Again we have discovered that our hotel is pretty much ground zero of the biggest all night street-party in South Africa. The locals were yelling, whistling, honking horns, and fighting literally till the sun came up. As our hotel is situated right on the beach, there is apparently little to no police intervention to keep quiet. It actually was quite scary out there, and I'm very please to move onward. As Durban is merely the "take-off" point of our trip, this town offers quite little.
Today's journey covered a stretch of about 6 hours of driving into the Drakensburg Mountains. As Drakensburg means "dragon" in Afrikaan (language of the Dutch settlers that today is one of 9 offical S.A. languages), they are so named to represent the spine of the beast. We passed through many small villages with basically huts and some livestock. The women were carrying large boxes or baskets on their heads as they walked down the highway, which was one of our first signs that indeed we are in Africa. A quick stop along the way allowed for snapping a few pics of a 300 ft. waterfall.
Our final destination was at the Himeville Arms Hotel, a quaint B+B in the English Tudor style. Our cabin was huge compared to the hotel in Durban, even with our own fireplace. Due to the rain-out of our horseback riding, we spent the entire afternoon in the bar tasting the local brews and wines. They have quite a nice pub, complimented with non-stop rugby and cricket on the tubes. This was also a great chance to get to know our fellow travelers, as the people we meet on GAP trips are always so well-traveled and have great stories.
As our hotel is quite remote in the town of Himeville (population easily under 200), dinner tonight was at the hotel. It definitely impressed, as Terri had the local trout and I had a very large filet. Just to add an African touch, options for the sauce on the steak were pepper, garlic, or MONKEY GLAND. Ummmmmm, pepper sauce please...
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