Drakensbergs in July

It was the fourth of July weekend here and I was lucky enough to be accompanied by Brielle for a 3 day hike into Lesotho! Whereas over the Christmas break I hiked to the Sani Pass via Giant's Castle, this time we decided to approach the Sani Pass from the south. We began inside the Cobham nature reserve, right outside of Underberg. From there we made it half-way up the escarpment to the Gxalingenwa cave. The weather was perfect and the cave quite cozy. The next day we made the push up the escarpment between Hodgson's Peaks. The last 1500 meters was by far the toughest as we gained 600+ meters of elevation! Nothing we couldn't handle though, we made it to the top with just minutes to spare and found a nice spot to set up camp. Soon after the sun set we were greeted by a devilish wind and what from the inside of the tent sounded like rain. It was bitterly cold and the "rain" did not stop once. At first light there appeared to be something accumulating underneath the fly of our tent. It was ice. The rain was actually snow. There was a good six inches on the ground before we even got moving. Luckily our final destination was only several miles away. We packed up and made it over the next pass in a veritable whiteout, eventually making it down to the Sani Pass Chalet. I never thought I would be snowed in on the Fourth of July, especially not while I was in Africa.

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