Drakensberg Mountains

uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park

Not many people will deny that the great bulwark of the Drakensberg escarpment tops the drama stakes in the South African landscape arena. Shoring up the border with Lesotho, itself a mountain kingdom of note, the Drakensberg marks the big divide between the massive upland plateau of the interior and the humid subtropics of the KwaZulu-Natal coastline for some 250km (155 miles). Literally translated as ‘dragon’s mountain’ from the Dutch-Afrikaans – and pretty apt once you’ve witnessed its dragon-tooth ridges, eroded cliffs and soaring buttresses – the local Sotho people saw it from another angle. They called it Quathlamba, ‘barrier of spears’, and this is embodied in the name given to this World Heritage Site today, the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park. Six wildlife reserves and six state forests combine to make up its great expanse. The escarpment is generally spoken of in terms of Lower and Upper ’Berg. The gentle, fluid rise and fall of the green-mantled mounds of the Drakensberg foothills, like an emerald apron spread out at the foot of the bastion and presenting an intensely pastoral scene, fall into the Lower ’Berg. The rocky face and heights of the mountain megalith itself comprise the Upper ’Berg.

Cooled lava and sandstone sediments
The Drakensberg massif is made up of clearly defined bands of igneous lava deposited on layers of sandstone. The base layer, which characterizes the rolling Natal Midland hills, comprises sandstone, shale and mudstone called the Upper Beaufort Series. Next are Molteno Beds of coarse, glittery blue-grey sandstone, visible in the Lower ’Berg’s eroded ledges. These are topped by the Red Beds – you guessed it, reddish-purple shale or mudstone, deposited some 200 million years ago – and fine, soft, creamy Cave Sandstone that resulted in dramatic cliffs and overhangs. Later this arena would become the artistic playground of the San people, who decorated cave walls with their finely executed paintings over thousands of years. When the supercontinent of Gondwana started splitting around 180 million years ago, the parting tectonic plates allowed molten rock to permeate fissures in the earth’s crust. These Stormberg Basalts accumulated on top of the sandstones and over aeons were weathered into jagged peaks, sheer cliffs and sharp kloofs; they remain today in the form of the Upper ’Berg. Today the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park covers an extensive area; its diverse nature spaces are made more digestible by their loose division into the southern, central and northern Drakensberg. No direct road network connects up the dots nicely between the three sectors, so it involves a number of circuitous detours to get from one to the other. The Sani Pass in the southern Drakensberg is the only gateway across the entire mountain escarpment – and negotiable by nothing other than 4x4.

CENTRAL DRAKENSBERG

Giant’s Castle Nature Reserve, iNjasuti
Tourism is a lot more developed in the central Drakensberg, due mainly to easy access via the N3 highway into the Bushman’s River valley and to iNjasuti. The brooding hulk of the Giant’s Castle massif looms protectively over its reserve, the long rugged mountain silhouette resembling, according to park management, the profile of a sleeping giant. Some people refer to it simply as ‘the Giant’. You could also try to guess which peak is the Old Woman Grinding Corn, or the Lion, or the Ape. Giant’s Castle Nature Reserve was established way back in 1903 to protect the then threatened population of eland and today these weighty antelope number in their thousands, making up one of the country’s largest populations. They graze on the grassy slopes of the reserve’s battalion of ridge-encircled hills, and their significance in the area is reinforced by their prominence in the San paintings of the Main Caves. A half-hour walk from the main camp, an interpretive centre/museum has been created at the Main Caves to elaborate on the four different periods and styles of rock art occurring in the vicinity. Hues for the San paintbrush were derived from mineral oxides: white from zinc, black from manganese, and iron providing ochre through sepia to rust-red. Consisting of two rock overhangs, some of the images relate to rain-making, depicting a fanciful elephant, rain serpent and other creatures. Therianthropes, ‘flying’ antelope and creatures with blood streaming from the nose represent the act of ‘dying’, often experienced by shamans in a trance state, and symbolize the shamans being transformed in the spirit world into revered eland or other antelope. From May to September, visitors can join a guided tour (booking essential) to a nearby vulture hide to unobtrusively observe the voracious devouring of meat and bones by not-to-be-trifled-with Lammergeiers. Four charming stone-and-thatch mountain huts on the Giant’s Castle slopes provide shelter for the web of walking trails here, among them a demanding eight-hour round trip from Giant’s Hut to ‘the Giant’s’ summit (3314m/10,873ft). The main contour path here, part of what’s called the National Hiking Way, also links the Giant’s Castle Camp with that of iNjasuti. This hutted camp takes its name from a river whose translation from the Zulu is, inexplicably, 'well-fed dog' – but the setting is truly spectacular. Human presence is reduced to a mere blip on the radar screen by the staggering size of Champagne Castle and Cathkin Peak, with Monk’s Cowl sandwiched in between, which climb into the sky within spitting distance (well … almost). An 8km (5-mile) circular walk to Van Heyningen’s Viewpoint opens up to an unobstructed vista of the Drakensberg rampart, from Cathkin to Giant’s Castle. San paintings at Battle Cave, a four- to five-hour guided walk from iNjasuti camp, feature what appears to be a massive conflict between two rival San clans in addition to a prolific number of other images. Northern Drakensberg Champagne Castle, Cathedral Peak, Royal Natal This region is well served by a road network off the N3; from the main hub of Winterton town, the R600 heads directly into the Champagne valley. In this area, the skyline is blocked by jagged silhouettes belonging to Champagne Castle, Monk’s Cowl, Cathkin, and Cathedral Peak. Ndedema Gorge, ‘place of rolling thunder’, enfolds the largest stretch of indigenous forest in the Drakensberg. Backpacking is the occupation of choice here, with a phalanx of evocatively named day and overnight trails. From Cathedral Peak Hotel, a key landmark of the area, one trail offering pure enchantment tracks its way through the yellowwood forests of Rainbow Gorge, where mist from multiple mountain falls is caught by sunlight and transformed into the gorge’s namesake rainbows. Giant boulders obstructing the way force hikers to cross the river a few times. Ndedema is also synonymous with well-preserved rock paintings; individual images in Sebaaieni Cave alone top the 1100 mark. For breathtaking views on four wheels, the 10km (6-mile) Mike’s Pass starts at the Cathedral Peak camp site and forges to the top of the Little ’Berg near the head of Didima Gorge. The Drakensberg’s most photographed natural feature, the Amphitheatre, dominates the Royal Natal National Park, the northernmost reserve of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park. A dramatic 5km (3-mile) curve of solid basalt hemmed in to either side by the Eastern Buttress and the Sentinel, it is part of the Mont-aux-Sources massif where seven streams and rivers start their lives. The Elands (which eventually joins the Vaal), the upper Orange (called Western Khubedu here) and the Tugela are among them. The Tugela pole-vaults over the Amphitheatre’s sheer face in a series of earthward bounds; it is credited as being the world’s second highest waterfall, next to Venezuela’s Angel Falls. The Royal Natal reserve is a hikers’ Shangri-La, with some 25 walks ranging from 3km (2 miles) to the 45km (28-mile) Mont-aux-Sources trail. The superlative Gorge day-walk from Thendele Camp tails and crosses the Tugela to a 60m (65yd) or so tunnel. Hikers can either scramble through the tunnel or skirt it via a chain ladder to emerge in the Amphitheatre, with dramatic views of the curved rock wall, creepy Devil’s Tooth and Eastern Buttress. You can also clamber to the summit of the Amphitheatre in a two-hour walk (one way) starting from the Sentinel car park, which marks the end of the road on the northern Drakensberg escarpment; a permit is necessary. Walkers encounter the chain ladders of the Mont-aux-Sources trail, summiting to the same absolutely awesome views. Anyone tackling the Drakensberg should be aware of sudden weather changes, which can strike at any time, delivering drenching mists, icy clawing winds, and even snowfalls. Always set out fully prepared, and absolutely always sign the camp mountain register before and after your walk. Car-bound visitors will undoubtedly want to experience the Sentinel Mountain Route, a round trip of some 260km (160 miles) from the Royal Natal National Park, ending at the Sentinel car park. This circuitous road branches out into a wide loop through Oliviershoek Pass, skirting Sterkfontein dam, then doubles back and heads for Witsieshoek Pass toward one of Southern Africa’s highest resorts at 2200m (7220ft). The last 5km (3 miles) climbs some 300m (985ft), with stupendous views of the Malutis in Lesotho. Viewsites near the car park reveal the Royal Natal below, the Eastern Buttress, Devil’s ‘fang’ and Inner Tower interrupting the sky at your elbow.

SOUTHERN DRAKENSBERG

Sani Pass
Visitors using Sani Pass to gain access to the uKhahlamba park will need passports to get through the Lesotho/South African border post. It’s certainly a dramatic entry into this realm of the dragons. The base of the pass is guarded by the atmospheric thatched complex of the Sani Pass Hotel and Resort, cradled in a tree feathered nest of eternal green in the Mkhomazana valley, mountains rising almost within touching distance. From here, the sinuous switchbacks of the pass follow the original bridle path that initially snaked up to the crest in 1913, traipsed by only the most sure-footed of Basotho ponies. The first vehicle to attempt this route only did so in 1948, and the trip took 12 hours. Today, it takes around two, over 22km (131⁄2 miles), with some hair-raising, breathless moments borne out by the names given locally to some of its features – Blind Man’s Corner, Haemorrhoid Hill, Suicide Bend and, right at the top, Reverse Corner! The steepest section climbs some 1000m (3280ft) over 10km (6 miles) to the summit, sky-bound at 2873m (9426ft). Sani Top Chalet poised on the summit has a restaurant and the highest licensed pub in Africa, known for its generous tots (to take the edge off the frosty air); the views, needless to say, are incomparable. Nearby, carcass remains are put out to the vultures at their very own ‘restaurant’, attracting fierce-looking Bearded Vultures (Lammergeiers) with their red-rimmed eyes, distinctive black feathers at the base of their beak, russet chest and diamond shaped tail in flight.

 Of hikers and trout fishermen
The southern Drakensberg foothills radiate out like a green velvet shroud punctured regularly by the humps of knuckled hills pushing up under their emerald mantle. The mood is less about the dominating majesty of the northern ramparts and more about the tranquillity of water: cascading falls, trout-filled streams and sheets of mirror-like water reflecting pastoral scenes back to the sky. A contiguous zone of wilderness areas, state forests and nature reserves, it is the dominion of patient anglers and peaceful treed camp sites with mountain backdrops like cardboard cutouts against the skyline. Starting at Bushman’s Nek in the south, which is sandwiched between tracts of land making up the Mzimkhulwana Nature Reserve, Garden Castle Nature Reserve and Mzimkhulu Wilderness Area, the southern Drakensberg region curves all the way to Giant’s Castle Nature Reserve in the central Drakensberg. At Bushman’s Nek is South Africa’s only other border post with Lesotho besides the Sani Pass – but it is negotiable on foot and horseback alone. This is also the endpoint of the much-traipsed five-day Giant’s Cup Trail which sets off from Sani Pass, tracing the line of the escarpment for just under 70km (43 miles) while crossing the Cobham and Garden Castle state forests. Dominating the skyline is the sandstone butte of Garden Castle and, distinctive in its likeness to the profile of a rhino head ending in the upward curve of its horn, Rhino Peak, standing proud of the main range. Look out, too, for The Monk and Sleeping Beauty. A handful of walks includes a challenging eight- to ten-hour hike to the tip of the ‘horn’, in which walkers gain some 1200m (394ft) in altitude. The last 2km (1 mile) tracks a knife-edge ridge that’s to be tackled only in the most perfect of weather, it’s so exposed. The 360-degree views are your greatest reward.

Cobham, Vergelegen, Lotheni and Kamberg
All these reserves surround the Mkhomazi Wilderness Area splaying out from the river of the same name. Mkhomazi’s remote, under-explored territory features a series of ridges detached from the Drakensberg massif, offering hikers narrow gorges and eroded caves to hunker down in – Cyprus Cave and Sinclair’s Shelter afford water and protective night shelter. You could even bump into the area’s black wildebeest, eland or smaller, shyer antelope. Otherwise, in the nature reserves, expect undulating grasslands of feathery Themeda triandra and dense round-top cushions of Festuca grasses, segueing from apple green to burnished brown and gold depending on the season. Tree ferns flourish along river banks and the creamy yellow heads of the Drakensberg Sugarbush (Protea dracomontana) decorate the grassy knolls. Fishermen are drawn to the crystal-watered rivers, trout-stocked dams and mountain lakes – Cobham lays claim to its own Lake District. Hodgson’s Peaks, enclosing the Giant’s Cup, rear over Cobham while Lotheni’s horizon is etched with the unmistakable shapes of The Tent, The Hawk and Redi. If the utter tranquillity of fly-fishing on the Lotheni River (16km/10 miles are stocked with brown trout) is simply too much for you, take a peek into the Lotheni Settlers Museum, an 1890s Victorian homestead once belonging to the Root family. Old wagons, farming implements and household utensils recall a bygone era. Walking trails making the most of mountain views carry names like the Eagle Trail, Jacob’s Ladder (a series of stepped cascading falls), the Canyon and the Gelib Tree Trail. Gelib is an acacia grown from North African seed. The dams in Kamberg Nature Reserve, which is contained to the north by the Mooi River, are replenished with both brown and rainbow trout, making it a favoured fly-fishing spot – as is the Highmoor State Forest with its high-lying dams, each limited to six anglers. Kamberg has one of the best preserved San rock art sites in the Drakensberg, the Game Pass Shelter Excellent guided trails taking 21⁄2–3 hours are conducted three times a day from the Kamberg Rock Art Centre.