A trip to the Berg

A friend of mine who has been serving at the South African National Bahá'í Centre for the last year will soon be leaving South Africa to return to Canada so we decided to go on a short trip to the Drakensberg mountains in Natal.

The highlight of the trip was a tour up the Sani Pass which links South Africa to the mountain kingdom of Lesotho on it's eastern side. This pass is a very steep climb of over 2000 metres in just 8 km over a narrow and stoney road and is very spectacular.  

I've put up some photos of the pass which can be viewed from picasa.

While I was standing at the top of the pass, looking down at the magnificent view below and thinking how beautiful this world is, I remembered the following passage from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and how He calls this world a dust heap.  So if this world is a dust heap just think how unspeakably glorious must be the worlds to come.

O Brother! Not every sea hath pearls; not every branch will flower, nor will the nightingale sing thereon. Then, ere the nightingale of the mystic paradise repair to the garden of God, and the rays of the heavenly morning return to the Sun of Truth - make thou an effort, that haply in this dust heap of the mortal world thou mayest catch a fragrance from the everlasting garden, and live forever in the shadow of the peoples of this city. And when thou hast attained this highest station and come to this mightiest plane, then shalt thou gaze on the Beloved, and forget all else.

Bahá'u'lláh, The Seven Valleys, p. 38