The village of Clarens in the Drakensberg Mountains

The next stop on my journey was the village of Clarens. In total, I had to cover 600 kilometers from Kruger. Therefore, I started early with the opening of the camp at 06:00 am. The roads in South Africa are in good condition and you can make relatively good progress. However, there are hardly any highways, but almost everything is country roads, on which you are often completely alone. In general, there is very little traffic in the countryside, so I arrived in Clarens unstressed around 3:00 pm. Clarens has already won the title of the most beautiful village in South Africa, but in my opinion, this is not difficult. So far, I didn't want to stop in any city or village and you already feel quite unsafe when driving through. It is hard to describe what it looks like here. If you have ever been to a festival and know the huge tent camps, you might recognize this here. Just don't forget that you are in Africa and a large part of the people are very poor. In the countryside, there are only townships and no real cities. The idea of ​​going to a center to do some shopping does not exist here. There are no centers and certainly no nice shops. The Spar supermarket in the town is usually the only shop. In Clarens, it was a bit different, but still, you constantly have a queasy feeling. Sitting down somewhere, having a coffee and observing the people is unthinkable or simply not possible. It's best not to get out during the drive. However, in Clarens, I was also on foot and looked at the artist village, which was quite nice but not a highlight either. The highlight of this region is the Drakensberg Mountains, which extend to Lesotho. Several national parks and a huge reservoir fascinated me. In total, I spent two nights in Clarens and used a full day to see the beautiful landscape. Clarens is 1800 meters high, and the surrounding mountains are even higher. The air was very thin and it was quite cold. Nevertheless, I spent two nice nights and my accommodation, apart from the non-existent Wi-Fi, was also very nice. The next few days will be pure driving days, as I have to cover a relatively long distance to the next highlight. I usually didn't plan more than 400 kilometers per day, but it still takes 6-7 hours. You could have covered this distance with a domestic flight, but this would have become complicated again with the car rental return, etc., so I will drive the distance in the next few days.