2006-02-21
3322
7
0
作者：长音
英文的帖子人气实在低
也许是看着太累，不如母语来的痛快
一年前写的时候倒还觉得打得顺畅，
主要是为了让全世界的人都能看到
算了算了，先帖完再说。。。
• Zululand (2) -- Drakensberg
The mountains of South Africa don’t stand as a single solid range like the European Alps. They are a series of ranges, each imbued with its own particular character. Drakensberg is the most majestic of the ranges, stretching from Eastern Cape to Northen Province. Due to time limit and route planning, we choose the Southern Berg where boasts the one of the region’s highlight: the journey up to Lesotho over the Sani Pass.
April 6
Looming ranges of faraway Drakensberg come into our horizon. It is indeed beautiful. Drakensberg means “Dragon Mountains”; the Zulu name means “Battlement of Spears”. We arrive at Underberg, a small town where we settle down in the Sani Lodge. The dinner prepared by the owner is not much but costly (50 rand p.p. for rice, few pieces tomato’s and sla). Thanks to some Belgians, we get genuine energy and warmth from their self-cooked onion soup. It is chilly at night and we sit around a fireplace chatting with other guests. There is ANOTHER Dutch, “another” because we meet the Dutch everywhere and Roy is not excited about seeing the Dutch all the time when out of Holland, although he is also Dutch. But this guy is a special one. Unfortunately, we forgot to ask his name, but let’s just call him Guts. Guts used to be a mechanic engineer working in Holland with a dream to travel around the world. Three months ago, during his holiday to Argentina, he came across a captain who happened to look for engineers on his boat. Once the captain told him that the boat would leave for South Pole the next day, Guts immediately agreed to work for him and wrote a letter to his employer that he quitted his job. Next morning they went to South Pole. He has been to South Pole twice and other continents. Now he is on holiday in South Africa and will meet his boat in Cape Town after ten days. What a Guts! I really admire such crazies who dare to leave all behind and go for something he dreams of. Hopefully one day I can travel around the world too!
April 7
People in Sani Lodge aim at Sani Pass which is 22km away, leading to the highest point in South Africa and the only path to the Kingdom Lesotho. Lodge owner in the early morning promotes his 4x4-jeep Sani Pass tour that costs 230 rand p.p. and four people already joined. It seems impossible to drive up there by normal car due to bad road conditions. But I just don’t believe that! Last dinner doesn’t prove to be a high performance-price-ratio service, so we decide to drive up by our little Nissan.
It is really exciting to drive on a rough mountain road, and Roy proves to be a great driver. I am like a Bond girl, heart races, face flushes and help my 007 to navigate. But our Nissan is not advanced enough to change formation accordingly, so it is abandoned before a steep and stony slope after 10km drive. We walk 2 km to the South African border and the officer tells us to come back before the border closing time at 4pm. Now is already 12.30, do we have 3.5 hours to cover the rest 10km to Sani Pass and another 10km coming back? No, mission impossible! But we, as stubborn as two mules, won’t give up easily! We walk and walk, now and then, we stop to take a look of the breath-taking surroundings. The green sweep of the Drakensberg forms the natural boundary between South Africa and the mountain kingdom of Lesotho, displaying one of the most awe-inspiring landscapes. Tourist jeeps pass by and time passes by. We probably cannot get to the top, but we try to get as much as possible. Walking for another 8km, we arrive at a viewpoint for a rest. Faraway comes a jeep. It is our last chance! The family in the jeep (2 men, 3 women and 2 children) gives us a lift. Piled up with their luggage and toys, though uncomfortable like sardines in the can, we feel very lucky because the last 2km road is tremendously difficult to walk or drive.
Unbelievable, we reach the 2865m top, the highest pass of South Africa! We cross the Lesotho border and get our passport another two impressive stamps. In a hurry, we visit the highest South African pub Sani Top Chalet and its toilette, make some pictures of Lesotho and talk with its people. The vistas here are magical, offering stunning view out across the Umkhomazana River to the north and looming cliffs, almost directly above, to the south…
One glimpse at my watch, Wow, it is already 2.30pm! No time left for a relaxed drink as other tourists do. We run out of Lesotho and rush down to the road we just come up 20 minutes ago. If we cannot reach the South African border, tonight we will have to sleep in this wildness which belongs to nowhere. A huge local truck drives down and we stop it. The three Lesothonians happily take us with them, but sorry, no place in the front. We climb over cage-like compartment and stand inside as some elephant and giraffe. Before 4pm we successfully get to the border and easily find our Nissan, but it’s not over. Driving downhill is much more dangerous than uphill, since we cannot see the road. What’s worse, 007 is no longer the fresh young man in the morning, he is so exhausted that he stops often, checks cautiously and moves like a snail. But anyway, we drive back before it gets really dark. At night, the Bond girl is too tired to do anything with 007 but sleep.
April 8
A new day comes with a new challenge. Conquering the Sani Pass boosts our confidence and we plan to drive 300 km to cross East Cape and reach the Garden Route area, since we’re a bit behind schedule. Drive, drive and drive. Roadside landscape changes and my eyes can’t keep up with its variety. What amazes me most is that the National Highway N2 goes through the main streets of quite some towns where we have to slow down from 120km/h to 40km/h, waiting for the traffic lights and people. Most towns are quite small but crowded on the street. We need gasoline and stop by a gasoline station next to the road. I go to the WC, but WC door is locked and it is in a yard and yard gate is also locked. A black woman comes to help. She told me the person holding keys are in the yard, but we cannot get in. So she tries to crawl under the gate, but her butt got stuck in between, I push her and she struggles through. She found the key-keeper and I finally did what I want, but there is no water to flush the toilette and wash my hand. “I am in Africa, yoh!” Coming out, I am surprised that one of our tires is missing. Roy tells me that just now he found out a flat tire, and he tried the spare one, but it is not strong enough for long distance drive. A black guy came over and told him that a car-repairing workshop is just around the corner, so Roy brought the flat tire to repair. Are we lucky or not? We stand there under the sun, wait for the repairing tire in mid of a little chaotic African town. It is more bustle and hustle than Amsterdam or Beijing: people are walking or sitting, buying or selling, bargaining or chatting, feeding babies or looking at us. Maybe they look at our new and modern Nissan, since cars at roadside are old and shabby. Probably they are curious why we are not a black but a white-and-yellow couple. Perhaps never there are tourists stopping by and they wonder how the two stupid tourists ended up here… Tire is quickly ready and costs only 14 rands. (In Holland would be more than 14 Euros). Roy screws back the tire by himself. A black woman standing by remarks as “This is the first white man I’ve seen who does such thing by HIS own hands.”
Be wise rather than bold, we stop driving after darkness. We stay overnight in East London. Though it is the country’s largest river port, the charm of the town is somewhat limited. Each house is equipped with electric wires or irony pointed thorns. The hostel staff advises us not to walk on streets or beach at night, fine, we can catch up with some sleep for the last two weeks anyway.
待续
