What a fine time it’s been so far here in South Africa! I can’t thank Craig Smith and Edward Truter enough for the incredible fun Granny and I have had with the fishing, wildlife and sightseeing so far. But today we began the journey we came for – fly fishing in the small country of Lesotho for smallmouth yellowfish.
We left Ed’s at 6 AM and flew to Durban. We met my friend Rob Scott of Tourette Fishing – Fight it in Africa and drove to their office in Pietermaritzburg. There I met with other Tourette friends Keith Clover whom I haven’t seen since we filmed the tigerfish segment to Connect in 2010 and Mark Murray whom I met tigerfishing in 2013 and fished with in Sudan both 2014 and earlier this year.
This afternoon Mark and Tourette guide Stu Harley (met Stu today) drove their 1991 Land Cruiser six hours from Pietermaritzburg to Clarens where we’re spending the night. The drive was uphill the entire way and the last part was through Golden Gate Highlands National Park. We saw herds of zebra, eland, wildebeest, springbok and hartebeest.
We are at the Clarens Inn Backpackers and Granny and I are staying in the “Beehive”. An interesting room with just a bed and a boiling pot and some instant coffee – perfect. We are off to the Highlander Restaurant for dinner. We’ll head for Lesotho in the morning.