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I slept well although could have done with longer to make up for the night before. But we had an early start for our drive to the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park with Solu and Michel. They picked us up at 7.30 am after breakfast and we started our drive east. At first it was slow progress through Tana, with lots of traffic negotiating roundabouts controlled by policemen.

The Drakensberg is South Africa’s top mountain destination and the most beautiful mountain scenery of this trip, even topping the Virunga Volcanoes in Rwanda. It’s been a few decades since I last visited the Drakensberg and I was keen to explore these magnificent mountains again. I decided to divide my stay in two parts; first the northern part at Monk’s Cowl/Giant’s Castle and then move down to the southern part of the park at Garden Castle. I collected my repaired caravan from Echo4x4 in Centurion and drove 6.5 hours to reach the Injisuthi Camp which is located between Monk’s Cowl and Giant’s Castle in the Northern Drakensberg. The last 20 kilometers from Loskop was a very potholed and narrow track but it presented spectacular views of the lush green mountains and valleys. The Drakensberg in summer is one of the most scenic places on Earth!

We had considered that we would use Ventimiglia as a base and explore nearby Italian towns from it, but in the end we really liked it here, so instead of travelling anywhere else on our second full day, we just relaxed and enjoyed our surroundings. Peter was keen on walking to the beach next to the old town, so I said if we did that, we should probably walk all the way to the marina I had seen from the old town viewpoint. Since it was to be a relaxing day, we decided we would stop off for drinks and snacks a few times on route, too.

Hello... South Africa!