Walking guide to the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park - South Africa

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
• Further Reading

The Boer and his son gazed up at the massive, seemingly vertical, rock wall of the peak above them, the top shrouded in cloud as all the peaks were that day. High above they saw clearly a giant lizard with a long tail and wings flying easily across the sky. They called the mountains in their Afrikaaner language the Drakensberg – the Dragon’s mountains.’

So goes the story, however implausible. In reality the precise origin of the name is unknown but it dates from the early 19th century. In the Zulu language it is called, equally graphically, uKhahlamba – the Barrier of Spears.

It is a land of spectacular natural beauty; an extraordinary mountain range of huge peaks, towering basalt cliffs, massive sandstone outcrops, deep gorges and crystal-clear mountain streams. There is a good chance of seeing a variety of antelope and the area has a regular bird list of well over 200 species.

Add to this the fascinating history exemplified by the Bushman rock paintings spread widely across the whole area, together with its unique geological structure, and you can understand why it has been designated a World Heritage Site.

Geography
The Drakensberg mountains, which stretch from Cape Province up to Eastern Mpumalanga province, are the massive outer rim of the escarpment of the great interior plateau which is a major and climatically important feature of South Africa’s topography. The section constituting the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park forms a crescent-shaped area 200km long, perched on the eastern border of Lesotho and stretching from the Sentinel in the Royal Natal National Park (RNNP) to Bushman’s Nek in the south.

The escarpment itself and the plateau beyond are generally known as the High Berg, perhaps most famous for the 4km-wide sheer basalt wall of the Amphitheatre in the RNNP. The plateau has an average height of approximately 2900m, but numerous peaks reach much loftier altitudes. The highest point is the peak called Thaba Ntlenyama, lying inside Lesotho and at 3482m the highest point in Africa south of Kilimanjaro. There are many sheer rock walls of 500m or more. Below the High Berg is an area of numerous, lower, grass-covered mountains and smaller hills, known as the Little Berg, with its steep-sided spurs and valleys. The line of sandstone cliffs and outcrops that runs the entire length of the Drakensberg is a conspicuous feature and divides the Little Berg from the lower valleys.

Geology
Experts claim that the geology of the Drakensberg is ‘simple’. Although that might well be the case for some people, less geologically aware souls such as the author struggle with the complexities of the subject. Fortunately even a basic understanding of the local geological history does a great deal to make the stunning scenery fall into historical perspective and adds to the pleasure of the walks.

From 250 to 300 million years ago the whole area was a vast expanse of shallow lakes, alluvial flats and swamps sitting on a large land-mass known as the super-continent of Gondwana: essentially today’s Africa, South America, Antarctica, Australia and India. Flowing water separates particulate material according to size, so when gravel, sand, silt and mud were carried into the lake they were deposited in different places and layers upon underlying granite. This process, called sedimentation, continued over millions of years, and the weight of continuing deposits served to compact each underlying layer. This compaction formed what are known, unsurprisingly, as ‘sedimentary rocks’. For example, sand accumulations are converted into a sedimentary rock called sandstone, mud into mudstone (also called shale) and so on, although the names are not usually quite so obvious.

The lowest and therefore oldest layers that can be seen readily in the Drakensberg are those of the Molteno Formation, successive beds of sandstone alternating with layers of blue and grey mudstones. They often present a sparkling appearance because of the minute quartz crystals that bind together with sand particles. The most easily seen example is at Mermaid Pool in the Garden Castle area (see Walk 73).

The Elliot Formation, originally called ‘Red Beds’ because of the iron oxide content, has alternating layers of red mudstone and fine-grained sandstone. These are extensively exposed on the hillsides of the Drakensberg foothills and, when non-weathered, exhibit their characteristic dark red colouration.

Towards the end of this phase of sedimentation there was an increase in warming and aridity to produce desert conditions. The whole of today’s South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia became a vast sea of sand. The deposition that occurred at this time was wind rather than water-driven and these deposits formed the Clarens Formation. These huge sandstone cliffs cap many of the Drakensberg foothills, or Little Berg. They are often seen weathered into extraordinary shapes, a good example being Mushroom Rock in the Cathedral Peak area. In simple terms, winds have swirled across the rock face and picked up sand and other particles which, in turn, have worn the cliff or rock away by an abrasive effect, forming caves.

This process is accentuated by surface water seeping down into cracks and subsequently freezing, thereby widening the cracks. The more this occurs, the more the likelihood of chunks of rock falling off as part of the erosion process, thus creating the beautiful and sometimes weird shapes seen in sandstone all over the area. Most of the caves in the area are found in this formation. The use of the word ‘cave’ is interesting: they are almost never true caves, more large overhangs.

For unknown reasons this period of sedimentation came to an abrupt end about 150 million years ago and subsequently the tectonic plates of Gondwana started to drift apart. As well as breaking up Gondwana into the constituent continents that we recognise today, this stretched the plates and caused molten rock (magma) to burst through to the surface through a complex series of fissures or fractures in the earth’s crust. The result was a succession of dramatic floods of basalt lava covering almost the whole of southern Africa. This gave rise to the layered appearance seen today, with individual lava flows of up to 20m in thickness.

In the area of the Drakensberg this solidified to a depth of at least 1000m especially over what is now Lesotho. The height of the cliffs and exposed steep slopes allowed subsequent weathering and erosion to bite into the margin of the lava plateau so that the broken material accumulated as an apron of rubble at the foot of the escarpment. In fact, of the extensive lava sheet that originally covered South Africa there are few such volcanic rock areas remaining in the region. The Drakensberg is probably the best place to see them and it is important to remember that the spectacular shapes of the peaks and rock formations are more the result of the later erosion by wind and water than by the original volcanic uplift. Generally, basalt cliffs are friable and make a poor playground for rock-climbers.