A description of our camping holiday at Trafalgar in Natal South Africa

2 March 2005 to 6 March 2005

Trafalgar is a small village on the Natal South coast of South Africa about 20km south of Margate. Its got a great camping site, and if you go out of season e.g. no school holidays, chances are there is virtually nobody there and you have the place almost for yourself. The grounds are terraced, so if you take a spot at the top you can look over the bush below onto the sea. Anyway, its quite a drive down there from Johannesburg..over 700km. The weather was OK with the first two days being partly cloudy with a bit of rain every now and then and the last two complete sunshine. This was really a relaxing holiday with no major strenuous exercises! We had just bought a Gazebo as well to put in front of the tent when it rains or we need some shade, so the car was really packed!

Putting up the tent.

For the none South Africans, Trafalgar sits on the east coast of the country and has a tropical/ sub-tropical climate, with palm trees, banana plants and the like.

At the bottom of the camping site a small sandy path leads to the beach.

Relaxing in the pool.

Making breakfast.

We decided to take a trip to Underberg which lies next to the Drakensberg mountains and then to the village of Himeville which is about 6km further. The trip takes you through a lot of suger cane growing areas which cover most of the Natal coastel regions and extend quite far inland. Underberg is the area of the famous Sani Pass that leads from Natal up to Lesotho and is the highest pass in Africa reaching a height of 9300ft above sea level. Unfortunately its normally only accessible with a 4x4 vehicle.

Natal is quite hilly and normally very green.

Some small settlements.

The small town of Underberg.

From here we went on to Himeville. By chance we came across a small museum in Himeville that was originally built as a laager in 1896 after the Le Fleur Rebellion in East Griqualand. From 1902 to 1972 it was used as the local prison and then in 1976 it became the Himeville Museum which now displays a wide range of exhibits of all the early inhabitants and the implements/equipment used in various trades.

At the museum we met the curator, who had written a very interesting book entitled "The Saga of the Sani Pass and Mokhotlong". It covers the whole history of the Pass up until the present day and is really worth reading if you are interesting in that area.

The road that leads up to the Sani Pass. At this point we turned around, but have plans for going back there again and maybe doing the Pass as part of a tour.

Rural Natal is quite wild in places and you have a lot of animals such as goats and cattle that belong to the settlements running around all over the place, so you have to watch it when driving.

Relaxing back at the campsite.

The area around Trafalgar has some nice wide beaches although you can only swim in certain places as some of the beaches are quite rocky.

A flesh eating plant in one of the rock pools.

Some more flora in one of the pools.


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