Doug and Kerry Hudson in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa

We were based in Pietermaritzburg for a lot of the time we were in South Africa. As well as helping Kerry's parents Lou and Rowley out around the house and with their house-hunting, we also took the opportunity to take trips away exploring the province: Kwa-Zulu Natal, Kingdom of the Zulu.

One such trip was to the Drakensberg range, maybe our favourite place in the world for walking, scenery and sheer tranquility.

Another notable trip was our trip to Zululand. This included such adventures as being charged by a bull elephant, being terrorised by thieving monkeys and a close encounter with a black mamba.

One weekend we went to Oribi Gorge. This is about twenty kilometres inland from Port Shepstone on the Natal south coast. When we arrived at the Oribi Gorge Guest Farm, we were delighted with our accommodation. We had Shuttleworth House, a beautifully restored colonial house with five bedrooms, a swimming pool, tennis court and squash court, all to ourselves! And it only cost R120 each per night, or GBP8. We couldn’t believe our luck! Kerry decided that this was our ideal home. No pressure, Doug! We chose the Bridal Bouquet suite and unpacked our things, before wandering through the cane fields down to the view site over Oribi Gorge itself. A charming little Jack Russell, one of the six beautiful dogs resident at the farm, accompanied us. We had to keep her away from the edge of the cliff though, as there was a very steep drop into the Gorge. It’s just not the done thing to let your host’s pet fall down a cliff, you know!

We couldn’t sleep in too late the next morning, as some people were coming to film a video to promote the house. Promising to return later to model for them, we drove down to the Gorge to do some walking. We did a fairly short trail up to Samango Falls, which were quite pretty. The vegetation in the gorge was very lush and tropical, and combined with the enormous millipedes we saw and the screech of the Christmas beetles, it felt like we were walking through jungle.

Back at the car, we decided to visit the river, to see if there were any birds… No, but there was a huge lizard in the road. And we are talking massive here! Nearly a metre and a half long, fat, scaly and with a forked tongue that darted out occasionally, this was no ordinary lizard. This was a monitor lizard, known locally as a ‘leguvan’.

Returning to the farm excited by our sighting, we were whisked onto set before we had a chance to become nervous. We now feature in their promotional video! We escaped to the pool for some swimming and relaxation.

After lunch we drove to the Leopard Rock, where "Johnny" took our photo standing on a thin sliver of rock jutting out five metres over the gorge, the bottom of which was over 200 metres below! We didn’t know this at the time, he just told us to stand there while he took our picture. When he showed us where we had just been standing, we almost had heart failure!

Back at the farm, the farmer Ryan took us on a game drive through his neighbour’s nature reserve. It was exciting enough just to ride off road in a Land Rover, but we also saw so much: zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, an otter and a newborn foal. Just in time for sunset, we hired quad bikes to get to the view site of the Gorge in double-quick time. This was thrilling, as we rushed through the cane fields sending up great clouds of dust. It also made for some excellent action photos, and was a brilliant climax to an action-packed day.

All in all, we found Kwa-Zulu Natal to have an amazingly rich variety to offer the traveller. It is therefore such a pity that it is often overlooked by holidaymakers in favour of the Garden Route and Cape Town.

World Trip >> Africa >> Kwa-Zulu Natal

Last updated: Sunday August 27, 2006