Dispatch 13 - Up the chain-ladder and down the river

There's the clatter of horseshoes on tarmac as a wild bunch of characters wearing blankets and balaclavas escort us on their shaggy winter-coated Basotho ponies through Phudjitsaba. Police cars flash blue lights, ahead of us in a smart shiny black double cab bakkie is Morena, paramount chief of the Batlokoa. The mountain backdrop to his chiefdom is one of the most beautiful in the world, the jagged Barrier of Spears stretching south, the Sentinel, the Amphitheatre, Mountain of Dragons, the mighty Drakensberg. It's last light, the magic hour. We hear beautiful Basotho voices singing in harmony, echoing amongst the foothills. Then they appear over the ridge. They've come to pay homage to their chief and to welcome our humble expedition to Witsieshoek. It's another Transfrontier conservation moment, tomorrow there'll be a ceremony at which an agreement will be signed between the private sector and the community, allowing the old Witsieshoek Resort to be refurbished and renamed the aBatlokoa Mountain Lodge. The paramount chief is a wonderfully regal man with a great sense of humour. He greets each member of the expedition personally, wanting to know their names and their roles. With him is Dr Gideon Groenewald, the Peace Parks facilitator for the Maluti Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area. We'd met him in Lesotho and now he's back to host us again. There's also a group of post-matric students from Treverton College, boys and girls who've come to join us as volunteers for a couple of days. Tomorrow, some of them will take part of our expedition group for Outrageous Adventures white water rafting down the Ash River near Clarens, and the others will assist Mike Nixon's mountain bike team to carry bikes up the chain-ladder onto the top of the Drakensberg escarpment so that they can cycle to the very lip of the highest waterfall in Africa and bring back with them some Tugela Falls water to be added to the symbolic African calabash that we are carrying across the continent. Expedition member Ross Holgate and Dave Pusey will go along to photograph the crazy challenge - it's probably the first time ever that a mountain bike team has pedalled to the lip of the Tugela Falls. They will have to leave at first light - everything will depend on the weather - We'll keep you posted.