The Cavern

This weekend I took a trip to the Northern Drakensberg Mountains to a resort called the Cavern. I met 10 other ladies there...only knowing one of them at the beginning of the trip. We ate, went on a long hike, ate, relaxed, ate, played 'bowls', ate, saw some singers and gum boot dancers, and ate some more. It was a lot of fun, and I definitely don't need to eat for about a week!

Here is what the resort looked like. It was very pretty and the rooms were very nice. They had tons of aloe plants (that are really big and get an orange flower on them) and fern trees...even fern forests nearby.

On Saturday morning we went on a long hike up to Cannibal Cavern. Here is a pic looking down towards the resort as we were hiking up the hillside.

This is Madumbe, a dog that went along on the hike. He fetches stones...not sticks. His name means sweet potato in Zulu.

This is the actual Cannibal Cavern. People were hiding out here from King Shaka and eventually resorted to cannibalism. We stopped here for tea and crunchies (ironic), which are like granola bars but a lot harder. They are great when dunked in tea.

Here are some rock paintings found near Cannibal Cavern. There is a big buck and a small buck--they are the only paintings that are currently visible.

Here is a picture of my friend Cal and I on the hike. It was so nice of her to invite me on the fun weekend!

Here is a short video of the singers--the night time entertainment. They sound much better live than on a video. I also took some longer videos but they take too long to download. They sounded great and are very 'Africa' according to the natives.

Before we left on Sunday we played Bowls. It is kind of like shuffle board but on a bowling green (or brown in this case.) I almost felt like an 80 year old in a retirement center in Florida...don't they play games like this?

Today was also the Comrades Marathon. It is an 80 km race from Pietermartizburg to Durban...twice a normal marathon, about 52 miles! The male winner ran the race in about 5 hours and 20 minutes. The female winner ran it in about 6 hours and 12 minutes. I think that they must be a little crazy!

Castleburn

I had a three day weekend because Friday was 'Workers Day' in South Africa. I am not really sure of the significance of Worker's Day, but it was nice to have the day off. I spent my weekend at Castleburn Lake in the Drakensberg Mountains. It is in the southern part of the mountain range which they call Underberg.

The mountains don't really look that similar to our mountain ranges, but the scenery was still beautiful.

The mountain off to the right in the picture is known as Castleburn because it looks like a castle. The Zulu name for the mountain peak means 'rotten teeth.'The weather was very nice during the days and the evenings were cool. The house where we stayed had under-floor heating, so it was warm and cozy. We stayed in a very nice 4 bedroom home that was right on the lake. We took hikes around the lake, went out on the boat, and just relaxed.

On Saturday we went to the Drakensburg Gardens, a World Heritage Site, and hiked around the mountains for about 2 1/2 hours. Inside the park they had a golf course, cottages, a lake and lots of hiking trails. It was very pretty too.

On our hike we stumbled upon a huge group of baboons. We were all quite nervous at first as the baboons can be quite aggressive, especially the alpha male. I guess that they have been known to attack humans. There was a story in the newspaper today about a baboon in Cape Town that walked right into a house, opened the fridge and took food, went after a few people in the house, and then walked out the front door. They are a 'protected' species, but supposedly you can kill them in self defense. Definitely a different kind of robber than you usually hear about. As we walked by, the baby baboons ran off down the hillside into the small forest. This one stayed and watched us walk by. I'm not going to lie--I was a little nervous.