The date of my 3rd blogiversary hit me by surprise this year. (Honestly, I’d totally forgotten about it!) I was doing a little site maintenance last week and noticed the date of my first post – November 29th. Right away, I knew what I wanted to do – show some of my favorite photos of the last three years but there was no way to weed through more than 2,500 images in two days and decide which ones to use.
I registered my blog about 3 years before I started blogging. Even though I was traveling, I couldn’t seem to get the writing part going. That is, until two of my friends and I made it to southern Africa. Three weeks in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Lesotho and I returned with so many wonderful and memorable experiences, I could hear myself telling the same stories over and over. I needed a medium that would allow me to share my stories and photos – my usual travel journal wouldn’t do. Then I remembered the blog I registered and never used.
Shortly after I returned home, I looked up my blog, downloaded my photos – almost 1000 images – and began writing. Surprisingly, the words flowed and even more surprisingly, they haven’t stopped.
My blog and I have grown considerably since those first tentative moments three years ago. I’ve met and befriended readers and bloggers and can proudly say there’s no group more supportive. It is because of you that this 3rd blogiversary is possible.
In Take One, I’ll go back to where it started – that trip to southern Africa. We visited Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Victoria Falls and Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, and Sani Pass, Lesotho.
If you can only visit two continents in your lifetime, visit Africa. TWICE! – R. Elliott
Entrance to Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls RainbowVictoria FallsLunchtime at Makalolo Plains, Hwange National Park, ZimbabweLone bull elephant at Mbisa, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe
Hwange Elephant
Zebras
Giraffe
A lioness too full to move
Elephants playing at a watering hole, Hwange National Park
Elephants and Cape Buffalo, Hwange National Park
Mandela House, SowetoIconic Soweto WatertowersView from Table Mountain, Cape TownTable Mountain TableclothJackass Penguins at Boulders Beach, Cape TownVineyard, Stellenbosch, Cape TownM’hudi Wines’ Oupa Rangaka
On the ferry to Robben Island
Mandela’s Robben Island cell
The bars that couldn’t hold him
Overcome by emotion
Photo of Mandela on a banner at Victor Verster Prison
Mandela statue outside Victor Verser Prison
Durban trees
With the chief
Replica of a Zulu kraal
Zulu hut, Zululand
Zulu girls
Zulu woman and child
The dance
It’s my turn, Zululand
Sani Pass Hotel
Sani Pass, Drakensberg Mountains
Sani Pass, Drakensberg Mountains
Sani Pass Switchback, Drakensberg Mountains
Rock Paintings, Drakensberg Mtns
The other way to get up the mountain
Drakensberg Mountain
At 9000 ft, Sani Pass, Lesotho
Lunch at the Highest Pub in Africa
I had the Gluhwein
My lunch at the Highest Pub in Africa
Durban RickshawMorning on the Golden Mile, Durban
Some of the people we met…
Hotel worker, Durban
Our travel agents, Durban
A braai
With Thandiwe Klaasen, a SA jazz singer & Mercy, a dancer
Teachers at Peter Claver
Students at Peter Claver School
with the Prince
The Irreverent Sister at Mama Africa
With Lebo, M’Hudi Wines
With Prince Charles, Giant’s Castle guide
With Don, our tour guide
It’s been a while since I saw some of these photos so that made it even more difficult to decide what to include. But it was great looking back at the wonderful time we had.
I still keep in touch with several of the people we met in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The first time I visited Africa, a friend told me it would change my life. It took the second visit for it to happen.
Coming up tomorrow, Take 2: London, Paris, Toronto, and New York.
Linking up this week with Travel Photo Thursday, which Nancie at Budget Travelers Sandbox organizes. Be sure to head over and check out more photos from locations around the world.
The highest mountain range in Southern Africa, the Drakensberg Mountains reaches 11,424 feet. This part of the mountain is the Sani Pass, a 5 1/2 mile unlit dirt road that connects KwaZulu Natal to the Kingdom of Lesotho.
Sani Pass Switchback, Drakensberg Mountains
Sani Pass, from Lesotho
The view of the Sani Pass from 9,400 feet, in Lesotho.
When I spoke with Kieron Audain, the student and author who contacted me from Durban, he asked if we’d be visiting the Drakensberg. I had no idea what he was talking about. All we had been thinking about for Durban was a visit to Shakaland, a tour of the city and Umhlanga Rocks, and finding some good Indian restaurants. It was going to be a leisurely two days.
But when I Googled it, I knew we’d have to go.
At more than 11,000 ft., the Drakensberg Mountains is the highest range in Southern Africa. It is also home to Tugela Falls, the second highest waterfall in the world and the location where several hundred rock paintings done by the Bushmen, the indigenous people of Southern Africa, can be seen.
I was even more excited when I saw the Sani Pass, the dirt road that zigzags 9,400 feet up the Drakensberg Mountain and connects the Kingdom of Lesotho to the province of KwaZulu Natal.
We wanted to do all three: visit Tugela Falls, see the Bushman’s paintings and venture up the Sani Pass but dropped Tugela Falls when we realized we’d have to climb a chain ladder to get to parts of it. In addition, there really wouldn’t be enough time.
So following our visit to Shakaland and our overnight stay in Ballito, we checked in to the Sani Pass Hotel located at the foot of the Drakensberg Mountains just before lunch to begin our drive up the Pass.
Sani Pass Hotel
I just love these thatched roofs.
After checking in, we began the climb up the rugged Sani Pass, a kind of no-man’s land between the South African and Lesotho border control posts.
Leaving South Africa
The nearly 14 mile road up the Sani Pass is so dangerous, only 4-wheel drive vehicles (or 4-legged animals) are allowed.
4-wheel drive vehicle needed
But the views are spectacular.
Sani Pass road
In the early 1800s, King Moshoeshoe and his followers settled in this remote area to form what is now the Kingdom of Lesotho rather than being co-opted by King Shaka Zulu.
View of the mountainThis is a remote area
There’s no way to drive straight up.
Zigzagging up the mountain
The best way to climb the mountain.
Sani Pass SwitchbackSnow on the MountainYes, that’s where we just came from
While we waited for lunch, we visited the Sani Top Chalet.
Sani Top ChaletSani Top WelcomeSandra
Yes, we actually travelled 9,400 feet up the Drakensberg Mountain to have lunch at the Highest Pub in Africa.
My lunchThis bread was delicious!
I had heard so much about gluhwein, the wine, rum and sugar mixture served warm at the pub, I had to try it. I guess it’s better on a really cold day.
Sani Pass GluhweinFlying with the birds
Since the Sani Pass route is so dangerous and is unlit, it is closed at 4:00 p.m. daily. Shortly after lunch, we began the drive back down.
Under the setting sun, the mountain is breathtakingly beautiful.
In the shadowsIt would be suicidal to drive here at nightDrakensberg rocksMore stunning viewsFire on the mountain
During winter, the vegetation becomes brown and dry. Burning off the dry grass to promote new growth.
Smoke on the mountain
Before we arrived at the South African border control, we ran into a few people climbing the mountain on horses and donkeys.
4-wheel drive or donkey?
Before the road was cut, this was the only way up the Pass. Residents would travel down to Good Hope, a now defunct trading post at the foot of the mountain, to trade blankets for supplies.
