Monks Cowl

This image also has a good story behind it!

To cut a long story shoot, 3 mates and myself decided to go hiking in the Drakensberg Mountains, South Africa. We had planned our route and started hiking on the evening of Day 1, this was steep for about 6km until we ended up at our Camping Spot for the night.

The next day we rose early to continue our hike, today we would tackle a steep accent of over 1000m to reach a height just over 3000m. Our plan was to take the well traveled route called grays pass, but at the base of the Mountain we noticed another more interesting route which was around a 40 degree incline all the way up, with no path.

We were told at the top there would be a cave to spend the night in and water. After a grueling 4 - 5 hour climb and also getting caught in a lightning storm, we finally made it to the top. Only to realise that the cave could not be found, we had 2 hours of light left and needed shelter. W decided to decend down the other side and find shelter below, a rough steep rocky decent lasted for a good 3 hours before it became to dark. Fortunately we stumbled on a patch of grass suitable for our tents and we rested after 12 hours of tough hiking.

This photo was the sunrise the next morning, it was very special and well deserved. Little did we know we had another 6 hours of hiking, mainly rock hopping on boulders as we traveled down the river bed. Extremely tough but well worth it in the end.
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