Friday, November 13, 2015

Quilone Falls

What a "spectacular hike!" as a friend would put it.  Initially I was undecided whether to do this hike or another hike, but I'm sure glad I did this one!


Directions:
On the way to Mohale Dam, after driving past one mountain, it's right at "God Help Me Pass."  Make a left at the "Donkey trekking" sign (white sign with red letters), which takes you to a place where you can park your car for R20 (about 2 dollars).

Then you take the trial on the left, and go under some trees, then when you reach an area close to a water crossing where the trail goes right or left, take the left trail (where it almost looks like there's no trail).  I think you cross water twice before getting on a ridge where if you just continue straight on the biggest path, then you reach a great view of a river and a besotho hat mountain (shaped like the traditional besotho hats).

Then you follow the ledge (keep right), until you reach a river, where you cross to the other bank.  From there, you just go straight up (not much of a trail), until you come across a main trail.  That will continue to take you up the mountain, until you get a great view of the falls.  From there, it's downhill to the falls.

It's beautiful! But don't be deceived by the pictures of people in the water - it's frigid!  But despite the could, people did some mini-cliff jumping.  I wasn't as adventurous, so I waded in the water to get used to the temperature, and then jumped in and took a swim.  Too cold to stay long!

But some adventurous folks decided to hike farther up.  And soon, while we were drying out at the bottom of the falls, we saw some little heads pop out of the top of the falls.  We all decided to follow suit and went to the top, which was gorgeous!

The top had many gentle pools carved out by the great river, and at the very top of the falls, right where the water plunges down was one big pool where everyone decided to take a dip.  Despite appearing dangerous, it was quite safe as there was essentially a wall blocking off us from the fall.  You can even see the wine bottle sitting on top of this "wall."  Unfortunately this wine bottle did fall to its death shortly after our arrival.




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