27 Mar 2009 – The Drakensbergs: Hiking, Games, and Relaxation

Thursday morning we’d scheduled a group hike at 9AM, so after a buffet breakfast, we loaded into the vans for a fifteen minute trip to the bottom of the mountain trail. A guide from Monte-Aux-Sources led us into the foothills of the Drakensbergs along a riverside path that curved between large gray boulders and dry, prickly African brush. The views were stunning as we marched through the tall grasses with the mountains rising all around us and the river cascading down the rocky riverbed at our sides. We hiked for a little over an hour, pausing to take pictures of the views and the ancient rock paintings by the river, and then took a break on a rock at the top of a series of small waterfalls.

(Rock Paintings)

We were prepared for a swim in the rocky pools below, but we first had to shimmy down between the boulders through a small cave to reach the level of the water. Though it had grown quite hot by late morning, the mountain spring water was still dreadfully icy as we slipped into the deep pools. We spent the next half hour climbing over the rocks, under the falls, and into the caves beneath the rushing water. The setting looked like something straight out of an eco-travel magazine, with the pools of water dropping off beyond the boulders and the tree canopy yielding to a view across the valley towards the pale outline of distant mountains.

We hiked back down around 11:30, stopping for another swim at “The Cascades” (which reminded me vaguely of Slide Rock State Park in Arizona) and then landed in the grass at the empty lot at the trail head. While waiting for the vans to return, we occupied ourselves with yoga poses and headstands, and then we drove back to the resort for lunch.At 2PM, eight of us met up at the sand court on the main lawn for a rousing game of 4v4 volleyball. None of us was very skilled at the sport, but that provided the fodder for much hilarity and ironic psych-outs on both sides. We played three sets before the heat of the afternoon became overwhelming and we dashed for the pool. Many of us napped or walked around the grounds during the early evening, and then we met up for dinner at 7:00 in the dining room. We arranged to gather at the chess board two hours later for a game of manhunt, which 12 of us decided to play.
The resort grounds were perfect for the game, despite the steep slope of the hill towards the “base”, which we’d designated to be a large tree near the main building. We partitioned the lawn so that the area of play was contained in the shadowy field by the volleyball court and pool, and then played five or six rounds that saw people toppling over hedges, wiping out on the grassy hill, and sprinting across the yard, shrieking like the African birds that swoop overhead all day long. Even though half of the group dropped out of the game as we played, both the activity and the atmosphere were exhilarating. When we finished the last game, we sprawled out on the hill looking up at the starry sky and the flashes of lightening pulsating over the distant mountains.


On Friday the only thing that pulled people out of bed in the morning was the fact that breakfast closed at 9:30. The previous early mornings during the excursion, however - coupled with the early-rising sun - caused three of us in chalet 504 to awake by 7AM. We watched a movie on the film channel before walking up the hill to breakfast, where we met several other members of our group and arranged an 11AM volleyball game. The 4v4 match included a few new players and a lot of the same antics as the previous day, but we lasted only two sets, this time, before running for the pool.

After lunch at one, people went separate ways for the afternoon. While I played a game of tennis, many people lounged by the pool, and others had scheduled massages and spa treatments. Horseback riding and ATVing in the mountains had already been booked when we’d called, but as they were expensive activities anyway, everyone seemed content to take the afternoon slow and enjoy the resort atmosphere. There were several conference groups and families staying at Monte-Aux-Sources, as well, but few roamed the grounds, and we had the place nearly to ourselves for a game of capture the flag at 3:30.

I’ve never played a game of capture the flag nearly as strategic and stealthy as the 4v4 matches we played this afternoon on the resort grounds. The mountainside setting and the excessively landscaped area included courts, fields, trees, and shrubs that divided up the property. The game, therefore, involved relatively little sprinting across open fields and a lot of crawling and sneaking through trees and shrubs. Each game lasted about 45 minutes, and despite the seeming impossibility of locating a flag in such wide and vegetation-dense territories, our team pulled out a victory each time (even if that meant I spent twenty minutes army-crawling through mud and ferns behind the chalets to reach the other team’s flag). We got many an inquiring look from resort security and visitors as we skulked around the property, but that only added to the element of adventure.

After a good shower to remove the evidence of our covert operations on the resort grounds, we met up for dinner again at the main lodge. The cappuccino ice cream and mulva pudding for dessert drew a bunch of us in before we left to go pack up our things for our check-out early the next morning. At 9:00, most people left in the vans for a karaoke bar in a small, nearby town, which turned into quite the event once Vernon stepped up to the mic to sing and Marita was coaxed into dancing. Overall, the evening proved to be an excellent ending to a wonderful excursion. Now tomorrow morning we’ll all just have to peel ourselves out of bed at 4:30AM so that we can drive the three hours back to Durban for our 11AM flight back to Cape Town.