The Beauty
It’s surreal and has been for the past 5 days. Sitting on a stoop staring at Margrit and the beauty of the Drakensberg Mountain peaks in South Africa, life is good.
Yet physically, I can hardly move.
Unable to resist, we hiked two straight days immersing ourselves in this dynamic scenery. The ever changing splendor from various angles, extreme weather, and those clouds… forming, dancing, playing with the sunlight, and creating massive shadows with lives of their own.
Like kids in a candy store, each favorite hike was eclipsed by another.
And the Beast
Dead and sore on the third day, we chose to take the day off with just a small walk over to the Sphinx Trailhead to stretch our tender muscles. The trail looked ominous, straight up with steep steps into the trees heading for the majestic Egyptian rock formation high on the mountain.
Imagining the views we were tempted, ‘The weather is holding. Let’s just see if there is a good view not too far up.’ And up we went.
Hidden in the trees, the trail climbed through a grotto tracking a stream where the sunlight played through the leaves onto mossy rocks, and peculiar foliage. No longer as sore or tired, we felt like Bilbo Baggins marching up and onward.
Finally, breaking through the trees it looked like we were at the halfway point up the slope. The key words here are ‘looked like.’ Falsely encouraged, up and up we went again. Then a little voice in my head started screaming, ‘Remember!?! Coming back down will be a killer!’ Yet the beauty around us and the chance to look out from the ever closer Sphinx sang back, ‘This could be a chance of a life time.’
Like Pavlov’s dogs, the rewards kept pulling us forward; a waterfall, another grotto, a few level bursts, the expanding views, and the Sphinx within our grasp… how could we resist? Soon even the darkening clouds and thunder couldn’t distract us from our quest.
The Drakensberg
Well, I’m sure you don’t want all the gory details. But let’s just say the little voice was right. Our insignificant saunter turned into a three hour arduous journey and here I sit two days later coaxing my limbs to move… BUT MAN, WAS WORTH IT!!
Enjoy the day and do some good.
Russ Harris loves all things mechanical and making the world a better place, especially for Margrit.
