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
“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".
DRAKENSBERG WILDERNESS PHOTOS ©
WILLEM PELSER
“Absorb and be absorbed by the beauty of the surroundings. Escape
from the shell of your small affairs and tread for a while those mysterious
paths of the spirit that lead nowhere and everywhere. Then you will know
beauty. You will feel yourself to be a part of beauty, of the earth, the snow,
the clouds.”
Frank S Smythe
CATHKIN PEAK DRAKENSBERG
If any individual peak has
lived to see great and dramatic events in the history of KZN, it is Cathkin
Peak. This free-standing, flat-topped mass of basalt has inquisitively watched
the Bushman as they hunted and painted in its shadow. The Africans acknowledged
the might of this great mountain as the thunder roared from the summit, and it
is not surprising that they called it, according to Bryant, Mdedelele which
means “make room for him” implying a bully.
The first
Europeans to settle in view of Cathkin were the Voortrekkers who found the
fertile grasslands and the sparkling streams a paradise. Their stay was
short-lived because they were discontented with the British rule as well as
with the unfair allotment of land and so they packed their meager possessions
and travelled on, leaving the rolling hills and clear streams to the British
Settlers.
David Grey, one of the earliest Settlers in the
Cathkin Peak area was a well-to-do Lanarkshire man who came out I 1849 on the Aliwal as a British Settler to KZN.
After running a hotel at Weston he moved to a farm which he bought in 18858
from a Mr. Opperman. Here he and his family lived for a while on their farm,
popularly known today as the Nest Hotel. In 1863 David Gray moved to his new
home which he called Cathkin after a hill near Glasgow, which bore the name
Cathkin Braes. Thus Cathkin Peak got its name – a touch of Scotland added to
the names of the peaks of the Drakensberg and a monument to the Byrne and British
settlers who founded many towns and settlements in KZN.
Patrick Campbell Sclanders was another settler from
Glasgow who arrived in KZN in 1861. He married David Gray’s daughter and lived
at the Nest. The attraction of Cathkin brought from Edinburgh a great
character, Robert Hope Moncrief, brother of Colonel Alexander Moncrief, who
invented the guns used with great success during the siege of Sebastopol in
1855. Dobie in his Journal describes his
visit to Cathkin in 1863 and how he found Robert Moncrief on the farm Culfargie
living in a hut. In 1863 Moncrief was found murdered on the Sungabale Pass.
There were times of peace when the only
unfamiliar noise to be heard in the valley was that made by the axes and saws
of the wood—cutters whose task it was to fell beautiful old indigenous trees.
All they left when they departed were ugly scars. But there were also worrying
times when messengers arrived with the news of war and the noise of gunfire
rang through the gullies during the Langalibalele rebellion. Rumors of the Zulu
wars must have disturbed the people living in the mountains. There were times
of excitement during which imaginary fortunes were made and lost when gold was
discovered near Cathkin, but it was not a payable field. Rumors of the
discovery of cinnabar were whispered through the valleys, but these proved to
be no more than a hoax.
Fortunately there were those who realized the value of
the indigenous forests and felt that something should be done to preserve the
natural forests in the valleys of the Little Berg. But it was not until 1922
that the Cathkin Forest was proclaimed a reserve. A man who was instrumental in establishing
and protecting the reserve was Mr. Carter Robinson, the man who started the
Cathkin Park Hotel in 1929.
In 1935 Otto Zunckel bought the hotel and it
was managed by his sons, Gerald and Udo in the true Zunckel style. Hendrik
Maartens then decided to cater for guests on his farm, Woestyn, which today is
the popular Champagne Castle Hotel, then owned by Rupert Wait, who also was the
lessee of the Royal Natal National Park Hotel.
The Sterkspruit River is cradled on the eastern
slopes of the Turret and Amphlett and runs down the old Dragon Peak’s Caravan
Park where visitors had the rare pleasure of hearing the voices of the
Drakensberg Boys’ Choir School. What finer place could have been chosen for a
choir school? Here the angelic voices of the boys harmonize with the winds that
blow across the grasslands and the gurgling of the streams.
Close to the Sterkspruit, on the original farm,
Heartsease, which belonged to Colonel J.P Woods, the El Mirador Hotel was built
by Captain H.C Whelan. The house in which the Colonel lived was used as a
starting point in the early attempts to climb Cathkin Peak. The M.O.T.H.S.
chose a position close to the original farm Heartsease to build a sanctuary.
Further downstream the Sterkspruit passes the Nest
Hotel, built by David Gray who was the grandson of the first David Gray.
The dominant Cathkin spur consists of Champagne
Castle which is part of the main escarpment, The Monk’s Cowl, Cathkin peak,
Mount Memory, previously called the Sterkhorn, the Turret, and Amphlett.
Champagne Castle can boast of being the second
highest peak in South Africa. It was first climbed by a Major Grantham while he
was busy surveying in the Drakensberg. Many stories have been told of how this
peak got its name, but the authentic one seems to be the version of R.O Pearce,
author of the book Barrier of Spears.
He is of the opinion that Major Grantham climbed the peak with his batman and
that, during the ascent, a bottle of champagne was accidentally broken, and the
peak was thus christened Champagne Peak.
In 1888 the Reverend A.H Stoker, and his
brother F.R Stoker, climbed Champagne Castle via the Mhlwazine Valley and the
descended down the Ship’s Prow Pass, which they called Champagne Castle Pass.
The Monk’s Cowl was a different story. From the
time that this peak was first discovered, hiding behind the mighty Cathkin, a
certain mystery seemed to surround it. There are stories of early climbers,
Father Kelly among them, gazing at the Cowl, searching for a route to the
summit. George Lundt, who in his day was termed the greatest crags man in South
Africa and who seldom believed a route was impossible, had his doubts about the
Cowl.
The first serious attempt was made by Dick
Barry and Colin Gebhardt on the 29th January 1938. Dick had made a
name for himself in mountaineering circles in South Africa and overseas in his
younger days. His academic career was also exceptional. Having obtained a
first-class matriculation with honors at St. Andrew’s College, Grahamstown, he
went on to further honors at Birmingham University and top of his year in
mining engineering.
These two climbers attempted to scale the
north-west face. The climb ended tragically. Less than 150 meters from the
summit, just as Gebhardt reached Dick Barry’s stance after “ a sensational
pitch with tremendous exposure”, his hand hold came away and he fell the full
length of the pitch, pulling Dick with him. Both climbers fell 188 meters, then
rolled down a grass slope and fell another 6 meters, rolled again and fell 9
meters where they came to a rest. Shaken, bruised, and shocked though they
were, they suffered no serious injury.
Dick had a cut on his head and was unconscious
for two hours. To continue the climb was out of the question. Their only hope
lay in a descent. Dick tried to climb down, belayed by Gebhardt, but because of
his condition found it impossible. After the fifth attempt Colin decided to
show him how it might be done.
He had reached the bottom of the pitch when
Dick decided to find another route down. Dick constantly answered Gebhardt’s
calls while he searched for a new route down, but suddenly his answering calls
ceased.
Dick Barry
had fallen to his death.
Gebhardt spent the night in a little cave and in the
morning he found his friend’s body. Near the Grotto close to Cathkin Peak Hotel
is Dick Barry’s grave within sight of the Monk’s Cowl and the mountains which
he dearly loved.
In 1939 John Longmore and Harry Barker made
another attempt, but this time bad weather with icy conditions forced them to
abandon the Cowl. In May 1942, the Monk’s Cowl was eventually climbed, via the
south face, by Emile Ruhle, Tony Hooper, Jack Botha, and Hans Wongtschowski.
Twenty years later Mat Makowski, Malcolm Moor, and Martin Winter climbed the
route Barry had taken and found some of his equipment.
To the north-east of the Monk’s Cowl is the
Cathkin Peak with its precipitous sides. At a glance it appears impregnable but
as early as 1888 the Stocker brothers found the key to the summit via the South
Gully, though they failed to climb the final pitches. Other attempts were made
by well-known climbers and eventually in 1912 G.T Amphlett, accompanied by his
porter Tobias. Tom Casement, who brought along his well-known Basotho guide
Melatu, Father Kelly the climbing priest from Bloemfontein and W.C West,
finally stood on the flat-topped summit. Describing the methods of the
impetuous Tom Casement West had this to say about the final section of the
climb:
“He made for the first pitch
which he thought would go, dragging Kelly and Melatu with him. Before long they
were in difficulties and I can still see the very deaf padre at one end of the
rope in a position suggesting prayer and appeals for Divine assistance, and Tom
at the other end, the rocks apparently trembling under the barrage of his Irish
volubility. In the meantime Amphlett, I and Tobias had commenced what we
considered the most promising approach and were making good headway in spite of
the troublesome and dangerous ice on the narrow ledges and in the main gully.
The other party ultimately extricated themselves by a difficult traverse and
joined up with us. We eventually reached the flat, triangular summit, built a
beacon, and recorded our names and the date”.
Mdedelele had
fallen.
On the 20th September 1955 a new
route on the north face of Cathkin was climbed by A. Leeb du Toit, Keith Bush,
and N.D Harte. When the successful party stood on the summit, little did they
know that the climb would eventually end in tragedy. As Keith Bush was
abseiling, the sling broke, and he fell to his death.
Keith was the son of Professor Bush of the
University of Natal. In 1963 a hut was completed on the site of the old Base
Camp and named the Keith Bush Hut.
In August 1970 Tony Dick and Roger Fuggle, who
was killed in an avalanche in the Alps in 1974, opened a difficult route on the
east face.
Mount Memory, previously known as the Sterkhorn,
consists of a north and south peak and was first climbed by the Stocker
brothers in 18888.
The Turret, originally named Tamas Tower and
often referred to in maps as the Tower, was first ascended by F.E Ellis and
O.B. Godbold and party in 1933.
The most northern section of the spur is the
Amphlett which was named after G.T Amphlett, a popular Cape climber who spent
some time climbing in the Cathkin area. The first recorded climb on this peak
was in 1933 by F.E Ellis, O.B Godbold and party.
From the Champagne Castle Hotel and the old
Monk’s Cowl forest station a well-known path leads up to the top of the Little
Berg, round Hlatikulu Neck, skirting the Amphlett and up the Mhlwazine Valley
to the Keith Bush Hut. The path climbs steeply up to Gray’s Pass which leads to
the top of the escarpment, and an easy walk takes one to the summit of
Champagne Castle.
From the top of Gray’s Pass, a stroll to the top
of the Nkosazana Waterfall is worthwhile, and from the edge the Dragon’s back
extends as a spur, flanking the northern aspect of the Upper Mhlwazine Valley,
and ends in a peak called Ntunja or Gatberg. The latter name springs from the
fact that there is an enormous hole through the basalt near its summit.
Ntunja
was first climbed by Carter Robinson and M.E Robinson in 1910.
The End.
Safe Hiking.
References and Acknowledgements
From the book – “A
Cradle of Rivers – The Natal Drakensberg” D.A Dodds
Photos – Color
Photo : Willem Pelser
Black & White Photos : “Barrier
of Spears” R.O Pearce
“Serpent
Spires” D Souchon
“A
Cradle of Rivers – The Natal Drakensberg” D.A Dodds
