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| View from inside Sleeping Beauty Caves |
GABBY - This morning we woke up around 5:30 am to accompany Steve to
Drakensberg Gardens. Before we left, we
said a tearful, but drowsy goodbye to Claire as she would be leaving later on
this morning and we wouldn’t be seeing her again. Both Ben and I had an awesome time with her
and we were very sad to see her go. Ben
and I packed lunches for the day as we would be hiking up the famed Sleeping
Beauty Caves. This hike is not super
touristy or publicized, but those who do it rave about its beauty and
splendor. Ben and I hopped in the back
of the truck with a French guest (JJ) as Leon, Steve’s friend took the front
seat next to Steve. It was a bit chilly
in the brisk morning air. We were in the
open bed of the Land Cruiser for the duration of the 29 km trek to the Park’s
Board of the Drakensberg Mountains. JJ
was also interested in hiking and after we told him about the different hikes,
decided on Sleeping Beauty Caves, as well.
We started out hiking together, which was certainly not ideal seeing as
Ben and I were trying to have some time away from guests, the backpackers, and
all other humans. I subtly stopped for a
picture and water break, which worked like a charm. JJ pressed on with his what Ben called “old
man sticks”, or walking sticks. We were
both so happy to be hiking at our own pace and were thrilled to be able to
engage in any sort of conversation we could think of. We knew on our ride over to Drak, that the
day was going to be hot. There was not a
cloud in the sky to start our hike, the sun warming our backs as we walked
through
the canyon. We followed the
river, which led us right through two mountains. It was a gorgeous hike through tall grasses and
orange wildflowers. Eventually, the
trail led us across the river. There
were not enough dry rocks to safely hop our way across, so we took our shoes
off and carefully tiptoed to the other side.
We put our shoes back on, only to hike a couple more feet to another
river crossing. I took my shoes and
socks off again, not wanting to hike in wet shoes for the rest of the day. Ben was already fed up with tying, untying
and tying again so he decided to just walk right through the water in his
shoes. The river crossings happened a
couple more times, Ben patiently waiting for me as I took off my hiking
boots. Finally he came up with the idea
of becoming my personal pack mule. He
let me jump on his back, while he walked across the river in his shoes. It definitely wasn’t one of our safest ideas,
but one that got us across the river in a more timely fashion. We began a steep ascent after our river
crossings, which resulted in frequent water breaks. We reached a high peak where we stopped to
take a break. From our spot, we could
hear the rushing of the river below us.
We could also see down the valley in which we had just climbed. There was dense forest below us, but we could
see the tall grasses in the distance where we began our hike. Perhaps the most breathtaking view was the
one in front and above us. There were a
couple enormous boulders shooting out.
One reminded me of a princess castle, which made me think that we were
close to Sleeping Beauty Caves. On a
couple of these boulders, we could see a trickle of water running off the
tops. Against the sun, the droplets
looked as though they disintegrated into nothing. I compared the droplets to tiny handfuls of
fairy dust getting poured over the peaks of the boulders. It was truly an incredibly breathtaking
view. We continued on, passing mini
waterfalls along the way until we stumbled upon our destination. There was a massive rock overhang that shot
out over the mountain river pass forming the majesty of the caves. Ben and I attempted to capture the grandeur
of the caves with our cameras, but to no avail.
There was too much cave to fit in such a tiny frame. We walked up and out of the cave (it was
chilly when the sun was blocked) and settled on a lunch spot just above the
caves. We were surrounded by green
trees, the river, the cave below us and a bunch of big sun-bathing boulders;
not a bad spot for a picnic! We scarfed
down our sandwiches, Pringles and chocolate before basking in the sun’s
rays. Ben bopped around the boulders
like a little monkey while I took a small catnap. We decided to continue on, since our
makeshift trail map indicated there was another cave just up from where we
were. It was also still pretty early
(around noon) and we were happy to get back to the farm as late as possible. We hiked up and were surrounded by a
completely different landscape. We were
in a field of greenery, with lots of different wildflowers. We walked through the plain, surrounded on
both sides with mountain ranges. It was
starting to get a little cloudy and the trail had seemingly dissipated, but we
marched on. We saw JJ walking in the
opposite direction and paused for a little small talk (very small talk since he
only spoke French fluently). Ben and I
continued on in search of “Engagement Cave”, as it was called on the trail
map. I was getting pretty beat, and
admittedly a little cranky, but Ben insisted we push on and just see what’s
around the corner. We turned the corner
and saw that our field had come to a dead end with large, green, pointy
mountains standing in our way. We
crossed the river again and headed up a hill, since we thought we saw some
semblance of a trail. It turned out to
be just a bank in the hill, not a trail or path at all. We walked to the top of the hill and were
astounded at what we had stumbled upon.
The top of the hill was actually a mountain ridge that severed the two
valleys below. Ben and I were able to
decipher what we believed to be the border of Lesotho and South Africa. To our right, we saw a deep river valley,
which we assumed went to Bushman’s Nek (where we went on our Lesotho trip on
horseback). To our left we could see for
miles proven by the fact that we could our beloved little town of Underberg way
off in the distance. It was a beautiful
sight, and I hate to admit it, but Ben was right to push us to continue our
hike. We never found Engagement Cave,
maybe it’s a sign that we’re not quite ready for that level of commitment
yet.
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| Baboons! |
We took a different path back
because we walked along the ridge for awhile.
We hiked down a steep slope to the river and followed that back towards
Sleeping Beauty Caves. I was just about
to start singing Christmas Carols when Ben stopped me with his arm and yelled,
“Baboons!” “Silent Night” would have to
wait. High up on the hill to our right,
were 3 baboons (mom, dad and baby). We
continued to walk and watch as they moved quickly along the mountainous
terrain. We then saw a couple baboons in
front of us on the trail, but they ran way ahead of us. We were both stunned and so psyched to have
seen some wildlife on our hike. We were
giddy with excitement when we turned a corner near Sleeping Beauty Caves. When we turned, we came across an entire family
of baboons, between 20 and 30 monkeys.
We had the higher ground, but they were only about 15 yards ahead of
us. The situation started out fine; Ben
was taking pictures, I was videoing, it was all good. We sat there for a good 10 minutes watching
them and being watched. Some of the big
baboons would occasionally bark at us or call to the other monkeys. Eventually, fear started to settle in. I was getting really scared because we had
heard some horror stories about baboons.
They were also headed down our trail, which was the only one we knew of
back to the Park’s Board. No wild animal
likes to feel threatened and I think they were since there were babies in the
pack. We hadn’t split them up, but they
certainly noticed our presence and were keen on keeping tabs on us. After a couple loud shrieks and calls from
our end, we decided to take action. Ben
picked up some small stones and hurled them at some boulders close to the
baboons; the object being to scare them, never to hurt them. Our scare tactic seemed to work and they
headed down off the boulders, but still on our trail. We headed down slowly, me latched onto Ben as
a baby baboon would be to his/her mother.
I picked up a big rock in case I had to use some serious self
defense. Ben threw a couple more rocks
managing to split up the pack. I knew
that wasn’t good, but we didn’t have a choice.
We hurried down the valley noticing the two packs of monkeys on either
side of us on the mountain faces. The
baboons had the higher ground, oh how the tables had turned. Ben and I made our way through the caves and
down the mountain quickly until the baboons were completely out of sight. Everything worked out fine, but if they had
chose to attack, Ben and I would have been done for. There were so many of them and it would have
been impossible for us to fight them all off.
It was a unique experience, but definitely one that could have easily
been devastating. We hiked all the way
back to Drakensberg Gardens Hotel where we sipped on chocolate milkshakes and
chewed on crispy French fries. While we
were sitting there, I couldn’t help feeling a little shell shocked. We had just hiked for 8 hours, encountered no
human except for the one French guest that went with us, and dodged death by
baboons. Now here we sat, in a resort
situation filled with golfers and tanning beauties. Talk about a whole new world! We hitch hiked back home with a wealthy
family man from Durban. We made small
talk until he dropped us off at the bottom of Khotso’s driveway. Ben and I made ourselves some hot dogs before
completely passing out after an exhilaratingly exhausting day.
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