Xtractor

Today we are entitled to one last, indulgent rest day - our schedule henceforth won't allow for any more. We savour it, filling it with peaceful routine activities we actually don't feel like doing all that much, as it's always the case when there's not...

As we move farther away from the mountains,, the highlands gradually give way to green rolling hills stretching out by the thousands down to the coastline. We once again venture down gravel roads and dirt tracks snaking up and down the slopes, cutting deep into...

Our long drive around the Escarpment has taken us to the very same point where we would have landed had we come by way of Lesotho, i.e. Underberg, a pretty little mountain resort laying in the shade of the Drakensberg where in the afternoon we'll...

Off we go for our second day driving around the Escarpment, the steep flanks of the Drakensberg. Rising up to mark the border between the small independent highland kingdom of Lesotho and South Africa, geologically they are a deeply eroded residue of the ancient African...

The team unanimously opted to go a different way than the scheduled one, a rather impulsive decision we made after hearing marve!s about the Escarpment area which can enjoy to the max if we drive around Lesotho instead of across it....

When we booked it we had no clue that the lodge where we would stay tonight was a rather special place nestled at the foot of a ridge. The dirt track leading there was lit up by the most beautiful sunset when arrived....

After spending two days there, the petrol station feels like home. At the fast food restaurant where we've been taking all our meals we've made friends with everyone....

We have a wonderfully satisfying morning today. It's Sunday and we have the very welcome opportunity of visiting a township, a community where black South Africans live....

When we wake up, early in the morning, the small farming town of Bothaville looks like just any other place in the the low-lying countryside of Northen Italy. There's a fog as thick as in the plains of Lombardy, and muted fall colors....

The new drivers who joined us yesterday are going to be sorely tested today. We are having breakfast at 6.15 and leave as soon as we possibly can because we'll be running on a tight schedule....