The Drakensberg
UNESCO World Heritage Site: Maloti Drakensberg Park, A MIXED Natural And Cultural Inscription (2000, Extended 2013). A Basalt Escarpment Running Two Hundred Kilometres With The Five Kilometre Amphitheatre Wall At Its Northern End, The Second Highest Waterfall In The World Beside It, And Some Forty Thousand San Rock Paintings In The Caves And Overhangs Beneath The Largest Concentration Of Rock Art In Africa South Of The Sahara · Winterton, KwaZulu-Natal
The Drakensberg is a basalt wall two hundred kilometres long on the Lesotho border, and the Zulu name for it, uKhahlamba, means the barrier of spears. At its northern end the Amphitheatre is a five-kilometre cliff a thousand metres high with the Tugela Falls dropping off the top of it - by most measures the second-highest waterfall in the world. Beneath the escarpment, in caves and overhangs across the whole range, are something like forty thousand San rock paintings, the largest concentration of rock art in Africa south of the Sahara, which is why the UNESCO listing is a MIXED natural and cultural one. The walking is the best in South Africa: day routes to Tugela Gorge and the Cathedral Peak waterfalls, multi-day lines along the top, and the Sani Pass hairpinning up into Lesotho on a road that needs a 4x4 and a passport. It is cold up here in winter and it snows, which is not what anybody expects of Africa.
The escarpment wall along the Lesotho border, with the Amphitheatre in the north at Royal Natal and Giant's Castle and Sani Pass to the south, Winterton, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
The reserves - Royal Natal in the north, Cathedral Peak, Injisuthi, Giant's Castle and Kamberg to the south - keep daylight hours with conservation fees paid at the gates, and walkers sign a mountain register going out and coming back, which matters and is not a formality. THE ROCK ART SITES ARE GUIDED ONLY, booked at the relevant camp, and which are open varies with conservation and staffing - Game Pass at Kamberg and the Giant's Castle shelter are the usual ones. SANI PASS NEEDS A 4x4 AND A PASSPORT for the Lesotho border post and the road closes in snow. Accommodation is in the reserve camps or the resorts along the foothills and books out in South African school holidays. Winter snow closes high routes and the top of the Amphitheatre is serious mountain country in any season.