The plan was to take in several of the KZN Wildlife camps moving north along the Drakensberg range. The first post of call Injisuthi (S29 07.172 E29 26.554). The majority of the drive was easy until we turned off on the final 30km road that ended up at the Injisuthi Reserve. It started with good tarmac which became badly potholed, and then evolved into a rocky dirt track. Reaching the entrance gate we returned to tar for the last 7km. Just short of camp a small crew were repairing the tar and much to the annoyance of the head man we had driven on part of the new bit, oops. Well it was the wider part of a narrow road with cones down the middle and no indication of which side to drive on. Oh and we chose the side that didn't look new, says a lot for their quality of work.
Anyway, the camp was stunning. Two fairly large campsites and the main camp of 15 cottages. The campsite was empty. After lunch we checked in and paid for 3 nights with the option of extending. With not many trees in the campsite a sunny pitch was the option which suited us fine, well suited the solar panel to be more exact. No power on offer, not that we needed it.
What a stunning location. 360 degrees of big lumps of rock to look at, and no other soul in sight. As we had 3 nights ahead of us and also the ever threatening rain clouds around us we put up the room that zips below the tent. Shrewd move, had a major thunderstorm not too much later. At night it was mighty dark. It had cleared over but no moon. I came out of the toilet block to return to Mufasa quite late on with him no more than 60 feet away and without a torch I could not see him.
Our first morning was bright and sunny so we broke out the hiking gear and chose one of the shorter walks, yellowwood forest - old kraal - dipping tank, that took just a couple of hours. Seeing as we had not hiked for nearly a year we didn't want to over do it! The walk was delightfull and we spent the rest of the day reading and looking at the hills around. The camp still ours alone, well with the exception of a few inquisitive wild mice and a family of guineafowl!
The 2nd morning greeted us with damp and mist, quite a low cloud base so no options for a 2nd walk. Well not for us at least. There are several caves up in the mountains that can be slept in and we knew from the walk register that a group were up there somewhere in the wet gloom! The campsite was however still our private property so we kicked back and relaxed. Things eventually cleared up later on and we had a short stroll out of camp to stretch our legs, nothing too taxing. Sadly though we had company back in camp with the arrival of two other parties, never mind. We had 2 quiet nights which were unexpected and a holiday weekend was looming.
Thankfully the sun returned by the 3rd morning and the hike to Van Heyningen's Pass and view point called us. It didn't start too well with the bridge across the river next to camp broken but we managed to scramble across, stone hopping! The route took us out and up to the bottom of the pass thru long wet grass and then up in the forest on a wet slippery rocky path to the top. Boy it was hard going in places but it was worth it! The view was breathtaking both along the high berg ridge including Monks Cowl and Giant's Castle, and down in the valley to Mufasa about 400m below us. After a short rest we were back down and in camp. On our way we passed a small group heading up and past where we had been to an overnight in Wonder Cave. Rather them than us, their packs were huge!
As our 3 nights were up we stopped of at the office to try and book in for a few more. It was Friday and the start of a long weekend with a holiday on the Monday. We could only get one night as Saturday and Sunday were fully booked! With the help of Molly at the reception we managed to book into the next stop we were planning, Monks Cowl Camp, not too far away north up the range. The place certainly did fill out that afternoon and evening. A big hiking club was descending on the place for the weekend. We were kind of glad to be going as it was our own private place for a while and sharing it with reams of others didn't seem right. But we will return one day not only to enjoy the rest of the hikes possible but hopefully to enjoy peace and quiet in our private camp!
Saturday came and we were packed and off pretty early not sure what lay ahead of us at Monks Cowl, but getting to a busy camp is fine, or at least that is what we told ourselves. And if nothing else we had the busy 2 nights of the weekend sorted.
One thing we did know was that it would have to be pretty special to beat Injisuthi!
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