Home » South Africa Swaziland » Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: South Africa 1

5th february - 13th march

Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: South Africa 1

Andy Lees
2006-05-16 13:55:49

Displayed times (last time: )

suggests. even getting a minibus almost to the top the remainder still makes a challenging climb and a five hour round trip.

we were in luck, it was the clearest morning yet. not a cloud in the sky. we reached the top without much trouble and were treated to breathtaking views down to valleys far, far below. the rest of the range rippled into the distance and the sheer cliff face of the amphitheatre curved round to the side. to stand at the edge of the cliff was exhillerating and also a reminder of my vertigo.

my mostly, but not quite, conquered fear of heights was something i'd been trying not to dwell on. i knew what the descent entailed - 'the chains'. two chain ladders would form part of our route down. we'd climbed some on our previous walk and had found them slippery in the rain and they also had a nasty tendency to swing sideways across the boulders. well at least it wasn't raining, but these ladders were first 15m then 30m long. from the top, they looked like they hung down into nothingness as they disappeared over the edge of the rock.

in the end they weren't that bad. i edged out backwards over the lip. i never looked down, though i probably should have done. it didn't look so high after all.

the sani pass - 1st march

from the drakensberg the plan had been to explore the wild coast, travelling the coastal road to jeffreys bay for some surf action and then along the garden route to cape town before heading up to namibia. we changed our minds after deciding that whilst these smooth tarmac'd roads and comfy backpackers made a very nice holiday we now needed to get back into 'africa'. plus cape town has always been the end point for us so we couldn't really go there before our time was up. so we found ourselves driving up the sani pass into lesotho, taking the shortest and probably the most scenic route across the mountain passes and then heading ...