The Beginners Hike, 2008, Injusuthi Again
I had a brilliant idea for this trip report that failed horribly. The idea was to use everyone on the trip to do a bit for the trip report, and then put all the little bits together to create a report that brings everyone’s view together to create a holistic multi-faceted approach to trip reporting. Of course no one actually did their bit, so this report is made of two views, that of mine and that of Mike Demers. Let us start with Mike’s introduction:
“Hey Hoosain,
Here is a small part of our trip report. Hope no one else wrote about
the beginning part yet. Feel free to make it more Brittish/SA if I
made anything sound too American.
Michael
On Friday March _, 2008, Hoosain, Laura, Sara, and I left Wits in
Joanna's nice red car. Our ride to Harrismith and Injasuthi was
uncharacteristically quiet and our group would retain the reputation
as the "quiet car" for the rest of the journey. We left Wits at around
2:30pm, and although Willem's Jeep-load of Explorers did not leave
campus until 5:00pm, they arrived at Injasuthi merely half an hour
after us. This incredible folding of space and time can be attributed
largely to Willem's encyclopedic knowledge of KZN back roads – a
considerable advantage to the other car – and our own groups wasteful
use of 2.5 hours at the Nando's and surrounding biltong shops in
Harrismith.
As darkness fell, we found ourselves on a dark road that we could only
know was on a hillside from the position of lights in the settlements
below us. Somnambulant figures appeared and reappeared out of complete
darkness. Even late at night, our road was an active pedestrian
thoroughfare connecting village residents with a shebeen located at
the road's entrance. Several dogs were also observed in the area. When
our car's engine overheated, we took a break of 30 minutes to allow
its internal workings to "chill out." Initial attempts to summon one
or more of the township dogs were made by one Explorer, though
actively discouraged by others. In the quiet night, we could hear the
nearby river.
Arriving at the Injasuthi park gate, Hoosain was the first to climb
over the fence and make a first pass at finding a security guard to
unlock it for us. He returned after not finding it at first, and I
went up the hill with him, but found nothing again. On the hill our
cell phones were able to access Vodacom service, and we called Willem
to confirm that there was indeed a hut with security guards. Walking
back up the hill, further along a divergent path not taken last time,
Hoosain and I encountered a group of abandoned-looking huts. We yelled
for about 5 minutes, sounding ridiculous. Finally, a guard came out
with a machine gun over his shoulder to unlock the gate for us. At the
foot of the hill, we waited for Willem's car, as we knew from our cell
phone conversation that they were only 30 minutes away. Negotiating
with the guard (a first for me: bargaining with a person with a
machine gun whose first language is not English) we waited for Willem
and then drove to the camp where we laid out sleeping backs on the
grass.
Waking the next morning, everyone was surprised to see that we were
actually in the middle of the Drakensberg Mountains (at least I was).
Signs posted at the bathroom warned us to beware a "problem animal," a
baboon that was known to take campers' food. After liberally applying
sunscreen and a quick breakfast, we were off to the trail for what
would be, at times, an arduous trek to the Marble Baths Cave.
“
The hike up to the Marble Baths Cave is quite easy or so I thought, but after the first km, many in the group thought otherwise. The hiking was fairly slow and chilled out. With odd outbursts of song from Cai, about a vulgar Engineer and his Wife. We stopped several times, collapsed out of exhaustion once and I spent a lot of the day convincing some beginners that the cave was just around the next corner. The higher we went the more radical became the views, ranging from lone waterfalls high-up hilly peaks &cliffs to sweeping backs of giant mountains.
At one time, on a particularly challenging uphill, the group then split in half decided to just plop down on the path in utter exhaustion and eat apples. The only person energetic enough to run between the groups, and please note, not walk, run, was Willem. It is almost like mother-nature turned her face away from us for that moment, as even though we’d heard of survival of the fittest, we wanted nothing to do with it. Sometimes I wonder how humans made it to that lone top wrung. Hmm
We made it to the cave in about 5-6 hours, after a hasty lunch, we headed down to the Marble Baths for an afternoon of swimming and chilling in the icy cold water of the Marble Baths. Everyone got wet and cold, and spent the afternoon as a neutralizer for the day of hiking preceding. An afternoon of utter languor! Quite heavenly now that I think back. And before I realized, the early night was over, the hike back was a breeze and we were leaving the beauty of the Berg for the bright lights and tuts and traffics of the city. If only I could stop time on trips, if only
.
I had a brilliant idea for this trip report that failed horribly. The idea was to use everyone on the trip to do a bit for the trip report, and then put all the little bits together to create a report that brings everyone’s view together to create a holistic multi-faceted approach to trip reporting. Of course no one actually did their bit, so this report is made of two views, that of mine and that of Mike Demers. Let us start with Mike’s introduction:
“Hey Hoosain,
Here is a small part of our trip report. Hope no one else wrote about
the beginning part yet. Feel free to make it more Brittish/SA if I
made anything sound too American.
Michael
On Friday March _, 2008, Hoosain, Laura, Sara, and I left Wits in
Joanna's nice red car. Our ride to Harrismith and Injasuthi was
uncharacteristically quiet and our group would retain the reputation
as the "quiet car" for the rest of the journey. We left Wits at around
2:30pm, and although Willem's Jeep-load of Explorers did not leave
campus until 5:00pm, they arrived at Injasuthi merely half an hour
after us. This incredible folding of space and time can be attributed
largely to Willem's encyclopedic knowledge of KZN back roads – a
considerable advantage to the other car – and our own groups wasteful
use of 2.5 hours at the Nando's and surrounding biltong shops in
Harrismith.
As darkness fell, we found ourselves on a dark road that we could only
know was on a hillside from the position of lights in the settlements
below us. Somnambulant figures appeared and reappeared out of complete
darkness. Even late at night, our road was an active pedestrian
thoroughfare connecting village residents with a shebeen located at
the road's entrance. Several dogs were also observed in the area. When
our car's engine overheated, we took a break of 30 minutes to allow
its internal workings to "chill out." Initial attempts to summon one
or more of the township dogs were made by one Explorer, though
actively discouraged by others. In the quiet night, we could hear the
nearby river.
Arriving at the Injasuthi park gate, Hoosain was the first to climb
over the fence and make a first pass at finding a security guard to
unlock it for us. He returned after not finding it at first, and I
went up the hill with him, but found nothing again. On the hill our
cell phones were able to access Vodacom service, and we called Willem
to confirm that there was indeed a hut with security guards. Walking
back up the hill, further along a divergent path not taken last time,
Hoosain and I encountered a group of abandoned-looking huts. We yelled
for about 5 minutes, sounding ridiculous. Finally, a guard came out
with a machine gun over his shoulder to unlock the gate for us. At the
foot of the hill, we waited for Willem's car, as we knew from our cell
phone conversation that they were only 30 minutes away. Negotiating
with the guard (a first for me: bargaining with a person with a
machine gun whose first language is not English) we waited for Willem
and then drove to the camp where we laid out sleeping backs on the
grass.
Waking the next morning, everyone was surprised to see that we were
actually in the middle of the Drakensberg Mountains (at least I was).
Signs posted at the bathroom warned us to beware a "problem animal," a
baboon that was known to take campers' food. After liberally applying
sunscreen and a quick breakfast, we were off to the trail for what
would be, at times, an arduous trek to the Marble Baths Cave.
“
The hike up to the Marble Baths Cave is quite easy or so I thought, but after the first km, many in the group thought otherwise. The hiking was fairly slow and chilled out. With odd outbursts of song from Cai, about a vulgar Engineer and his Wife. We stopped several times, collapsed out of exhaustion once and I spent a lot of the day convincing some beginners that the cave was just around the next corner. The higher we went the more radical became the views, ranging from lone waterfalls high-up hilly peaks &cliffs to sweeping backs of giant mountains.
At one time, on a particularly challenging uphill, the group then split in half decided to just plop down on the path in utter exhaustion and eat apples. The only person energetic enough to run between the groups, and please note, not walk, run, was Willem. It is almost like mother-nature turned her face away from us for that moment, as even though we’d heard of survival of the fittest, we wanted nothing to do with it. Sometimes I wonder how humans made it to that lone top wrung. Hmm
We made it to the cave in about 5-6 hours, after a hasty lunch, we headed down to the Marble Baths for an afternoon of swimming and chilling in the icy cold water of the Marble Baths. Everyone got wet and cold, and spent the afternoon as a neutralizer for the day of hiking preceding. An afternoon of utter languor! Quite heavenly now that I think back. And before I realized, the early night was over, the hike back was a breeze and we were leaving the beauty of the Berg for the bright lights and tuts and traffics of the city. If only I could stop time on trips, if only
.
