Clarens

We'll spend our last African night for now in Potch, and we don't want to drive up there in one go, so we study the map again. Clarens, close to the Golden Gate to the Drakensbergen and Lesotho, looks promising.


Driving up, up, up into the mountains we decide we have to come back to this region for a hiking holiday. The highland is wondrous, and there are loads of hiking trails. As usual with our vague vacation plans we didn't book - maybe not smart during this RSA public holiday. We find fabulous accommodation thanks to a helpful cleaning lady - people always help us out, so we can't be bothered with bookings.


Clarens is a real tourist trap, but the mountainous surroundings are breathtaking. When we say 'tourist trap', we mean RSA-tourists, which makes it fascinating for us foreigners anyway. We spend a luxurious night in B&B 'Ongeag' (Whatever), having the whole villa for us because it's supposed to be closed this night. Although luxuries like satellite tele (5 round the click movie channels), a washing machine and a tumble dryer (never seen that piece of equipment in this part of the world before) keep us awake most of the night, we're up early. That gives us time to drive through Golden Gate nature reserve - magnificent surroundings for a future longer camping & hiking stay!