Scaling Mountains (sort of)

Stephanie Abbott-Grobicki
Dec 6, 2015
3 min read

Molweni!

This week has been a bit of a whirlwind as I travelled through the Transkei with my brother James, Mark, Kate, and Kate's friend Jo. We left early on Tuesday morning to catch a 6:50am flight and got there with two minutes to spare. I promptly fell asleep and woke up to a beautiful view over East London* as we were landing. The sun was high in a clear blue sky of which I would have definitely taken more note if I had known that this was the only time we were to see the sun for the next five days. On our first night, the skies opened and a huge thunderstorm left behind a pretty persistant drizzle and rather grey clouds making the stunning South African coastline very reminiscent of the Welsh one (just as beautiful, but distinctively damp and grey - two characteristics taken on in spades by the Wild Coast over the last five days).

Leaving East London, we drove along South Africa's second most dangerous road (which included the road sign: "ANIMAL CROSSING FOR THE NEXT 150km") up towards Mthatha, turning off into a town called Maclear. We then made our way up to a little farm called Woodcliff, and stayed in a cottage surrounded by these sub par views.

And a picture of James just for fun:

We'd been driving in 30 degree heat and were more than happy to dive straight into the stream that ran by the cottage. The water was beautiful and the setting even more so - it's a hard life I'm leading right now. That evening we braai'd and my day was pretty much made with James' mutliple squeals because of the bugs. He does not like bugs - which I totally get, bugs can be gross. But the sounds he makes are still hilarious.

The next morning I had been assigned to wake everyone at the lovely hour of 5:30am** and we departed on our hike. We'd debated over what route to take and settled on going for the longer one - a 10km up through the valley you can see in the picture above and then round the back of the mountain behind James' head.

Proof from the top:

Our first stop on our hike was to see some San rock art. We scrambled up some cliffs and emerged in this overhang covered in art - ranging from 200 to 2000 years old. For privacy purposes (and the fact that we weren't there completely legally - it's on private land and you are supposed to have a guide but Mark had been there before so...), I cannot put these pictures on social media but it was SO COOL to see this stuff in real life. After going to the Origins Centre in Joburg, I felt super knowledgeable and was able to impart some information about initiation ceremonies and the spiritual importance of the Eland (a type of antelope) in San culture.

Our next stop was a jump in the river at Skinny Dip Pool - but we didn't live up to its name I'm afraid, considering it was 8 in the morning and we're all related (nearly). But it was a gorgeous place to swim and very refreshing when climbing mountains.

That is my "attractive swimming face" in case you were wondering.

We stopped for various snacks and photo ops along the way, making it back to the cottage in time for lunch. We packed up our stuff and headed off to Zithulele - a rural hospital that my cousin Laura worked at a few years ago, and where Mark and Kate lived and worked for two years as well. But more on that later.

Much later too, I'm afraid. I have just got back to Joburg this evening but Ted, James and I are headed out on safari in a few hours time. I will be without internet until the 18th of December when we will be back in Joburg. I promise to take notes on all our adventures and as soon as I am back will begin where I left off!

Here's a group picture to cheer you up: