Machine guns in the mist...

Royal Natal National Park
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Today we drove from our rondavel at Inkosana about an hour and a half to the Royal Natal National Park in Northern Drakensberg.  It was misting and foggy, but still very beautiful.  We had hoped to hike near the Tugela Falls, the second largest waterfall in the world, but due to the cloud cover and continual mist, our view was sadly diminished.

We managed to hike about 3km into the Tugela Gorge...and came out very wet!  Prior to entering the trail we passed two guards and one was carrying a machine gun.  We suspect it was to kill baboons, as there were signs everywhere that read 'you feed them, we shoot them'.

It's cold today!
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Our short walk allowed us to arrive at the Thokolosian restaurant for a late lunch.  We had the most terrific vegetarian pizza: rocket, walnuts, bleu cheese, white asparagus, olives, mozzarella, onion, and maybe a few other items....so good.  We hope to convince the Tomato Head to add it to their menu.  Rocket, by the way, is a type of salad green.

We rested in our rondavel the rest of the evening until dinner...there is a food theme here!  Our hostel caretaker is very nice and he has several local persons that work around the clock for him.  They all wear the most colorful winter outfits and they are very hardworking, very nice and wonderful cooks.  Our dinner tonight, which is served 'family style', was soup, curry beef with rice, salad, homemade bread and a fantastic version of banana pudding...not like we are used to, but so very good!

Hello from Drakensberg!
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We have loved Inkosana so much and we hate to leave here!!!