Woke up early in the morning on Thursday to start our day as started to head back towards Joburg again for the final chapter of our trip. All we planned was that we wanted to stay somewhere at the mid point between Durban and Joburg and Ladysmith was the city that we were recommended by the guys that we met way back at the Heatrow Airport on our first day of our trip. I called the bed and breakfast that he recommended named Trenchgula and made sure that they had a place available for us to stay. The cool thing about this B&B was that they also had a huge Game Farm that had bunch of animals resided. We had no expectations really but I was excited about taking a semi pro safari tour from a local guy.
Before heading to Ladysmith though we wanted to have a check mark on this amazingly long mountain range called Drakensberg. Drakes as the locals called it was 200km long mountain area and we only time to see one part of it and basically picked a random point from the map. The place was called Giants Castle and it was 70km away from the freeway. As we were driving toward the Giants Castle we saw truly amazing villages,townships that people looked like they have never seen anything outside of their 100 mile radius. Couple of the local kids were looking at us as if were from another planet. they were truly surprised by seeing different faces. We were welcomed and greeted by the local cows and goats as they stopped our road and did their parade. Having seen run down parts of Istanbul I thought I wouldnt be surprised at all but these truly were at another level let me tell you. Truly an amazing experience. We just prayed that our car does not break down here as there was no cars or anything passing for a while now. So the Giants castle was reached in the end and it was a nice location that we ended up having a quick lunch enjoying the views of the wild nature. If we had time the place offered interesting caves and cool lodging area but we were heading towards our recommended Ladysmith site.
When we arrived to Ladysmith we did not have the address for the Trenchgula B&B and when I asked a guy at the gas station he said he didnt know the place but he introduced me to the mananger of the gas station and the manager calls the guy from Trenchgula and asks him to come and pick us up from the station. It was clearly a one man show for the guy who ran the B&B and he was really cool actually. Mike was our guy telling us about his Game Park and all the animals he has in there. The lodge was completely empty and we enjoyed a really nice place after staying at hostels for couple of weeks. This was a treat. It was still relatively early after we freshened up and asked the guy to see if there was any local bar to hang out. It was interesting that the most happening place in Ladysmith on a Thursday night had 10 people in the bar. The place was called Geniue Folk and it was also nice steak restaurant. I enjoyed my lamb shank and we called it a night in the most happening part of the town.
After getting a good nite sleep we were ready to have a nice African breakfast. it is not too different than eggs and bacon/sausage but it was the african breakfast. Now I was ready to experience my first live animal tour. The one man show guy Mike took us around his farm that was 220 hectars long in which many animals resides. We saw the national animal for SA, the springbok, impalas were amazing, zebras and giraffes hung out as buddies as it took some time to see them. There were ostriches, peacocks all around as well and many other names that the guy told us that I could not remember. Being 100 feet close to a giraffe was the coolest thing. They were more curious about us seemed like. You have to see the pics to believe what I am saying. He had 5 giraffes and they apparently cost around $2500 each and are the biggest assets for the guy. Mike was your regular guy that would make sure his guests has good times and was truly enjoying his place in the woods. He has recently lost his beloved wife so he was probably still recovering from that and having the boys in overseas didnt help the situation. We have met a cool local guy by a recommendation that we got from a random guy we met at London. gotta love the connections in life. When I called to book a place he was totally surprised. He thought i was calling from States and he said how did you hear about our place :) It is really in the middle of nowhere though
Rest of the day we checked out the local museum of Ladysmith which represented some pieces of information on the Anglo-Boer war of 1900 where Dutch and British fought in this land. Siege of Ladysmith was the historical name that lasted 2 years and Boers were the winners.
We headed back towards Joburg for a quick 3.5 hour drive and reached back our Ball n Kikca kick ass hostel. Good thing it was still there because we know that they are tearing the place down after the worldcup. We were gone for 6 days so it was good to see that our room was still there. Ended the night in Sandton with a quick dinner and cigar. Nothing special even though it was the Friday night. Tomorrow night we ll go out and party. Joburg was full of orange and red colors though I must say. it was beatiful to see the malls in these colors. We did shop around and got some cool scarves and vuvuzelas.Still banking on that prices will go down on Monday :)
Oh man, time is passing by Day 14 has been completed. We have got 4 more nights in SA. We will make the most of it for sure!! See you next time with the highlights from the FINALE!!
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