I now pronounce you husband and wife!

So one Thursday evening in Autumn, in the 2012th year of our Lord, it came to pass that one Paul Taylor, his good brother Mick, and his beautiful fiance Burnette loaded up his Land Rover with supplies, sound equipment, flowers and any amount of other wedding paraphernalia and went off to get married in the mountain village of Clarens.

The beautiful road to Clarens

Arrival at Berlin Farm

Berlin's Farm house, where the whole romance began

We arrived back at the beautiful farm, called Berlin, where, almost three years to the day earlier, we had confirmed what many letters, sms's, phone calls and facebook stalks had got us hoping for. This was the farm where, in the April of 2009, we went for our first walks in the woods, lay under starry skies, ran our first little impromptu Easter service and fell wonderfully, awkwardly, irrationally and unstoppably in love. Now in April of 2012 we were meeting up with the two families who didn't know each-other back then, gathering two groups of friends who three years ago had never met and planning a wedding that three years ago seemed an incredibly long and unlikely distance away.

The following day we moved the operation to st Fort where the reception would be held and preparations moved into full swing. The morning of the wedding dawned unbelievably beautiful after rainy, stormy days prior and I went off for a hike with our mates while Burn was being beautified. The hike to mushroom rock is only an hour or so and it is unbelievably picturesque, a perfect way to hang out with friends and keep my mind off the terradactil starting to flap its wings in my stomach!

The picturesque hike up to Mushroom rock

The path winds up through caverns behind enormous rocks

And ends with stunning views of St Fort

Mushroom rock

It was then time to suit up and make our way to the church in town.

The stone church in Clarens

I now pronounce you husband and wife!

Nothing can prepare you for the emotion of the day

Or the photos!

Backstreet's back oh yeah! What a team I had!

Our dream of a country wedding really came true

Facial expressions were all over the place after the photos

The sky lanterns on a crisp night were a beautiful end to the reception and we don't think any fires were started.

After all the excitement and buzz of the wedding the honeymoon was an incredible relief. We had pulled off our dream wedding and now we were off on an adventure just the two of us. The wide open spaces of Lesotho were absolute balm for the under-lying stress we'd carried and as the landy powered us further and further from familiarity and civilisation we felt more and more relaxed.

Lesotho, a land without fences

  The weather station at Malealea was particularly impressive

We made our way through mountainous terrain untill we needed to drop the tire pressure because the road was too rough for comfort. Not long after that we reached the 'Gates of Paradise' pass and headed into the Malealea valley. Malealea lodge is an excellent place to base yourself in Lesotho and the staff were so excited to have a honeymooning couple choose their establishment that they made a big fuss of us, champagne on ice was waiting in our room and we felt really special. We can't recommend them highly enough and a week would not be too long a time to spend there, with hikes, pony trekking, cultural exploration, 4x4 routes worth exploring and lots of space to chill out and read a book on the beautiful premesis, we will be going back for sure! 

Exploring the mountains

This waterfal isn't too far from Malealea and well worth a trip

Climbing back out of the waterfall valley, low range was necessary.

The road out of Malealea towards 'gates of paradise pass'

"Wayfarer pause and look upon a gateway of paradise"

Lesotho is a series of incredible vistas all competing to take your breath away 

Unfortunately we had to leave Malealea eventually but we were excited to drive through beautiful scenery and head down to the Wild Coast, little did we know we were in for an epic day that, while adventurous and achingly beautiful, was perhaps not what restful honeymoons normally include.

Lundin's nek pass

The storm hit as we crested the Drakensberg

Early on in the drive out of Lesotho Burn's passenger window dropped of it's mechanism inside the door. This had happened before and usually enough toggling of the switch would get the window back on its gearing. This time, however, the electric motor stopped responding all together so there was no way to get the window up. Try as we might, we opened up the door panel and struggled away with wire fashioned into a hook, we couldn't get the window pane back up. We had to rig up a cover out of a towel and later a waterproof duffel bag to protect Burn from the storm that we ran into as we drove over the Drakensburg via Lundin's Nek. Aside from this things were going smoothly but we expected to make good time once we were on public roads in S.A. this was not the case. We crawled through endless amazing valleys along the border with Lesotho on an off-road track that then snaked up into an impossible looking pass. 40 k's took us all afternoon and we still had to drive all the way through the Transkei and down into the Wild Coast, the mood changed somewhat as massive rain storms cleared just in time for a beautiful sunset but as night rolled in we were aware of just how far we still had to go on roads littered with dodgy vehicles, pedestrians and animals before we even got to the next dirt road sections. We gritted our teeth. After hours of stressful driving and navigating we pulled into Mazeppa Bay hotel's parking with an exhausted sigh, well after nine o'clock. We wolfed down the dinner they had kindly left for us in our room and deflated into bed.

Our make-shift repair hampered passenger visibility somewhat

Starting the repairs after a well earned rest

No water to drink or grass to eat but Transkei Cows don't care.

Mazeppa Bay Hotel

We were greeted the following morning by beautiful views, gentle sunlight and the sound of waves crashing nearby. The idyllic setting of this second phase to our holiday made the odyssey of the day before a quickly down-sized anecdote rather than a harrowing tale and we settled in to rest all over again. The Wild Coast is like nowhere else and it captured our immaginations completely. We walked and drove our surrounding areas in Mazeppa, then went off to Kei Mouth to make the pilgrimage across the ferry. We joined 'Trevor's trails' from Trennery's Hotel and had a wonderful walk and boat ride up the Qolora River to the 'Gates' waterfall. We found secret beaches and ate good food before eventually packing for home.

In reality, this wouldn't be the best way to transport your bride

While I did leave my bike at home there was always going to be some frizbee action, honeymoon or not!

Trevor's trails start from Trennerys Hotel

Boating up the beautiful Qolora river 

The Gates

The waterfall at The Gates

Hiking back from The Gates waterfall

The car ferry at Kei Mouth

Floating the Landy across the Great Kei River

The beach south of Mazeppa

I'm hooked and desperate to get back down there again. I'm busy planning a rough and tough trip from Kei Mouth back up to Port st Johns via a mixture of the Wild Coast Eco Trail from Tracks 4 Africa and the 4x4 routes marked on Slingsby's map when the Eco Trail gets lame. It would idealy be in the first week of December and will involve some serious river crossings and Mud-plugging - Camel Trophy style. Who's in?

Cheers for now

Paul