August 13th - Day 10

The end of the Weening's extraordinary long wheelbase Landrover! After breaking down several times yesterday they decided that the time has come to change vehicles. They live in the Cape Town area and are having their Range Rover delivered to the hotel, and the Landrover taken back for repairs. It's a shame as the Landrover is such a special vehicle. Six litre American engine, three rows of seats and every conceivable extra you could want for a trip like this. Unfortunately, the roads John Brown has found for us are simply too much for their car.

 

The Weening family Landrover at the Sani Pass hotel before being returned to Cape Town

It appears that most of the Nissan hire cars have broken shock absorbers, so this morning the new heavy duty replacements arrived. Early this morning Jingers and Mike Johnson started to fit them.

Jingers with Dave Mitchell fitting new shock absorbers to the Nissan

  

We have now started the long drive north which takes us as far north as the Victoria Falls in Zambia. The route today took us along country roads with the mighty Drakensberg Wall always present on our left. We detoured off into one of the many beautiful valleys to see caves with ancient rock art. It was a long hike up to to caves on a hot day. We came away slightly underwhelmed as the paintings were very indistinct.

 

The long walk to the caves with rock art at the Giant's Castle, Drakensburg Mountain range

Lunch back at the visitor centre made up for any disappointment. A further hour's drive and we arrived at our hotel, The Drakensnberg Sun. This evening we have a talk about the history of the Zulu battlegrounds, which is where we drive tomorrow.