The Drakensberg Mountains, form a majestic playground in South Africa, for the adventurous and for the historian. With ancient Bushman paintings in long-used caves, Boer war relics and accessible climbing peaks, the Drakensberg has it all.
In the perceptual process of creation, the principal tools of nature have always been water, temperature and wind. In the Drakensberg, still retreating before those erosive forces, the spectacular results of their combined onslaught is clearly in evidence. Peaks, pinnacles, towers, spires, domes and walls make up the forbidding dragon’s back of “Quathlamba”, the Barrier of Spears.
Stretching majestically for 245km, the Drakensberg mountain range forms a natural barrier between the western reaches of KwaZulu-Natal and the Kingdom of Lesotho. This is a mountain range of spectacular natural beauty where golden sandstone and soaring basalt buttresses rise above pristine steep-sided river valleys, rocky gorges and high rolling grasslands. With an elevation of over 3 000m, these magnificent mountains offer exceptional conditions for walking and hiking. In the summertime, clear morning skies puff up with towering cumuli-nimbus clouds in preparation for the daily afternoon thundershower. In winter the days are warm and dry. But a balmy 20°C afternoon will plummet with nightfall to below zero, and snow regularly illuminates the peaks.
