I love the singing of birds early in the morning...

Howick to Sani Pass, 22/09-2007
Ooooops, forgot to post the tasting notes for the wine we had the evening of the 21st so here goes:

Five's Reserve Pinotage 2005 (With the “big five” on the label, purchased in Kruger National Park! Produced by Van Loveren in Robertson.)
color: deep violet
nose: strawberries (I was the only one who got this), tobacco, prunes, some herbs
palate: powerful and full-bodied, pleasant tannins. Flavor of vanilla, blackberries, red apple peel (says boyfriend of feitpingvin), spices, pepper, hint of chili. “Snippy” at the end. Will go well with meat dishes, but also ok alone.
Grade: :-)

OK, now we can continue...

We planned on getting up early to enjoy the sunrise and the birds and stuff. Did you know that you could order a wake-up call for 5 a.m? Isn't that great? What service! What we didn't realize was that there were other orders for wake-up calls before ours. The roosters started around 3:45 a.m, and the hadeda ibises, not wanting to be outdone, started screeching around 4 a.m. The songbirds followed shortly after... pip pip pip... chirp chirp chirp... very sweet...


hadeda ibis - the official alarm clock of South Africa

So I was already more or less awake at 5, so I got out of bed, threw on yesterday's clothes, and made some coffee. Then I went out to walk the grounds of the farm and look at the birds; boyfriend of feitpingvin joined me shortly after. And I was far from disappointed in the amount of birds I saw, but the darn things just wouldn't stay still to be photographed ;-)

We told our hostess we would have breakfast at 7:30, so around 7 we went back to our apartment to shower and get dressed in fresh clothes. Breakfast was pre-ordered the night before; we were given a sheet with breakfast options that we were supposed to check off. We thought that we could only choose one of the many options; we ordered oatmeal with apples and yoghurt, and I had requested one soft-boiled egg in addition, if it were possible, so that I could get some protein...

It turned out that we could order everything on the breakfast menu if we really wanted to. So we had our tasty oatmeal (I loved the combination of oatmeal, shredded apples, and yoghurt. This is something I'm going to do at home!), plus soft-boiled eggs with "soldiers" in addition. We didn't know what soldiers were, and a couple of elderly English guests were snickering at us :-) We laughed when we got our plate...

It was a really nice breakfast, and a good break from all that bacon and sausages. Yes, I was starting to get sick of bacon. I didn't think that was possible. Don't worry, I'm over it now. Mmmmm, bacon ;-)

After breakfast, we first headed in the opposite direction to where we were going next (Sani Lodge Backpackers) but we wanted to find a local winery. After an hour of driving we still didn't find it, so we stopped at a farm stall instead and bought some proper ginger beer. It had been ages since I had that. It was made of ginger, sugar, lemon, and water. Nothing else. You don't need anything else. Most certainly not any ingredients that require a degree in chemistry to understand. I wish more people and companies would get that *sigh* I'm going to have to try making it here at home. It shouldn't be too difficult...

We eventually took the R617 to Sani Pass. It started out kind of boring but got really nice in the end. The very last part of the journey was on a dusty, unpaved road...

We arrived at Sani Lodge Backpackers just before 2 pm. I noted the time as we were hoping to catch a rugby match, but Sani Lodge didn't have a TV anyway, and if we wanted to go to a pub, we'd have to drive back to the nearest town and that would take a while. Sani Lodge is a sort of "middle of nowhere" place, and very simple – the rooms are very basic but suitable for the environment and (for the most part) the kind of people who typically go there in the first place. It's not a bad place though; it's brilliant if you want to get away from it all. They have a café there (Giant Cup's Café), so we went there for lunch. We had smoked trout with mustard sauce (I pushed that aside as mustard makes me sick for some reason), pickles, and wholegrain bread. It was delicious. I washed it down with milk that comes from Jersey cows farmed in the area. Very nice.



After lunch, we hiked on a trail in the area. There were a few birds and some very nice orange flowers, and the scenery was lovely. Absolutely lovely. I would love to go back to the area and do a much longer hike. They have a set of trails where you can hike from cabin to cabin over a period of several days, kind of like what they have here in Norway. That would be so cool. They really should market that to Norwegians; they would really go for that!



We had booked dinner at the backpackers' and it was served at the café. It was simple but worked for us – chicken, rice, and vegetables.

We read a little bit after dinner, and then went to bed at 21:00. On a Saturday night. Hah!

(We also got up at 5 the next morning. Voluntarily :)

mountains, Midlands, and microbrewery

Harrismith to Howick, 21/09-2007
A quick note – I didn't write too many notes for today's events. So I'm basing things on the sparse notes that I have and my Teflon memory...

After a very good night's sleep in the very comfortable bed, we (at least I) got up early and hung around the yard looking at birds, both wild backyard birds and "domesticated" birds. Like our hostess' black swans. The guard swans. You don't mess with swans. We then had a very tasty breakfast...

South African breakfasts are interesting. At least the breakfasts served to tourists; I hope they don't eat like this all the time. You usually start with some cold cereal or maybe oatmeal, followed by fruit salad and yoghurt (sometimes these two are switched around), followed by eggs along with bacon, or sausage, or fried tomatoes, or fried mushrooms, or all of the above :) That's a lot of food...


We started with fruit salad and yoghurt, followed with eggs and bacon and sausage (don't remember what else) and toast, along with some coffee. It was all very tasty and filling. While we were eating, one of the hostess' dogs approached me and sat down next to my chair, looking at me with her big brown sad eyes (more extreme than the photo shown), as if she hadn't been fed for weeks hehe... very funny...

Dogs are very popular pets in South Africa. While one may think that people would want them as guard dogs, because of the crime and all, it seems like people genuinely enjoy having dogs for the sake of companionship. At least this was the case here at The View and in other places we visited, both this year and last year.

After breakfast, we headed towards our next destination, Howick, in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Here are some of the highlights of the drive over:

Sterkfontein Dam Nature Reserve. We really didn't have time to look around here, but there are supposed to be loads of birds. The scenery is also very beautiful...


The Amphitheatre (Northern Drakensberg). The view of it though; we didn't actually climb it or anything. Quite spectacular.

I would have loved to stay longer in the Northern Drakensberg (and the Midlands too for that matter), and at the very least see Royal Natal National Park (we skipped this due to lack of time). However, as someone (*cough* *cough*) insisted on wine tours, I had to compromise on certain things, as that someone was going to do all the driving ;-) The positive side was that we got a nice “sampler” of everything and ideas of what we would like to do "in depth" next time...

Bergville B&B/Restaurant. We had lunch here. I'm not sure how much it's a "highlight" compared to, say, the gorgeous mountains, but it was a rather amusing place. We had hamburgers with lots of stuff in it – cheese, bacon, a fried egg, sausage, pineapple... It was very strange, and very filling, and actually tasted pretty good... :-) The milkshake I ordered, however, was not so good. Bah...

Nottingham Road Brewing Company. Finally, something for Mini Wolfgang to enjoy! ;-) A proper microbrewery with lots of good things to drink! Unfortunately, we arrived too late for a tour and talk about the brewery. But we were able to buy stuff in the shop – a t-shirt each and some beer to take with us to Stocklands Farm, where we were going to be spending the night. I also had a "sampler" of four different kinds of brew, all named after animals. They included the Tiddly Toad Lager, the Pye-Eyed Possum Pilsner, the Whistling Weasel Pale Ale, and the Pickled Pig Porter. I liked the Pale Ale best. Boyfriend of feitpingvin could only take a sip of each, as he was driving. Mini Wolfgang took more than just a sip, and ended up drinking most of everything ;-)



(To those of you tuning in for the first time, Mini Wolfgang is my travelling penguin. He loves beer and wine more than he loves life itself. This can sometimes cause trouble when we visit wineries and breweries.)

We finally made it to Stocklands Farm late in the afternoon. We had originally hoped to stay in Nottingham Road, but everything was booked. This was the Heritage Day weekend so it was difficult to find accommodation at all in the area. So when a room was available in Stocklands Farm, we took it right away. And we don't regret it one bit!

The farm area itself is huge and has lots of gardens, perfect for attracting birds. Our hostess said she started planting a lot of indigenous plants and flowers, and once she did that all the birds showed up. The farm is also right next to a game reserve, so there's the chance of seeing game animals, though from behind the fence.

Our room (uh, "apartment") was very nice and cosy... check out the teddy bears on the bed! ;-)



Dinner was at Yellowwood Café at Fairfell Farm, about 500 meters away from Stocklands. Neither one of us was really hungry for some reason or other. I ordered tagliatelle with shrimp and calamari in a tomato sauce, and boyfriend of feitpingvin had pasta with asparagus, bacon, goat cheese, and cream sauce. It was excellent, but we could barely eat half of our portions and ended up taking the leftovers back to Stocklands with us, just in case we got hungry later on. (Our "apartment" had a fridge.)

We chatted a little bit with a retired couple, who told us that there were a lot of retirement communities/housing in Howick. I don't really blame them for wanting to live there. It's nice and peaceful.

The evening was spent drinking the beer we bought earlier, as well as some wine, and watching rugby on TV...

Drakensberg help!

We are trying to figure out what route to take for the Drakensberg and perhaps some of the battlefields in KwaZulu-Natal. Some alternatives are as shown on the map (you can click on it to make it bigger):



We start from Harrismith, and the purple indicates our main route. We'd like to make a stop in Royal Natal National Park; the orange indicates a possible side trip.

Red and blue are alternative routes between getting back to the main purple route. There would be another possible side trip (orange) to Lesotho (organized tour so no worries about the car).

We will have a car, but it will not be a 4X4. We are also fully aware that there are lots of interesting places to stop along the way :-)

So, to those in the know, how would you do this trip? That is, which alternatives? Are there any other alternatives?

How much time will we need from getting to one specific place to another (if you know this)?

Any recommended places to stay for the night (camping, backpacker dives, b&b, whatever)?

Any recommended things/places to see?

Any places to avoid?

How are the roads in the area?

Anything else we need to know?