Birthday Hike

We planned to celebrate Elaine's birthday in the mountains...in style....well not quite. For us a hot shower, real bed and full course meal is luxury, compared to tenting or sleeping in caves as we normally do. It does come with its disadvantages though, too many people and usually those of the wrong type as we found out. Without going into detail we never slept at all on Saturday night, continually woken up by noisy, inconsiderate and rude people, on a tourism conference hosted by the local government authorities. This bad experience left a bad taste in my mouth and a diminished confidence for the future of our country. The managers of the Lodge paid us back our money in full and were not prepared for the unorganized and disorder that happened that weekend.
All was not lost as we thoroughly enjoyed our hike up from Royal Natal National Park to Witsieshoek Lodge and back the following day. The hike up the Mahai Valley was great with all the rivers and waterfalls flowing strongly. We walked in mist most of the way, a blessing as the next day was a scorcher.

Our return hike was back through The Crack and down some chain ladders into the Mahai Valley and very scenic.

 We arrived back at Royal for a picnic lunch by the river. Thanks to the birthday girl Elaine, Thora, Mark and Irene for a nice time with lots of fun. To see the rest of our photos please go to.......http://richardhuntphotographer.blogspot.co.za/p/blog-page_24.html