#Photography

The Drakensberg Mountains fly under the radar in South Africa’s tourism scene. Everyone goes to Cape Town and the Kruger and the Garden Route, but the Drakensberg doesn’t often make it onto that “must-see” tourist itinerary. Even I’m guilty of neglecting the Drakensberg; I’d dipped in once or twice over the years but had never done a proper Drakensberg weekend until last month, when Thorsten and I stayed in Royal Natal National Park’s Thendele Camp and did the Tugela Gorge hike. Now I’m appalled at myself for sleeping on this spectacular part of South Africa for so long.

Those of you who follow me on Instagram may have noticed I’ve been hiking a lot lately. I’ve always loved to hike. But for some reason – maybe because I now have a car that can take me to any hiking trail in South Africa – I’ve started wanting to hike a lot more. So when Ezemvelo, a privately owned nature reserve less than two hours from Joburg, invited Thorsten and me to come check out their hiking trails a few weeks ago, I was excited to check it out.

Last Tuesday I put on my big-girl pants – or, more accurately, my young-girl pants – and stayed out past midnight to attend the Sawubona Music Jam in Chiwelo, Soweto. I’ve known about the Sawubona Music Jam, which happens every Tuesday night, for years. But as a middle-aged person usually in bed by 9:30, I could never find the right time to travel to the far side of Soweto for a weeknight show that runs until 2:00 a.m.

I am way behind in publishing this final installment of the Blogitects’ December Limpopo roadtrip. (Read the first three installments here, here, and here.) Marakele National Park was our last stop on the journey and Thorsten and I were both running out of steam at that point, so we spent most of our time at Marakele just sitting, reading, and staring at the view from our deck.

A couple of Saturdays ago, my friends Fiver and Stuart and I woke up at before 5:00 a.m. and drove an hour north to the Pretoria Boeremark in Silverton. I’ve been meaning to check out this market – probably the largest open-air market in Gauteng – for ages, but it took a while for me to fully commit to waking up so early. The Boeremark opens at 5:30 a.m. (some people arrive even earlier) and winds down by 9:30 a.m. Apparently you have to get there early to find the best stuff.