We continued our visit to the Drackensburg Mountains by
traveling from the Sani Pass region in the southern ‘berg’ to the Injasuthi
valley in the central ‘berg’. The drive that day was “only” 300km, but it took
us ALL DAY and we only just made it to camp prior to dusk. It was somewhat
stressful as we did not know if the Injasuthi camp had a locked gate – a lot of
them do and they typically lock things up at 6 PM. We got there at 6:05. Traveling
in Africa at night is not recommended for a whole host of reasons.
During the frustratingly slow day of travel, my mind
wandered into a place of discovery that may very well be original and
reasonably accurate; let’s call it the “African Driving Coefficient”. It goes
like this: take your proposed distance in km and apply it to a similar distance
in miles in the USA on highway travel (no interstates). For example, Ouray to Denver via Hwy 285 is
around 300 miles and it takes around 6 hours if you follow the speed limit. All highway driving. The African Driving Coefficient would suggest
that you could achieve a 6 hour drive time over the course of 300km (186
miles). This also assumes that you have
the benefit of African interstate equivalents on a large portion of your
drive. Otherwise, add another 33% to
make it 8 hours. Following? Suffice it to say, the driving is always
adventurous. The maps are inaccurate at times, the road signs are often
non-existent, and don’t even mention the ‘solution’ of having an iPad with GPS
because we have one and it only helps marginally…it’s amazing to me how often I
approach a given African driving day brimming with optimism only to have my
plans dashed against the windshield of reality like a squashed insect. Slow learner. Really slow…
Injasuthi is a really neat location. Very scenic surrounding peaks, valleys, and
sandstone cliffs. A certain level of
remoteness in the feel of the place without being in the middle of nowhere. The
hiking was excellent.
What was not excellent was the visiting troop of baboons.
Our first morning in Injasuthi we enjoyed our usual routine of coffee,
breakfast, etc. Because the office was
closed upon our arrival the previous evening, we had to go check in and pay for
our campsite. We were gone for 20
minutes. No more. During our absence, a troop of baboons came by for a visit
and proceeded to wreck havoc on our campsite. They tore open our ground tent. A
brand new Black Diamond $400 tent utterly destroyed. Garbage. And there was no
food in there of any kind. Just packs and a sleeping pad. They bent the
aluminum poles, tore open the tent mid-fabric (i.e. they did not use the zipper
J) and even managed to
rip the rain fly for good measure. After
that, they ripped open our bag of briquettes and spread them around, and as a
final signature event, one of them ascended the roof tent ladder, came through
the entrance (thankfully unzipped) and peed all over the mattress. Oh man…if
only…it reminded me of John Travolta as Vincent Vega in the Pulp Fiction scene
about getting his car keyed by some punk…”it woulda been worth gettin’ it keyed,
if only I coulda caught him in the act…”
We finally got everything back to baseline, less a tent now
residing in the garbage can and set off on our previously planned hike. It was
hot. Damn hot! Africa hot!!! After about 30 minutes of hiking we came across a
great swimming spot in a creek. I was so in that cold water and I mean
fast. No more than 2 seconds after I got
in I hear Mackenzie yell, “snake! snake!”
I get out and watch this snake cascade down through the miniature falls
in the creek and end in a pool below. He swam away in a hurry. It was another
puff adder (very poisonous). In case I forgot to mention earlier, I came within
one stride of stepping on a coiled puff adder in Cape Town on our first hike on
Table Mountain. The wildlife encounters of this day were fraying us at the
nerve endings…
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