The team unanimously opted to go a different way than the scheduled one, a rather impulsive decision we made after hearing marvels about the Escarpment area which can enjoy to the max if we drive around Lesotho instead of across it. Skirting the mountains we are sure to get a better look at them than if we were driving on top of them! We are very much looking forward to visiting Golden Gate National Park and the other parks huddled in the shade of the mighty Drakensberg, whose peaks in this section exceed 3,000 m and harbor Southern Africa ‘s highest peak, The band Ntlenyana (3482 m). We start the tour in Clarens, a picturesque village along scenic Highlands Route, where a very friendly lady (as usual in South Africa) stops to enquire who we are and ends up inviting us all for coffee in her coffee shop. Her invitation is most welcome since today we were on our way at 6 AM and the day’s program is quite full – we need the perk! We drive all day in such a breathtaking setting that we actually forget to stop for lunch, or perhaps it’s all the dust from the  gravel road turning us off – there’s quite a lot of it around. When we eventually get to our end destination it’s past seven and already dark. Shame, we missed the last bit of scenery!