20 Second Clip: Drakensberg Day 2

Prelude:


We would glad we ignored the sign telling us to not use that particular trail that lead us to this very moment.

I’ve learned that most of the memories I treasure, and the adventures I experience, and the lessons I learn begin by first breaking the rules. So why stop now?

20 Second clip:

Meghan and I sat in what seemed to be our own little cove in the side of a very large mountain.

With the help of a map, we had a vague idea of where we were and how to get back to where we needed to be. But as we sat in silence, breathing in the view it didn’t feel like going anywhere. We were in the Drakensberg Mountains, but in fact, it felt like we were on the very top of the world.

Civilization seemed to be thousands of miles away and we needed nothing more but each other and the mountains to keep us company.

I would have given anything to see what we must have looked like sitting there. In those short seconds of silence we both realized how small we were. I pictured a bird gliding over head. We would have appeared to be nothing more than two barely visible dots, on the side of one mountain, in one national park, in one huge mountain range. And to think, despite how grand and absolutely vast our view was, it was nothing compared to the rest of the world. Like I said, we were just two barely visible dots.

See we had become a bit turned around and took what we thought was a trail. As it turned out it wasn’t so much of a trail as much as it was actually a tiny clearing that we discovered as we practically scaled the side of the cliff. Probably not the best idea, but it turned out to be something amazing.

In this 20 second moment, I was sure there was a God. I was absolutely positive that he carefully designed and sculpted these mountains, all along knowing that someday Meghan and I would have the opportunity to gaze upon them and thank him.

End:

We later hiked back to the actual trail know as “the mudslide”. It basically consisted of a long upward pile of rocks with a small chain ladder at the top. At the time we though this to be very exciting and a bit extreme, though we would later discover that this small little mudslide trail was nothing compared to the hike we would make the next day.

Once reaching the top, we realized our cove was nothing near the “top of the world”. Even now as we reached the summit of this particular mountain we looked out onto the many other peaks that still stretched far above out heads. In fact, the summit we had just reached was known as “little berg” What? Little? Not exactly the word I would have used to describe this mountain, but it did indeed seem small compared to the mountain range that surrounds it.

The wind whipped fiercely and at times I was a bit nervous that I would be blown right off the side off the edge. Though, that didn’t stop me from inching closer to gaze at the drop below. Meghan and I decided to take a short break before heading down. We sat down far from the edge but still close enough to make things exciting. Ironically the snack we had packed that day (thanks to Meghan’s mom) just so happen to be that, of Cliff bars. We thought the food to be quite fitting and joked that this adventure would make for a perfect cliff bar commercial.

The memories of this hike are so very vivid. As I look back on the pictures, I know it doesn’t even compare to what my eyes really saw that day. But as Meghan and I so fondly put it “If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what we really saw would leave anyone speechless”

This is how the backpackers place took us to the National Park where we would go hiking.  A few cushions tossed into the back of the truck and we were ready to go!

 Just in case we forgot where we were hiking, the Baboons were a good reminder.  This is still Africa



view from the top of Mudslide trail



Trust me when I tell you this chain ladder seems like a toy compared to the two we had to take the next day

Yeah we hiked up that!

view from little berg summit

View from our little spot in the world, the cove