South Africa!: Hiking the "Berg"

Here are some videos and photos from my Drakensberg Mountain hike! I'm sorry I've had to edit this/repost it so many times for those of you who receive the notification emails. The first video wasn't working, so I posted a link to it instead. I used 2 different websites to upload pictures, and that is why some are huge and some are small. The large photos are cut off, so you'll need to click on them to view the entire image. I'm sorry for that! I think clicking on a large photo will take you to my album on photobucket.com, where you may be able to just view the entire album at a normal size there. I'm not sure... I'm still learning this blogging thing!!!

Our nursing instructor's pastor and his wife took us nurses on a backpacking trip. We backpacked between 8 and 10 kilometers to a cave (more like an overhang) and spent the night! It was beautiful and completely worthwhile. Pictures cannot capture the intense beauty that surrounded us! It was a pretty decent hike- we crossed streams, walked through tall grass, stepped in lots of mud and poop, and the entire first day was all uphill. There were many slips and falls. I am happy to say I only fell twice, and it was on the way back DOWN the mountain. However, I think I got hurt the worst. I bruised my hand pretty badly and wondered if it was broken for a solid 5 hours. It was KILLING me and the pain would not subside! It still hurts and you can see a bruise, but it was totally worth it!!!

Lydia and Me

We started out crossing the river on a bridge.

I can't get over this view. It was breathtaking.

I hope this works...
http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/ktowens/?action=view&current=MVI_2377.flv

Some parts were really slippery!

ME!

It took a long time to make it to the top... lots of hills, and once we got there we had 3 more hills to climb! Don't worry, I sang, "The Hills Are Alive" several times. When I thought I was being annoying, I whistled it. haha.