Royal Natal National Park

I wake to birdsong, which is always a pleasure.

Truth be told, I woke at three am, begrudgingly. But I managed to take a nap again from 4-6 and woke to birdsong, sunshine on green hills, cool spring air coming in through the enormous window by my bedside, and the pleasure of a large comfortable bed.

I like this place.
It reminds me of other beautiful places where I've been fortunate to live, but has its own special feel as well. A little bit like mixing Carmel Valley, CA with Atenas, Costa Rica and a pinch of New Mexico. The Drakensberg Mountains are rugged and ancient and picturesque.

My body is tired from a beautiful hike yesterday. I am feeling a hint of 'maybe this trip is ending soon', and also the accompanying sensation that I should do just a little more 'while I'm here'. This isn't the first time I have felt this way.

I'm also feeling very fortunate to be traveling with a friend: this resort where we are staying has maybe 50 chalets but only about 5 are presently occupied, which feels a little weird and would feel lonely if I were solo travelling for this part of the adventure. I'm also glad to be sharing the hikes with a friend because it makes the hiking better.

Yesterday's hike was up the Tugela River Gorge with the intention of getting a good look at the world's tallest waterfall. Spoiler: it wasn't a great view.

The out-and-back hike was full of pretty water-carved rock features, magnificent vistas, proteas (the national flower of ZA), and little (30m / 100ft) cascades. It was only 16km (10 miles) but the middle portion was an absolute ass-kicker. We climbed ladders and chain ladders, clambored up muddy cliffs using roots as ladders, and spent over two hours hopping from boulder to boulder in the riverbed itself. Finding the "trail" was pure guesswork many times, and we guessed wrong, plenty.

We did catch some awesome albeit distant views of the falls (distant as in 5km away). It's a looong drop and I'll bet that when it is really flowing strong it must be awe inspiring.

However to say that we walked "to the falls" would be an outright lie. Sure, we got pics with a commemorative plaque, but even after seeing it twice we can't fathom why it is mounted on a rock that is several miles from the waterfall with no view. Odd.

And so after several hours we gave up without reaching "the end" of the trail. Or maybe we did reach the end. Who knows? We did walk over 16km on a trail that is supposed to be 14km... And yet the map seemed to show that the trail continued. Then again, the map also showed that the trail was alongside the river where we could only see sheer cliffs rising several stories above the water.

The weather was perfect, a cold plunge in the icy water felt amazing, there were birds, flowers, lizards, and baboon poop (no baboons sighted). We made it there and back through dangerous conditions with nothing worse than a few scratches while bushwhacking. Success! Just ... Not the success we had envisioned.

I take some comfort in knowing we hiked further than several other parties who were also on the trail and that when we spoke to anyone else we all agreed it was rather confusing.Read more