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Sun May 25 2003 (Drakensberg to Johannesburg)

Had a great sleep last night. Got up and Rob concocted a breakfast of bread, cheese and spicy dip. From the garden we watched a black eagle thermalling its way out of the gulley, it's incredible how fast these things can gain altitude with almost zero effort on their part.

We went a few kms down the valley to Champagne Castle, a tourist resort where a young local guy gives falconry displays on weekend mornings. First he brought out a lanner falcon, an incredibly agile bird that can top 200km/h when hunting. He told us all to sit completely still, then had the bird flying out to the rear of where we were sitting and then brought it into the lure straight between our heads. Next up was a larger bird that specialises in ground ambush. He sent the bird off to the back of the audience, and got a couple of people to sit in front of it as cover. Then he dragged the lure along the ground and the bird flew in low to the ground, swept just over the heads of the people and smacked into the lure as hard as possible. After this came an eagle owl and finally a crested eagle, a huge bird that was too dangerous to let loose.

In the afternoon we walked up to a spot in the hills known as breakfast river as hardcore hikers use this as a stop off in the morning. I found it a bit heavy going and was out of the breath most of the way. Rob thought it could have been down to the fairly high altitude after being at sea level for so long, but I think the main factor is that I'm completely unfit. We nipped back to the house to collect out stuff and I took a quick photo of Florence's tradional Zulu hut. Just as we set off, news came in the form of a text message from Emma that the QPR-Cardiff play-off final was 0-0 at half-time.

We made it back onto the main R74 road just before sunset and drove through the mountains until we arrived at Harristown, where there was a huge illuminated christian cross that seemed to be floating a hundred feet in the air. Spooky stuff. We stopped here for food at Nando's, where the bad news (for QPR fans) came through. From here we picked up the motorway to Jo'burg and arrived at Rob's place a little before 10pm. We were both pretty tired, and crashed as soon as we got in, me on the mezzanine area the kids use for hanging out and watching TV.

Photos from today