It rained a lot overnight at Royal Natal. We woke at 5:30am and started packing up, only to find water inside at the back of the camper. Its probably bad drainage on the roof. We soaked up the water, packed lots of stuff in plastic bags and headed out on a very cold morning. We had 123km to drive as we headed for Sentinel Peak where the track started to Tugela Falls. As we drove it got more and more cloudy, and we started to think it might not be worth doing. We looked at the weather forecast and there seemed a slight chance that the cloud might lift. We eventually got to the enormous town of Phuthaditjhaba that spread over about 25km. It was slow going through town. Then it was uphill. We passed through the gate of the Witsieshoek Mountain Lodge where we paid 180 Rand to get to Sentinel Peak car park. The a few more kms of brick paved road, until we hit a rough 4wd track. It was a rocky slow 3.5km up the track in thick cloud. We made it to Sentinel Peak car park, which was in very thick cloud. Liz decided that we should walk some distance along the trail towards Tugela Falls. We met some people along the way (fit young people), but it was just thick cloud. We got to a lookout point that would have been a fantastic view, if it wasn’t just cloud.
We did think of staying and camping in the car park overnight, but it was so cloudy and cold we decided we would head off to Glen Reenen Rest Camp in Golden Gate Highland National Park. So back we headed down the 4WD track and back through Phuthaditjhaba, arriving at Glen Reenen at 5:30pm.
