A Zulu Woman

We left Durban today to come to the Drakensberg Mountains for a couple of days. It was a 3 hour journey that proved to be very interesting to the boys. The change in the vegetation as we left the green cane fields behind was interesting, particularly as it opened up into veldt and we saw many veldt fires as the farmers burn the dead grass to allow new growth to come through after the dry winter season. The air was filled with smoke and we could not see the mountains until we were right in them.

We passed many local settlements along the way, consisting of thatched rondavels and tiny square cottages with corrugated iron roofs only held down with large stones. There were many school children walking home from school, and as it is an area of much poverty it was pleasing to see evidence of electricity that had been installed - the incongruous sight of mud huts with a satellite dish outside some of them amused us. The children were waving at the car and begging for sweets so we stopped to give a group of boys our leftover lunch - chicken, fruit, biscuits. Luke was not impressed as he thought it was patronising but we explained to him that in places of poverty like this they are needy and appreciate anything. As we stopped we were swarmed by these boys trying to get at the food, almost climbing in the car window - it was rather frenzied and a little frightening. We gave them everything we had and would like to think it was shared amongst them but insight tells me that the bigger lads would have taken it off the smaller lads.

This Zulu woman was passing by and I quickly took the photo from the car window. There was no time to get a good composition but I thought it told a good story of the lifestyle here, It is custom for woman to carry heavy loads on their heads, like this fire wood she is taking home.

The mountain hotel is charming and old, it has been here for many years - in fact the queen visited this area in 1947! However the wifi is very poor and I have had trouble uploading this blip (lost my first two attempts) and I don't think I will get around to commenting on journals with this dodgy wifi.