Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. January 2012 - Monk's Cowl

We had an eventful trip to Monk's Cowl as, after the heavy rain, the gravel road between Lotheni and Nottingham Road had a couple of 'interesting' sections to negotiate where water had gathered in a dip in the road and turned into thick mud. We got through the first muddy bit OK but got completely bogged down in the second one, mainly because the road was in the process of being re-graded so there were big heaps of rock along half of the road which meant that you couldn't avoid the deep muddy ground. It took Kevin about 1/2 hour of going back and forwards before he managed to get through it - and I forgot to take any photos!!!

Although it had been fine for most of our journey we could see thick cloud over the mountains and on arriving at Monk's Cowl we couldn't see anything but later we did get a brief break in the clouds to catch our first glimpse of the mountains.

The campsite at Monk's Cowl has great views but is right next to the Entrance Gate.

Location: S29 02.892 E29 24.360

Half of the site has power and the ablutions were well maintained with hot showers.

On our final morning we woke to superb views of the surrounding mountains but only for a short while before the cloud, once again, descended.

This robin was very busy collecting food for its family.

1 Cobham

2. Lotheni

3 Monk's Cowl

4 Spioenkop

Diary (Word '97 document).

top of page