Drakensberg and Lake Naverone

After the excitement of hunting down the "Big 5" in my previous post, we decided to have a few days respite in the Drakensberg mountains.

The Drakensberg is a range of mountains that runs on the East side of South Africa for around 1,000 kilometers. The height of the mountains in this region range from around 2-3000 meters with the more famous of the peaks in the area being Champagne Castle and Giant's Castle; both over 3,000 meters.

Our destination was Lake Naverone, a resort in the Southern Drakensberg, that has a number of character cottages on the banks of the lake the resort is named after.

Words cannot explain how beautiful and unspoilt this area is. You can drink the water straight from the stream, ice-cold and fresh.

There a number of trails leading off into the mountains and everywhere you look, there's another jaw-dropping view.

We decided to walk up to the "Timotei" pools. Legend has it that these naturally formed pools were used in the filming of the Timotei hair shampoo adverts in the 1970/1980s.

After doing some further research when we got back, I'm pretty sure they weren't actually used. If you click on this link it'll take you to a YouTube version of the old video and you can make your own mind up. Mind you, it's still a good selling point and story to tell your friends (as long as they don't watch the YouTube video!). Nothing wrong with a bit of creative license!

Early in our walk we stumbled across these beautiful cottages. They reminded me of something that should be found in the Alps - it was hard to believe we were in the middle of South Africa!

We eventually made it to the pool after walking through kilometers of bushland interlaced with streams.

The pool itself looked rather inviting, so we decided to have a quick dip. The water was freezing but as pure as could be. It was a welcome respite after walking in 30 degree Centigrade heat for a couple of hours.

It was getting on for late evening by the time we got back to the lake. We were exhausted but we were rewarded with one final gift of beauty. The scene of the sun setting behind the mountain rounded off a perfect day.

Thanks for reading and the next installment will be about my first flying lesson in SA!