Well, here I am where I always wanted to end my journey. The Drakensberg are a world heritage site - the name comes from the Dutch, meaning "dragon mountains" - the Zulu name means "barrier of spears"). I am hoping that the weather will be at least reasonable but, on the basis that my bed is supplied with three blankets as well as a duvet and a hot water bottle (!), it can presumably be cold here on occasions!
Today started with not a cloud in the sky, so took the opportunity to join a 4x4 trip up into Lesotho - my 12th country since leaving home. (Lesotho is a former British protectorate, now fully independent with its own king and prime minister, but completely surrounded by SA).
The tarred road soon gives way to dirt / gravel / rock, and soon gets steeper and steeper through rather steep cliffs and many hairpin bends - if you are standing on the top of the cliffs, you are in Lesotho but if you are hanging on by your fingernails, you are still in SA. The border post is at 9400ft (so one of the highest in the world?) and when you get there the scenery changes completely, as does the dress of the people - the standard item of clothing is literally a blanket, particularly if you are a shepherd in the fields (who often just have their underpants and no trousers under their blanket).
Not a great number of flowers, but we did see a "bush type" protea and a field of red hot pokers on this side of the border. Up on the Lesotho plateau, the flower you see everywhere is a smallish yellow one, with a name that seems to begin with "hello"? We were intrigued by a bird's nest seemingly made out of flowers, but no one could decide the type of bird that had made it.
We walked to within sight of the highest point south of Kilimanjaro (Thabana Ntlenyana = "pretty little mountain") but too far away for us actually to walk to it. To be honest, not very impressive in spite of its "highest peak" status. Great guide with plenty of information, and we met with a local woman in her house, eating her home baked bread (good), and drinking the local maize/sorghum beer (ugh). Celebrated with a glass of gluhwein (certainly not what I expected) at the "highest pub in Africa".
Weather did get worse as we went higher, and decidedly cooler, until it was total cloud cover, but did not ruin the day in any way - in fact almost the sole topic of conversation as we had our evening meal was what a great day it had been.
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