The Journey Inward

Today’s agenda:

Before we took off, I walked the grounds and took some final pictures. I found a swing and thought, If you come upon a swing, you must have a sit. And I did, feet sailing out over the little pond.

We drove up to Oribi Gorge, stopping first at the Leopard Rock cafe to see the view of what we’d be hiking and get the lay of the land. To navigate, we went back up to Durban and then starting cutting inland. Several of my friends recommended this gorge and I was extremely excited.

The Leopard Rock grounds were so quirky and whimsical and right up my alley!! I loved the wacky sculptures and sweet and silly signs and industrial artwork.

We drove down to the base of the gorge, which again brought on my fear of heights as I tried not to look over the side of the cliff. The markings and map were not terribly clear, but we eventually found the start to the hike and Walter shocked me by choosing the longest one. We were getting a late start and I didn’t think he’d like to hike that far, but off we went. It was quite hot in the direct sun, but we spent much of the time in the forest, walking mostly silently along the path. It was very rocky and at times we scaled boulders. There was a good amount of elevation and we eventually came to a waterfall at the bottom.

Walter had hit his head on a tree branch as he ducked under and then I did something to upset my hip, so that last 5k or so was a bit rough. All told, it was about 8k of tough terrain. The waterfall was not much more than a trickle, but it was pretty.

Afterwards, we drove back up to the cafe, but the kitchen had just closed at 3:45 for food and was only serving cool drinks (what they call soda here) and dessert. I had no problem shifting gears to an exquisite lemon meringue pie. The views from the deck were absolutely awe inspiring.

I paid for us to go out onto Leopard Rock, but upon seeing it, there was NO WAY I was stepping out onto that. These pictures don’t even do it justice. Yuri was one of the ones who told me to go. He sent me this picture of when he had gone and I sent him mine of me huddled against the wall. His reply? Same. Ha ha!

We then drove several hours inland to our inn/brewery on Nottingham Road in Midlands Meander. It was so beautiful inside and out and had a great story. We checked in and went straight to dinner. Everything, including the beer, was excellent.

The shower in my room was amazing and felt good after a few days of camping, although I loved the outdoor shower.