Drakensberg Wilderness Hiking South Africa - Mountain of the Dragons - Where Adventure beckons.....: Drakensberg

Quathlamba

“A mass of Spears. Named thus by the Zulu warriors before the white man came. Today called the Drakensberg, Mountains of the Dragon, a name given by the Voortrekkers. Evocative names, both equally applicable to South Africa’s mightiest mountain range with its spear-like peaks – reminiscent of the saw-toothed spine of a gigantic dragon.”

Panorama April 1966

This blog is all about the Drakensberg Mountains and its Wilderness area, South Africa. I have lost my heart and soul to this area and every single time I hike these mountains, I stand in awe all over again at this magnificent beauty.

“Listen to the streams as they gurgle from their cradles and you will hear the story of the mountains. You will hear fascinating tales if only you listen! Lie next to a stream and listen to the song of the mountains. The smiling faces of the flowers, dancing in the wind. Venture into the remote valleys or stand on a peak at sunrise or sunset, after snow has fallen, and you will hear a song that you will never forget - the Song of the High Mountain". (DA Dodds)

Hiking adventures, hiking gear reviews, day walks, accommodation, books, articles and photos, all related to these magnificent mountains will feature here.

Should you want to accompany me on a hike, or need some information or advice, please make contact with me. I hope you enjoy the articles.

Please visit the archive for some more interesting stories, photos and reviews.

Please note that all photos on this blog are copyright protected. If you would like to obtain

Photos please make contact with the author, Willem Pelser.

“What have these lonely mountains worth revealing?

More glory and more grief than I can tell;

The earth that wakes one human heart to healing
Can centre both the worlds of Heaven and Hell”

DRAKENSBERG

FIRST THE BUSHMEN…..

In Southern Africa the Bushmen roamed the country long before the black people and Europeans arrived on the scene. Once it was thought that the Bushmen migrated from the North ahead of the hordes of black people, but the discovery of Namibian rock paintings more than 14000 years old by Dr. W E Wendt, a German archaeologist, in a rock shelter which he called Apollo II, could suggest that art had its origin in Southern Africa and not Europe, and that The Bushmen did not migrate from the North but evolved in Southern Africa.

These Bushmen roamed the plains of the Southern parts of the continent, undisturbed, leading the life of nomads, hunting wild animals and collecting wild fruits, berries and bulbs. They seemed able to adapt themselves to almost any environment.

Physically they were wiry and short of stature, about 1.5 meters high, deep-chested with small hands and feet compared to the rest of the body. Their faces were tri-angular in shape with prominent high cheek bones, the eyes wide apart and a flat nose with a broad ridge. The color of the skin was yellow-brown. They had a Mongolian appearance and, like Mongolians, the men were beardless. The females displayed a peculiarity called steatopygia, which was a grotesque over-development of the buttocks for fat storage, similar to the hump of a camel.

The men wore very little clothing. In summer, and on hot days, a tri-angular lion cloth made from animal skin was their only garment, but when the snow lay thick on the mountains, they covered themselves with a cloak. The women also wore an apron, but in addition covered their buttocks with a back skirt. On cold days both men and women wore a cloak. The seemed to favor a cloak made from Dassie (Hyrax capensis) fur.

Their hair, which was of the “peppercorn” type, was usually left uncovered or, according to 19^th century ethnologist, GW Stow, was sometimes shaved leaving a tuft which was anointed with an aromatic preparation.

These Stone Age hunters loved to decorate their bodies with ochre or clay. On their arms and legs they wore bracelets and anklets of beads made from ostrich eggshell and wood. The soles of their feet were protected by sandals constructed from animal hides. These highly specialized hunters lived and hunted in this mountain paradise where the vast grasslands supported large herds of antelope as well as other forms of wild life.

Their homes were the rock shelters found at the base of the sandstone cliffs. The family unit consisted of one or two related families, probably depending on the size of the shelter available and the number that the hunters in the group could feed.

The men were the hunters and their weapons were bows and arrows. Arrows were made from reeds with agate, stone or bone tips. Later, when the Bushmen contacted the black tribes, iron replaced the bone or agate arrowheads. Some of the arrowheads had barbs. In about 1925, a farmer, Anton Lombard, found a Bushman’s hunting equipment on a ledge in the “Eland Cave” near the Mhlwazini River. The equipment consisted of a bow, leather bow case and a quiver made from wood with leather covers at both ends, containing 22 arrows, two hunting knives and a small bag containing a resinous substance.

On occasions the arrows were worn on a headband in a fan-shaped pattern, probably for ready access. The arrow heads were smeared with a deadly poison, prepared from extracts of various plants, the venom of snakes, spiders and scorpions. Opinions regarding the exact ingredients vary but, according to Stow, Amaryllis disticta, Acokanthera venenata and the milky secretion of the Euphorbia were the plants commonly used. The rock art author, H Pager, who surveyed the ecology of the region, is of the opinion that in the Drakensberg it is possible the genus Urginea, of which there are 3 species, could have been used. The extract is a potent poison and is used by the Nyika tribe in Tanzania. Euphorbia clavarioides is also fairly common in the mountains and would have provided a perfect additive for the poison. In the event of accidental injury, a readily available antidote, namely wood ash, which counteracts the Urginea poison, might have been used, as it is used in the medical practices of the above-mentioned Nyika tribe.

The Bushmen had a profound knowledge of the habits of all animals and were experts when it came to recognizing the tracks of their prey. Having spotted their quarry they stealthily stalked the animal until they were sufficiently near to enable them to shoot the deadly, poisonous arrow into the animal. Then they followed it until it dropped.

Many ingenious methods of hunting were also used. One of the 19^th century ethnologists reports that the hunters approached a herd of antelope wearing the head, horns and skin of a buck, and when close enough the hunter would pull the bowstring and send the poison arrow into one of them.

A method of capture used by the Bushmen was to dig deep pits in which sharpened stakes were placed on the floor and the opening carefully covered with branches, grass and leaves. These pits were dug close to waterholes or on game trails. Game fences were constructed from wooden stakes which were erected to direct the animals which were chased towards the pits. Any creature falling into one of these traps was impaled immediately.

The women were the food gatherers and spend their days searching far and wide for the vegetable part of Bushmen diet. Bulbs, berries, fruit, roots and plants were collected and carried in bags made from animal skin. Bulbs and roots were dug out of the ground by means of a digging stick which was a hardwood stick jammed into a bored stone giving it impulses. The digging stick was also used as a weapon.

Bushmen were particularly fond of meat cooked over the open embers of a wood fire and in particular they favored the meat of the Eland. Another delicacy was the chrysalis of ants roasted in animal fat. This is called “Bushmen Rice” by other tribes. Locusts and flying ants were relished but when food was scarce, frogs, lizards and even snakes were eaten.

Honey was a great favorite and bee’s nests were regularly raided. Ropes of plaited grass or animal hides were made to enable the hunters to lower a companion to a nest on vertical rock faces. According to MW How, who has written a book on the Lesotho Bushmen, wooden wedges were driven into fissures or cracks in a cliff face in Lesotho to enable the raider to climb, step-ladder fashion, to the honey. The nests were marked by the finders and heaven help anyone found stealing the honey! Honey was also used to prepare potent, intoxicating drink.

A friend of the hunter was the honey guide, Indicator indicator, a bird which has a particular liking for beeswax. The Bushmen followed these birds which would lead them to the nests and in return the bird was given its share of the find.

In their rock shelters the Bushmen danced and played their musical instruments. Dancing was an important part of their lives. In the glow of the fires at night, dressed in animal skins, they mimed the antics of various animals with amazing accuracy. Their musical instruments were simple. The bow was used as a string instrument and a sound box was attached as a resonator. The music was produced by tapping the string with a stick. Flutes of different lengths were included in the orchestra and the time was kept by drums made from hollow tree trunks over which animal skins were stretched. Handclapping accompanied the beating of the drums which echoed through the valleys late into the night.

THE ROCKS SPEAKS……….

The Stone Age artists decorated their rock shelters with intriguing art – one of South Africa’s greatest heritages. From these paintings one can learn a tremendous amount about the artists – how they lived, hunted, their believes and mythology, the clothes they wore, their weapons, even historical events such as the appearance of the black man and the European.

Along the whole length of the Drakensberg Mountains, and hidden in the deep river valleys, hundreds of rock shelters are to be found. In many of these shelters, galleries of some of the finest Stone Age art are to be seen. Huge boulders were also used if a favorable, protected, dry surface provided a suitable canvas such as the Xeni Rock at the confluence of the Xeni and Umlambonja rivers in the Cathedral Peak area.

The paints were prepared from iron oxides, charcoal and gypsum, depending on the color required. These minerals were ground to a fine powder and mixed with blood and serum. The brushes were constructed from the tail hairs of certain antelopes and attached to reeds. Feathers were also used to apply the paint.

A most valuable contribution to archaeology was made by rock author Harold Pager, who, with his wife, spent over 2 years living and working in the rock shelters of Cathedral Peak and Cathkin Forestry Reserves. His book, Ndedema, is the result of this painstaking work and has become a classic in the field. He chose a research area of 196 square kilometers which lies between the Umlambonja valley in the west, the High Berg in the south and the outer krans of the Little Berg in the east. In this area Pager recorded 12 762 rock paintings and this number gives some idea of how many may be found in the whole Drakensberg range.

The greatest concentration of rock art was encountered in the Ndedema Valley in which 17 painted shelters were recorded and in all 3909 individual paintings were described in 17 shelters.

The little yellow painters seem to have favored human beings as their main subjects and males are more popularly displayed than females. With pictures beautifully painted on carefully selected sandstone faces the artists managed to produce an interesting animated effect. Looking at these galleries one can see Bushmen in the act of hunting, running, shooting, fighting, dancing and raiding. The women are painted with their collecting bags and digging sticks. They can be recognized by their pendulous breasts or by the babies carried on their backs.

After human beings, the antelope was the next most popular subject painted by the nimble hands of the hunter artists. They loved to paint the Eland, their favorite antelope. But one can also find almost any animal which roamed the area depicted on the sandstone faces.

Many visitors to painted sites have been intrigued by certain large antelope-headed human figures which have hooves instead of feet. Fine examples of these strange figures can be seen in the Main Caves at Giant’s Castle, the Sebaaieni Cave at the head of the Ndedema Gorge, and in Mushroom Hill Shelter near the Cathedral Peak Hotel as well as in many other sites.

As early as 1928 a German expedition led by Pro. Leo Frobenius visited the Sebaaieni Cave and its members were fascinated by these buck-headed men. Later the Abbe’ Breuil, the great rock art authority of his day, after seeing the work of Frobenius, described the figures as foreigners from the Mediterranean region, and not as Bushmen or Negroid. Neil Lee and Bert Woodhouse, co-authors of the book, Art on the Rocks of Southern Africa, interpret the antelope heads of the creatures as being hunting disguises or items of fashionable clothing and reject the idea that mythical creatures might have been depicted. Harald Pager, however, calls these extraordinary figures “mythical antelope men” and points out that they are unusually large and elaborately dressed and decorated. He says that their hooves could have been neither a useful hunting disguise nor comfortable footwear. It is more likely, he argues, that they are figures which have undergone some form of magical transformation.

Many other bizarre mythological creatures are to be found in the mountains. Some female figures have long, pointed headgear, winglike arms and hooved feet like the antelope men. Wilcox, in his book, Rock Paintings of the Drakensberg, surmises that they perhaps represent the Mantis of Bushmen mythology in one of its guises.

Neil Lee and Bert Woodhouse first investigated and described another mythical creature, a winged antelope which they called the “flying buck”. Harold Pager calls the same figures “alites” which simply means “flying creatures”, and this day they all are since all have some form of wings, or, when depicted in humanoid form, hold their arms in wing-like posture.

All 3 rock art authors come to the conclusion that these “alites” represent the spirits of the dead. Some of them are indeed depicted in scenes of death and one gains the impression that here the spirits leaving the body will now travel to the stars, which the Bushmen regarded as the glowing embers in the heavenly campfires of the departed.

Much controversy has arisen regarding the age of these paintings. The oldest are usually monochromes and bio-chromes. Later polychromes as well as shaded polychromes appeared until their height of perfection was achieved when the artists changed from the lateral view of their subjects to the foreshortened perspective, giving another dimension to the composition. The age of certain paintings which depict blacks, domestic animals or Europeans in military uniforms firing guns, are fairly obvious since it is well known when these people arrived in the Drakensberg and the kind of livestock the possessed. Samples of paint collected by Pager and dated by the paper chromatography method revealed that the oldest paintings in the area dated back to A.D. 970-1370 and the most recent A.D. 1720-1820.

The life of these Stone Age men and women must have been one of peace and happiness in a beautiful land where food and water were plentiful. Their needs were few but their pleasures were many. In their rock shelters they played their musical instruments while some of them mimed the antics of the animals painted on the walls of the shelter and as they danced so their gigantic shadows moved across the faces of the rocks.

But far away black men, almost as big as the shadows cast on the wall, were approaching. Following them, the first white men, called Voortrekkers and Settlers. (Then modern man arrived and promptly started vandalizing the paintings!) Little did the Bushmen realize that it would not be long before they would have to disappear – back into the mists whence they had come. Also, that the white people would treat them as vermin and wipe the Bushmen off the face of the earth.

THE FIRST WHITE MAN………

Still living in their mountain paradise, where herds of antelope grazed on the vast grasslands of the Little Berg and the crystal-clear streams and rivers raced down the gorges and the river valleys on their torturous way to the sea, the Bushmen roamed the foothills, quite unaware of an event which later led to their complete extermination, the arrival of the black people and the Europeans.

The first intrepid explorer to venture into the vastness of the Drakensberg was Captain Allen Francis Gardiner, a retired officer of the Royal Navy, who after the death of his wife decided to dedicate his life to missionary work.

The arrival of the Voortrekkers in then Natal, and the fact that many of them settled in the foothills of the Drakensberg, Must have seemed to the Bushmen an act of war. The Voortrekkers and Settlers shot an poached in areas that the Bushmen had for years regarded as their preserve. So they retaliated by stealing cattle and horses. Whether this was, in fact, a means of getting their own back or simply a means feeding their people as the game gradually became scarce, is not really known. It is a fact that the Voortrekkers and Settlers was not discriminate hunters and shot everything on site, whether they need it or not. They would kill a Giraffe for the tail and leave the rest of the animal to rot. Between them they annihilated the Drakensberg wildlife and a race of Bushmen.

Bushmen were no longer people still living in the Stone Age. They had learnt to ride horses, and iron arrowheads had replaced the less effective weapons of bone and stone. Because of the early depredations the Bushmen were regarded as as robbers and thieves and were shot on sight as if they were animals. Surprise was the greatest asset of the little hunters who would choose a moonlit night or even an overcast day when visibility was limited, and swoop down from the mountains, taking away whatever cattle or horses they could find. Stealthily they herded the animals, using their intimate knowledge of the valleys and passes. When the terrain became very steep they smeared cattle dung ahead of the animals, which would persuade the captive animals that other cattle had passed that way before them. By the time that the farmer had realized his loss the raiders had a day’s start.

Irate farmers immediately formed commandos and followed the spoor, ready to shoot these robbers. A common practice of the Bushmen was to kill the cattle by stabbing when the pursuers were too close, in the hope that this would deter them, but this only made the farmers more determined than ever to exterminate the Bushmen.

The Bushmen were eventually exterminated like vermin. No mercy was given to man, women or child, whether robber or not, and they were normally shot on sight.

So the Bushmen disappeared…………