Apart from getting up to shoot the sunrise, which, given we only had to stagger to the front door, was pretty easy, we had a relaxed start. There is a museum of rock art of the San (Bushman) people at Didima and it's extremely good. The San have lived in this area for 5,000 years and in southern Drakensburg for 10,000. A local farmer found a San hunting kit in 1926 which is on display and there are rock art sites near both Didima & Thendele. Both require a guide, and as Didima is a 3 hour walk that’s out, so we are hoping we might get to see the Thendele site tomorrow. The museum has photographs of the local San art plus replicated versions.
Our accommodation tonight is at Thendele Camp. It does not have a restaurant & is entirely self catering, so we had to stop again in Bergville to get some supplies. We also, after much hunting about, finally found a restaurant called Bingelela that Estelle, the lady I met in the supermarket yesterday, had told us about. It was lovely and we decided to have a big lunch and snack dinner instead of the other way around. Also got a gourmet pizza to go for dinner.
We have much bigger chalet than last night but the kitchen area smells of pickled onions, yuk. Oh well, pass it on… we'll add pizza to it for the next occupants. I guess its hard to adequately air out buildings when you have self catering and a baboon problem. Baboons mean that you cannot leave the windows open unless someone is there. Even although there are bars on the windows, the baboons are smart enough to send the little ones through - just like crims do with little kids.
Our view from the terrace is fantastic but the amphitheatre is slightly obstructed by a tree on one side, even so, we can go a bit further down the garden (in daylight anyway) and shoot easily from there. We want to shoot first light at the dam at the bottom of the hill but it's extremely windy tonight (the first time its been significantly windy the whole trip) so if that keeps up reflections will be impossible. I would love to see the Tugela Falls, reputed to the second highest in the world after the Angel Falls in Venezuela but it's way too far for me at 12 km AND you have to climb up a cliff via a chain ladder.
Our accommodation tonight is at Thendele Camp. It does not have a restaurant & is entirely self catering, so we had to stop again in Bergville to get some supplies. We also, after much hunting about, finally found a restaurant called Bingelela that Estelle, the lady I met in the supermarket yesterday, had told us about. It was lovely and we decided to have a big lunch and snack dinner instead of the other way around. Also got a gourmet pizza to go for dinner.
We have much bigger chalet than last night but the kitchen area smells of pickled onions, yuk. Oh well, pass it on… we'll add pizza to it for the next occupants. I guess its hard to adequately air out buildings when you have self catering and a baboon problem. Baboons mean that you cannot leave the windows open unless someone is there. Even although there are bars on the windows, the baboons are smart enough to send the little ones through - just like crims do with little kids.
Our view from the terrace is fantastic but the amphitheatre is slightly obstructed by a tree on one side, even so, we can go a bit further down the garden (in daylight anyway) and shoot easily from there. We want to shoot first light at the dam at the bottom of the hill but it's extremely windy tonight (the first time its been significantly windy the whole trip) so if that keeps up reflections will be impossible. I would love to see the Tugela Falls, reputed to the second highest in the world after the Angel Falls in Venezuela but it's way too far for me at 12 km AND you have to climb up a cliff via a chain ladder.
The moon before sunrise at Cathedral Peak this morning
Moonset as the sun arrives
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Photos taken at the Rock Art Museum
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