Patrick, our guide from Germany with Mexican roots,  gives us more perspective on the adventurous JJa14 Walking South Africa tour.

One of the highlights of the JJa14 is all the hiking we do on tour. This brings me to chat about my highlight. Since we have been hiking at several places along the tour, Blyde river canyon was our opening hike and it allows me to see how much condition our group has.  From here we go to Kruger NP for some excellent game viewing and then hiking in the Kingdom of Swaziland.

The last hike we did was the Tugela Gorge walk in the Drakensberg in the Royal Natal National Park. On our day of arrival it was cloudy and dark, with rain in the evening, just typical summer weather for that area. On our second day in the Drakensberg, which is our hiking day, the day started very foggy but we had a delicious big breakfast and everybody prepared and packed lunch for along the way.

The hike itself started off like every other hike, everybody very motivated and looking forward for spectacular views of the Drakensberg with the clearing sky. The group started dividing into 2 groups, the faster and the slower group. We had a good pace and reached the bottom of the Tugela Gorge walk at 11:30, with the Tugela River crossing still ahead of us. The slower group stayed behind not wanting to cross the river, while the faster group went on to do the river crossing where the water was knee high. Some took off their shoes and others tested their "waterproof shoes" and found their shoes to be dismal fail. We then crossed the river twice more and twice while coming back. The difference with the crossings were that on our return it had rained very heavily, and we crossed the river which was by then waist high, my fellow guide and myself helping the clients to cross. Half way back to the camp the sky cleared up and we had the most amazing view of the Drakensberg possible.

That evening over a hearty meal, the clients merrily chatted  about their hiking experience and all said that the Drakensberg hike we had just done was by far the best.

Images: Lucky Mabaso