#Wednesday Walk - On a Cloudy Day in the Valley of a Thousand Hills.

This post is for the #wednesdaywalk challenge and the #makemesmile challenge collaboration. This collaboration initially took place once a month, but due to its popularity, @tattoodjay (of the #wednesdaywalk) and @elizacheng (of #makemesmile) decided to make it a weekly thing.

If you want to know more about the rules, visit this week's post by @tattoodjay where you will find all the controls at the bottom of his post after you've enjoyed his beautiful photos from his walk.

Last weekend, we headed out to the Valley of a Thousand Hills for a nice late afternoon walk.

It almost didn't work out, as I didn't check the weather forecast, and neither did I keep my eye on the weather as I was busy here at the house during the day.

It was only when my wife asked me if I saw how cloudy it became and if I still wanted to go out to take some photos. That's when I saw how cloudy it became.

We left immediately in the hope that we wouldn't get rain by the time we arrive in the valley.

Normally, when it becomes cloudy and we drive towards the Valley from our house, it seems like we are driving into the cloud as we go up the hill. But fortunately, the clouds were still high enough and we didn't get rain either.

My first stop was at the little craft market at The Pot and Kettle.

I've shared some photos of this area in some of my previous posts too, so you might recognize the area.

To the left, it starts with a more "modern-looking" building where you can find various little shops and/or services.

Towards the right, all the little shops/businesses are located in rondavels, giving it more of an African/rural atmosphere.

Passing through between the "more modern" building and the rondavels, you move down to where there is a little restaurant on the left, called "The Brown Cat Cafe."

From where I stood to take the next photo, The Brown Cat Cafe was on my left-hand side, but from here you start getting a view of the valley down below.

I walked down a little further to a little porch from where I took the next photo.

I normally take photos from here to capture the view, but this time you can see the clouds were low and it was misty, creating a different view altogether.

I was on my way down to the lawn visible in the area below to take some photos of the valley.

Still standing at the same spot, but zooming in on a little dirt road (in the center of the photo) down below in the valley. I normally drive on that little road when going to the paintball gun shooting range.

After walking down a little zig-zag walkway, I reached the lawn at the bottom and took the following two photos, looking out over the valley on a cloudy day.

Walking back up towards The Brown Cat Cafe, this wall art is on the wall behind the porch where I stood before. It creates a nice, joyful, friendly feeling when looking at it.

You can enter The Brown Cat Cafe from this side too...

But you can also enter it directly from the parking area to the left of the building in the first photo.

From here, we decided to go towards the halfway mark of the Comrades Marathon.

On our way there, we passed Phezulu Safari Park. They have a crocodile farm here, take people out on safari drives, etc.

We haven't been there for quite some time, so it's going onto the to-do list again.

This is the entrance to Phezulu Safari Park.

We then passed the Comrades Wall of Honour. According to the Comrades Marathon website... "Runners who successfully completed the Comrades Marathon are able to purchase their own blocks for perpetuity. These are mounted on an attractive plaque, which records the name, race number, and status of the runner, which can be updated in later years."

But this is where I noticed something that wasn't here the last time we were here.

Above the wall, they have now made it very visible for you to know where you are now...

We then continued to the halfway mark of the Comrades Marathon.

From here, I took some more photos of the Valley on this cloudy afternoon.

Imagine the view from this house...

From here, we can also see Phezulu Game Estate and some of the houses inside the estate. It is situated next to Phezulu Safari Park.

The houses inside this estate have a high price ticket, but it's a beautiful place. The estate is inside a private game reserve. The developer of the Phezulu Game Estate, Leo Kroone, is also the owner of Phezulu Safari Park, which borders the estate.

Phezulu Game Estate is towards the right of where I stood, and in the next two photos, some of the houses in the estate are visible on top of the hill.

And a little more to the right...

And that's all for today, folks.

Thank you for reading my post! I do appreciate it!