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Walk with a Baboon

So many things just happen when you take a holiday in South Africa that turn your tourist trip into a true experience and adventure.

On my first trip to South Africa my girlfriend’s parents wanted to show off as much of their country to me as they could. So with this in mind I was in for a wide sweep of what the country has to offer to the uninitiated. One part of that trip that still shines in my memory was a visit to Injasuti in the Drakensberg Mountains.

We were returning from spending a week on the Indian Ocean at Margate and Uvongo. Basically a Sun Sea and Sand holiday, nice but reasonably normal. We had stopped for a night or two in the heart of the mountains to rest and allow me, because of my desire to do a bit of hill walking and stretch my legs to have a break from driving. So now that I had the opportunity I promptly, early in the morning dragged my girlfriend out of bed to show her how good Scots were at hill walking. So off we went, climbing quickly to a height of almost 10,000 feet. It was just like being in Scotland instead of heather it was a long type of grass underfoot. The mountains rolled in front of us with deep ravines scoring the land on all sides. No signs of humanity were obvious for as far as we could see. We felt cut off from civilisation.

The thing that occurred to me afterwards was there are very few places in the world that man are not the masters But here on this my trip to the mountains not only was I a visitor but I was not in charge of the situation. I really felt as if I was a tolerated guest. I had been checked out by the locals and allowed to carry on but I better just watch my step. This sums up my impression of Africa. Man is still not in control, he is merely passing through and like me he better be respectful and watch his step.

By Malcolm - Largs, Scotland