A loud noise echoes through the mountains. A strange combination of houling, groaning and grunting. We stopped and listened. The wind moved through the grass and made it rustle. Otherwise it was silent. Did we only imagine it? We slowly continued, made our way through the knee-high grass.
We were in the Drakensberg. The walkway meandered along the slopes of the mountains. Every now and then we descended into a small gorge, crossing a river and climbing the next spur. It was our second day and we decided to do the forest hike.
We climbed up to the highest point we could reach without special equipment the day before. It is called Blind Man’s Corner and marks the starting point of the wilderness area. Beyond that point you need experience, equipment and time. We did not have either of it so Blind Man’s Corner was our point of return. The descent stretched alongside one of the rocky spurs with long, almost flat parts, steep climbs down and an enormous amount of lizards. It was sometimes quiet hard to not step on them when they were relaxing on the warmed stones.
There was the noise again. Closer this time. We had just climbed the next spur and followed the narrow path through a fern forest that reminded us suspiciously of the Jurassic Park movies. We tried to find out where that noise was coming from, but it fell silent again. The next descent into the next gorge was just in front of us and as soon as we dived into the forest we only heard the insects and the gurgle of the small river. It was one of the easier river crossings: stones were nicely scattered through the river bed so that we could easily walk across. One of the first crossings was harder. We even thought about taking our shoes off for a moment before we found a possibility further up the river. The good thing about a river as fast flowing as the one we crossed first is that you can fill up your water supply. And honestly, this crystal clear water from the mountain streams is the best thing you can have on a long hike in hot weather.
We walked up the next small spur and as soon as we reached the top we heard the noise again. It sounded not angry or aggressive but kind of desperate. „Maybe missing its loved one“, Uta suggested. The thing was, we still had no clue what „it“ was. This weird noise was not close to anything we heard before. A dragon maybe? After all we are in the Drakensberg that got their name from its shape that reminds of a dragon’s back. And we saw so many lizards the day before which are basically miniature dragons. So why should there be no real dragon?
Some would argue now that there are no real dragons in this world. But no one could and would deny the truly magical appearance of our hiking destination of the next day. It was a fairly easy hike, more of an advanced walk that meandered through a gorge. Sometimes we walked right along the river, sometimes far up on the side of the gorge walls with beautiful views down to the river bed. We did not see any dragons there, just a few baboons and a young zebra casually strolling across the hotel property.
The magical destination was the grotto at the end of the gorge. It even appeared magically out of a sudden. We just came around the corner not expecting anything and there it was. Crystal clear water in a rock pool, a picturesque waterfall and high, bowl-like rocks around it. The perfect ending of our short trip.
The noise. It was close now. Very close. We climbed further up and reached a small hill. A brilliant view across the flat land and the mountains opened up in front of us. A narrow ridge stretched from here for about 150 meters. And at the end of it looking across the green ridge right in our faces, was the creator of the noise.
It was no dragon. Not even a small one. It was a big lonely baboon sitting on a rock, calling (and we are sure about that) his loved one whom he lost in the Drakensberg.