continent that you could walk on. We traced our journey on the map and contemplated how far we had come and how much we had seen. We then drove the truck to a nearby lighthouse and bought our lunch. We then travelled on throug more mountain ranges and I reflected that we had been constantly travelling under the gaze of mountains for over a week now. The countryside became greener with a high level of development and agriculture on the flat areas at the foot of the mountains. We then drove past an even more massive mountain range with many streams falling steeply off the sides of the mountain in countless waterfalls and down into a large river at the bottom. Eventually, we turned left and onto the T? pass through the mountain range. We climbed steeply up an enormous river gorge with huge mountains above the gorge. The gorge sides had vertical cliffs and great rocks balanced in stacks. The river far below consisted of very dark mineralised waters that tumbled down through the gorge. This was nature, once again, on an epic scale and took the breath away as every corner of the mountain road revealed a new mountain road. We reached a high plateau and continued on through yet more mountain scenery. The green and lush alpine country in the gorge gave way to a much drier, sandy ecology with spars bushes and cacti. There were also a few remote towns on thses heights.
As we continued, we drove towards another enormous mountain range with sheer, grey rocky peaks, shining silver in the sun. There was a mountain with a huge split in the rock area its peak. We drove along this range of mountains for mile after mile. At one point the range drew into almost a knife edge along its peak. Then we reached our hostel. ?, which was a lovely hostel with nice, clean dorm beds, a communal kitchen, bar with a great pool table, nice gardens, a small pool and a rustic artsy feel. We settled into our dorm room and then went to the bar where I enjoyed playing some pool. We were cooked a very nice barbecue meal where I tried ostrich meat which I really didn't enjoy much as it was chewy and tasted more like beef than chicken. After the meal I spent some more time in the bar and overheard the barman talking in racist terms to my fellow traveller, Kristim. We have noticed that there is still a lot of racist views in the white population in South Africa which is deeply unpleasant to our sensibilities, but clearly still an ingrained part of the troubled history and culture of this country.
I returned to our dorm room and managed to go to sleep quite quickly on the very comfy mattress, despite the night air being very hot again.Read more