Approximately about 600 miles the Drakensburg Mountains stretch the entire length of KwaZulu-Natal’s western boundary. Here, you can enjoy hiking trails, game viewing, bird watching, horse trails and safaris, 4×4 trails, guided tours, golfing, quad bikes, trout fishing, rock climbing, white water rafting, and more.
Some highlights of the Drakensberg Area:
1. The Karkloof Canopy Tour
This is a unique adventure of eco-wilderness in the Karkloof indigenous forest of South Africa. From one platform to another, the canopy tour involves traversing along a steel cable suspended up to 30 meters above the forest floor. The scenery and bird life is spectacular one. The professional guides provide interesting facts about the forest ecology during the three-hour tour.
Safely harnessed in state of the art climbing gear and under close supervision of a professional team of guides prepare yourself for a 3 hour adventure that will take you above the birds and the monkeys, trees and plants of this magnificent forest. The slides are up to 175m long and provide unforgettable rides and spectacular views over the forest canopy.
Spend a couple of minutes relaxing while your guides enthusiastically explain the ecology of the forest. The Karkloof Canopy Tour consists of eight platforms and nine ‘fufi’ slides, the longest of which is over 170m!
2. Bushman Rock Art
The bushman or San paintings are one of the Drakensberg’s and South Africa’s greatest cultural treasures. Some 20 000 individual rock paintings have been recorded at 500 different cave and overhang sites between Royal Natal National Park and Bushman’s Neck. The San bushmen were the original inhabitants of the Drakensberg mountains and they left behind the most beautiful paintings in caves throughout the region. Some of the best examples of Bushman rock painting in South Africa can be found in Kamberg National Park.
Ancient rock art sheds light on the trance experiences of Bushman shamans. When Europeans first encountered rock art of the San people, or Bushmen, in southern Africa some 350 years ago, they considered it primitive and crude, like the people who made it. They were just ?Bushman paintings,? two-dimensional accounts of hunting and fighting and daily life. Twentieth-century scholars had much more respect for the aesthetics of the paintings, often finely detailed and exquisitely colored, but many also viewed them largely as narrative accounts of hunter-gatherer life. A closer look in recent years has yielded another picture altogether.
For the San, rock paintings weren?t just representations of life; they were also repositories of it. When shamans painted an eland, they didn?t just pay homage to a sacred animal; they also harnessed its essence. They put paint to rock and opened portals to the spirit world.
3. Royal Natal National Park
The Royal Natal is perfect for those who enjoy hiking, rock climbing and horseback riding, encompassing one of the most beautiful parts of the Drakensberg. One of the highest mountains in the Drakensberg is the Mont-aux-Sources which is the source of five rivers and includes the stunning Tugela Falls which fall over 3000 feet and tumbles over 5 separate tiers.
The wonderful scenic views, lofty mountains and thundering sounds of big boulders rolling down in the nearby Tugela River after a heavy rain, are just some of the wonderful features that make your visit in Royal Natal National Park a refreshing, thrilling and memorable experience.
This leading KwaZulu-Natal reserve in the Drakensberg has a variety of accommodation facilities from luxurious lodges, to comfortable chalets and cottages. Hiking, mountain climbing, birdwatching and picnics are also some of the popular activities you can choose. Or, you can participate in the 3 km (1.86 miles) Otto’s Walkor the more adventurous 45 km (27 miles) Mont-aux-Sources, which is named after the highest peak of the plateau.
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