weather, voertrekker monument, blyde river

The weather here is phenomenal. There aren’t really seasons, just a rainy time of year and a not so rainy time of year. There might be one peak of a mountain that occasionally sees snow, but that’s about it. It gets a little hot during the days, but it cools down quickly and I am comfortable sleeping without AC. The landscape is a vibrant green, I imagine that it is the same hue which causes people to fall in love with the hills of Ireland.

We visited the Voertrekker monument erected circa 1945, which commemorates, via an immense freeze, the trials of the pilgrims as the trekked there way into the midland. It is an incredibly impressive monument. To the outsider it seems to add insult to injury as most of the trials were defeating the Zulu tribe. Take for instance… the building is constructed so that on Dec 16th at noon a beam of light falls perfectly from the towering roof strait to the basement insignia  “we for thee, south Africa.” I later found out that Dec. 16th is the anniversary of the battle of blood river where less then 500 voertrekkers defeated nearly 12,000 Zulus. Apparently the river ran red.

We rented a car and headed to Blyde River Canyon. Driving a stick shift on the wrong side of the road turned out to be more fun than annoyance.  Although, my travel companions may disagree… they may not have been in love with my approach to “go-karting” our way through African mountains. We stayed at a pretty nice cabin a stones through from the world’s 3rd largest canyon, and it was absolutely stunning. A mother baboon with baby clinging onto her underside opened the bathroom window, but retreated upon finding Justin showering. We hiked down a bit, not fully into the canyon, and found a well concealed 25 ft waterfall. The swim was incredibly refreshing after the long hike.  The only way it could have been better is if I wasn’t skinny dipping with two dudes.  After the hike we visited some driving look outs and bartered for some cool handmade “curios.” We drove to some amazing waterfalls, several were hundreds of feet high. I really feel like SA got far more than its fair share of the worlds beauty.