Braai4Heritage tour: Day 29 – Braaing on top of Sani Pass

Posted on 11 April 2011

We’d hoped to get in a quick surf with Spider this morning before we left Durban, but it was just too much of an early start. There were big plans when we went to bed, but by the time dawn broke 5 hours later, the snooze buttons proved too enticing and we greedily grabbed an extra couple of hours “˜til eight. We are an increasingly overtired Braai4Heritage crew.

Incidentally, have you ever considered that the alarm clock is the only device that humankind has produced that comes with an easy-access button specifically and directly created to counteract the very purpose for its existence?  With the invention of the alarm clock we have created a tool, ingeniously designed to wake us up at an exact, pre-specified time, but then cunningly placed a large (it’s usually the largest) button right on top, allowing us to instantly, and all too easily, negate the reason we set it in the first place.

Snooze…

Just 10 more minutes please Mr. Alarm Clock. Then I’ll get up. When I set you for 6am last night I really meant 6:10. I mean there’s nothing I like better than waking up earlier than I absolutely have to and then spending the first 10 minutes of my day wishing time would stand still while I wait in ever more miserable dread for that second call so I can turn over, hit snooze and do it all again.

I have a friend who used to have an alarm clock which was wrapped up in a protective tennis-ball like casing. The idea was that you could then hurl it as hard as you liked at the wall or whatever suitably hard object you preferred and the impact would then activate the snooze and make the horrendous thing stop bleeping. This is a concept I can fully understand. Unfortunately, though it seemed like a great idea, after the initial, satisfying launch across the room, the ball would invariably then roll out of reach somewhere behind a cupboard… and then go off again 10 minutes later and be impossible to find and switch off.

Anyway.

None of this is relevant to anything much.  I guess I’m just hating alarms a lot at the moment.

Sani Pass is amazing. Unfortunately the weather was against us again so I’m not sure the pictures do it justice, but the views up to the highest pass in Southern Africa were spectacular and our reception at the top warm and welcoming – gluvine and happy braaiers in the rain.

Although it was pouring (and hailing) when we arrived, the clouds did briefly disperse an hour or so later and we wasted no time, carrying the braai out to the edge of the cliff-face to catch our brief window of sunshine.

Sani Top Chalet, where we’re staying, is a fantastic little spot. Perched high up at the very top of the pass, the small group of traditional-style thatched huts sit just metres from the cliff-edge, alongside a cosy bar and main reception. The whole complex is just 100 metres or so from the Lesotho border control building, but faces back towards the pass with stunning views down the valley to KwaZulu-Natal below.

It’s cold up here at 2865 metres and quite a shock after the shorts and t-shirts of yesterday. I love these mountains though, and I’ll definitely be back, preferably on my motorbike – this is a land of enduro biking for sure.

Tomorrow we’re down the pass early (again) to meet a local guide who’ll be taking us on a 5 hour hike into the mountains to see some of the rock art which has made the Drakensberg famous. It’s one of the reasons why the mountains have been given World Heritage Status (World Heritage Site #7 for the tour!) and I’m looking forward to the exercise though I hope the rain keeps away. I’ve discovered my jacket isn’t exactly water-proof and it could be a very wet and miserable hike if the heavens open up on us out in the field.

Day 28 | Day 30






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