WE are camping at Cobham Nature Reserve in the southern Drakensberg – and it is raining. Are we surprised? Not really. Cobham, with its pleasant, rustic, mountain-ringed campsite, is famous for many things, not least its gorgeous mountain setting.
As regular Cobham campers will tell you, it is also famous for its weather. Cobham has lots of weather – cold weather, hot weather, howling winds, ferocious summer thunderstorms, thick mist, days and days of cold drizzle, drenching downpours and even snow.
On a perfect summer day, I have watched in amazement a wind come up the valley from nowhere, leaving torn fly sheets and twisted gazebos in its wake. I have cowered in my rooftop tent, trying to believe Bill when he put forth the theory that the tent structure would act like a Faraday cage. As thunder roared and bolt after fearsome bolt of lighting lit up the summer night sky, I was not totally convinced about Bill’s Faraday theory but I fervently hoped he was right.
Cobham, a favourite with outdoor families, offers wonderful walks, longer trails, swimming in natural little swimming pools, tubing on the Pholela River and much mountainous scenic splendour. It is also on the Giant’s Cup National Hiking Way, a five day trail between Sani Pass and Bushmen’s Nek, and many hikers stay at the no-frills Pholela hiking hut next to the camping ground. The camping ground is pretty, rustic and offers an old-fashioned back-to-nature camping experience. A few years ago it acquired a new ablution block that now provides campers with the previously unheard of luxury of hot showers.
This nature reserve is a small part of a beautiful big picture. It is situated in the southern part of the uKhamhlamba Drakensberg Park, a World Natural Heritage Site that, together with Lesotho’s Sehlabathebe National Park, forms the Transfrontier Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Park.
Weather aside, I always look forward to a Cobham camping trip. When we arrived this afternoon, the sun was shining and the summer-green mountains were looking their best. We did notice a few clouds around as we put up our tent but the day remained sunny and warm while we took a short walk along the lovely Pholela River to one of the swimming holes. By the time we strolled back, though, the clouds were beginning to marshal, great bruised-looking clouds popping over the mountains and slowly banding together to form battalions.
We were sitting at a scenic little spot quite close to camp, enjoying a sundowner, when they launched their first assault. A fuselage of big fat drops threatened to dilute our wine, so we beat a hasty retreated to our tent verandah.
Experienced campers tend to be optimists who, after many holidays under canvas still manage to retain the amazing ability to imagine sunny day following sunny day while planning a camping holiday. All the same, years of camping-weather-or-not eventually teach us to temper our optimism with a little forward planning. For instance, we have a rollup awning attached to our bakkie and we have extended the verandah of our tent, giving us quite a bit of cover when it rains.
A permanent fixture in the aluminium camping canopy is a rolled-up windbreak, which has, on more than a few occasions, helped to keep us cosy and warm. Inside the cab of our bakkie you will always find a little bag of beanies, scarves, gloves, thermal underwear (okay, not very glamorous but real lifesavers at times) and thermal socks.
Under one of our seats is another permanent fixture, a thick, warm blanket that we bought on one of our Lesotho trips, It has more than paid for itself. On any camping trip we travel with an over-supply of warm bedding, winter woolllies, jackets and windbreakers and even in more temperate climes we have occasionally needed them all.
The thing about camping is you are not going to get very far if the first bit of inclement weather causes you to abandon your tent and run for more luxurious shelter. And, funny enough, some of my happiest camping memories are of weathering the worst that Mother Nature has thrown at us. Camping-weather-or-not can actually be great fun – and Bill and I are thoroughly enjoying it at this moment.
We have set up the windbreak around our extended tent verandah, have hauled out some winter woollies and have replenished our rain-threatened glasses. Sitting under our canvas shelter, we are quite content to watch the mountains disappear into the thick mist. And there is something magical, when you are warm and dry, about the sound the rain makes on canvas.
The storm moves up a notch or two. The rain increases, thunder rumbles and sheet lightning flickers across the evening sky. We notice some hail is falling too, bouncing on the grass as it lands. Against the backdrop of the massive mountains, this summer storm is such a dramatic event. Eventually, the clouds take their lighting and thunder off to terrorise some other campers and the rain slows to a gentle shower.
As we watch, a herd of about a hundred eland appears on the skyline. The magnificent creatures then descend slowly into our misty valley and begin to graze the long grass near our camp. They are still there when darkness falls and we crawl into our warm stretches.
It begins to rain again. Soon it is pouring, the heavy drops lashing our tent, but we stay warm and dry and we enjoy a good night’s sleep. In the morning, the rain has stopped but a heavy mist descends as we begin a walk. We abandon any plan of walking in the mountains and return to the shelter of our tent verandah. Soon it is drizzling again and the wind has an icy edge to it, so we breakfast under cover, watching the mountains appear and recede as the ghostly mist comes and goes.
It is actually rather nice to have an excuse not to do anything energetic. We spend a lazy morning reading, chatting, drinking lots of coffee and tea and quietly enjoying the natural beauty. A little later we take a drive to Underberg to buy homemade bread, freshly laid farm eggs and a few teatime treats from Puckity Farm, one of the best farm stalls in South Africa.
It is still a bit chilly when we return but the sun comes out and we are able to enjoy a short walk before we retreat from the cold wind into our little cosy little shelter. We braai our supper under a starry sky, but there are still a few clouds about and it rains again during the night.
On our last day at Cobham we wake to glorious sunshine and some of the chill has disappeared from the wind. At last we can enjoy a decent walk. The green mountains and the rain-washed sky are exhilaratingly beautiful. We spend most of the morning out in the mountains and after a picnic lunch, we return reluctantly to camp to pack up and leave.
As any camper will tell you, Murphy usually sends along a little rain just as you are about to take down your tent but for once, we are spared the joys of packing away a sodden tent. We’ve had a wonderful long weekend at Cobham, we both agree. While a sunny camping weekend is always first prize, the temperamental weather hasn’t really bothered us at all. To be a successful camper you have to learn to camp-weather-or-not.
