Quathlamba
“A mass of Spears. Named thus by
the Zulu warriors before the white man came. Today called the Drakensberg,
Mountains of the Dragon. 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.”
“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
“HIKE THE WILDERNESS
AND CLIMB THE MOUNTAINS AND GET THEIR GOOD TIDINGS. NATURE’S PEACE WILL FLOW
INTO YOU AS SUNSHINE FLOWS INTO TREES. THE WINDS WILL BLOW THEIR FRESHNESS ON
YOU, AND THE STORMS WILL GIVE YOU THEIR ENERGY; WHILE CARES WILL DROP OFF LIKE
THE AUTUMN LEAVES.”
John Muir
AMPHITHEATER
DRAKENSBERG
Along
the whole length of the Drakensberg Mountains there is a repetition of the
mountain scenery in the form of buttresses, peaks, cutbacks, saddles, pinnacles
and spurs, but nowhere is there a finer contrast between the height of the
gigantic grey basalt wall and the deep-cut river valleys far below, than in the
spectacular Amphitheater in the Mont-aux-Sources area. It is here, high on the
summit, that some of South Africa’s important rivers are born.
Deep in the fluted vaults of
the Amphitheater, the echoes of time still linger – echoes of legends and
stories of the peaks and valleys, drowned by the noise of the wind and the
rushing water, sheltered by the Eastern and Beacon Buttresses, which stand as
bastions on either side of the Amphitheater, and guarded by the Sentinel which
has kept watch from time immemorial.
Strange echoes were heard in
April 1836 as two devout French missionaries stood at the edge of the
escarpment and looked down in utter amazement as they watched the waters of the
Tugela crashing down to the gorge below. Realizing the geo-graphical importance
of the mountain, they named it Mont-aux-Sources.
As the two missionary-explorers trudged back to
Lesotho all they left behind them was a name and three words of a language
never heard before in the deep recesses of the crags.
New footprints appear in the
valleys below as settler Adriaan Olivier looked for a place to build his home,.
With infinite care he chose a position at the foot of what is now Oliviershoek
Pass and called his farm Tugela Hoek. Life was not easy in those exciting times
as Bushmen raids were frequent. In June 1865, Albert Allison was appointed
border agent at the Pass, because of the threats of raids and also because the
Orange Free State had declared war on the Moshoeshoe Tribe.
After the discovery of diamonds
the traffic from Natal to the Kimberley diamond fields increased tremendously
and a new pass became necessary. In 1871 Oliviershoek Pass was constructed and
named after Adriaan Olivier. Thomas Baines, in his unpublished Journal
1869-1871, relates how he reached a small wayside hotel at Sandspruit not far
from Bergville. Here, at the Dewdrop Inn, weary travelers were assured of a bed
and a good meal. The inn-keeper, a Mr. Dodds, kept a tame baboon which gave
them great amusement as it drank the beer from their glasses. At the foot of
the pass into the Orange Free State was another hotel, the Tent Hotel.
The first visitors to the
Tugela Valley were Fred Kelly and his wife, who arrived at the present Park
area in an ox-wagon for their honeymoon in 1878 and who, during their stay,
encountered a band of Bushmen – probably the last group to be seen by Europeans
in the foothills of the Berg.
The boundaries between the black tribe reserves,
state-owned land, and farms were surveyed in 1884 and soon farms were offered
for sale. Because of the remoteness of this area and the lack of access roads, the
response was poor.
One colorful and hardy
character who lived in the area was a Mr. Dooley, an Irish woodcutter. He may
have been the first of the woodcutters but he was followed by many others. As
soon as concessions were granted they arrived and started felling the old,
indigenous trees. Masses of beautiful yellowwoods were sawn up, only to be used
for building materials and furniture. A grim reminder of these hardy characters
is the sawpits, still to be seen in the Fairy Glen and the sandstone mass,
Dooley, named after the Irish woodcutter.
In 1906 the then Minister
for Agriculture and Lands for Natal, realized the importance of the Upper
Tugela Valley and proclaimed and established a national park in the unoccupied
territory below the Amphitheater. However, because of a lack of funds, the
scheme fell through. Prior to the Union in 1910 the Government decided to sell
the land they owned and Col. J. S. Wylie purchased 4 046 hectares.
The Royal Natal National Park
is a monument to three dedicated men, F. F. Churchill, Col. Wylie, and Col.
Dick, who visited the area with a view to establishing a park for the people of
South Africa. Recommendations were put forward and eight years later 3300
hectares were reserved for this purpose. Col. Wylie sold his 4046 hectares to
the Government on the condition that the land was used only as a national park.
Visitors began to frequent the
mountain paradise when F. C. Williams built a small hostel on the farm Goodoo,
which he leased from Walter Coventry. Climbers and holiday-makers were met at
Harrismith and Bergville, whence they travelled in carts. Expeditions to the
top of the Amphitheater were organized from the hostel.
On 16th September
the Park was finally established. Three years later, Walter Coventry, who also
played an important part in the establishment of the Park, sold his farms,
Goodoo and Dooley, to the Provincial Administration. As well as several other
farms, Vemvaan, Devil’s Hoek, The Pastures, Diamond, Basutu Pass, and a small
portion of the adjoining native trust land, the area of the park expanded to
6373 hectares. In 1950 the farms Rugged
Glen and Ungiyeza were purchased, bringing the total area to 8094 hectares.
Walter Coventry became the first lessee and busied himself improving the road
to Bergville and also pioneered a new route to the top of the Amphitheater.
In 1926 Walter Coventry and his wife moved to a
neighboring farm which later became the Cavern Guest Farm, and Otto Zunckel
took over the lease. The Zunckel’s organized walks and climbs, and also led
parties to the summit of various peaks.
The hostel burned down and was rebuilt in 1943,
and the new hotel was visited by the British Royal Family in May 1947. The name
was then changed to the Royal Natal National Park.
This mountain paradise is set in some of the most
beautiful mountain scenery South Africa has to offer. For those who prefer a
quiet, restful holiday, the hutted camp “Thendele” is ideal. Built on a rise
with uninterrupted views of the Amphitheater, it is managed by KZN Wildlife.
There is a sheltered caravan/tent park where the camper can enjoy all the
facilities of a delightful camp site.
On entering the Park one’s eyes are automatically
drawn towards the Amphitheater, a rugged vertical, curved mass of volcanic
basalt about 1500 meters high and about 4 kilometers across the top as the crow
flies. Alpinists maintain that the view looking up the Tugela Valley compares
favorably with anything the world of mountain scenery has to offer.
The Eastern Buttress,
previously called the Outer Tower, is at the south-eastern end of the
Amphitheater, a free-standing peak which hides the Devil’s Tooth, Toothpick,
and the Inner Tower with its three summits. The Amphitheater has been eroded
into a series of towers, pillars and buttresses separated by deep gullies and
clefts giving the appearance of a massive fluted wall.
Climbing the wall was first attempted in July 1922, but
icy conditions forced the climbers to abandon the climb. After a few attempts,
Doyle Liebenberg, Mark Frank, Mary Lear, and Aimee Netter made the first ascent
of the wall. Dr. Park-Ross was certain that another route was possible and on
19th January 1939, he, together with Walter Zunckel and Mungo
Park-Ross, reached the top of the wall by a variation of the Liebenberg route.
The top of the Amphitheater
is not a ridge as some had thought it was, but a huge plateau, forming part of
the Lesotho plateau and of great importance to South Africa.
The true summit of Mont-aux-Sources, 3282 meters,
is a peak about 3, 5 kilometers from the edge of the escarpment from the slopes
of which some of South Africa’s most important rivers arise. The Tugela arises
on the northern slope and curves to the east, passing the Mountain Club Hut,
then to crash down the vertical face of the Amphitheater, plugging and
cascading to the valley below where it flows for a short distance and passes
through a huge tunnel which the relentless, racing waters of this river have
carved, grain by grain through the solid sandstone to force its way into the
gorge. Gathering the waters from the numerous mountain rivers it flows through
Natal as a muddy river and enters the Indian Ocean.
Close to the source of the Tugela, The Elands River
arises and flows towards the edge near the chain ladder and there it flows over
the edge as the Elands Waterfall and the runs down towards Witzieshoek. The
Elands and the Wilge Rivers converge and eventually run into the Vaal Dam, so
vital to the people on the Highveld.
Seeping from a sponge, and from the western slopes
of the Mont-aux-Sources Peak, the Western Khubedu arises. This, together with
the eastern Khubedu, forms the upper source of the Orange River, which
eventually joins the main or true source, the Sinqu, which rises behind the
Rockeries in the Mnweni area and runs through Lesotho across South Africa to
end in the Atlantic Ocean.
It seems incredible that water seeping from
the same peak, Mont-aux-Sources, can end up running as two different rivers,
one flowing east and the other west, finding their way into different oceans,
1500 kilometers apart.
In the
large depression which lies behind the center of the Amphitheater, there is a
large sponge. Waters drain from the eastern slopes of Mont-aux-Sources peak as
well as the higher areas to the east. This is the source of the Eastern
Khubedu. Here an important river capture has taken place. Over a period
of millions of years the escarpment, which is retreating at a rate of 30,5 cm
in 200 years, has captured a part of the source and now some of its waters flow
over the edge of the escarpment as the Bilanjil Falls, which drop into the
depths hidden by the fluted columns and eventually join the Tugela. Not far
from the eastern end of the Amphitheater another waterfall, the Ribbon Falls,
flows down into the Inner Tower Gully and also joins the Tugela.
The western
bastion of the Amphitheater, Beacon Buttress, dominates the summit plateau, and
a long climb to the eastern point of this buttress is worthwhile because from
this point one has a fine view of the Eastern Buttress, Devil’s Tooth,
Toothpick, and the Inner Tower.
The Devil’s
Tooth, so well-known to South Africans, was originally called Cleopatra’s
Needle. Early climbers gazed spellbound at this pinnacle, although well
experienced climbers who had opened routes up many of the peaks in the area,
gave the Tooth a wide berth, and as late as 1947 most cragsmen felt that it was
unclimbable. By 1950 most of the major peaks had been climbed, but the Devil’s
Tooth defied at least five attempts.
The new generation of climbers arrived at the
base of the Tooth on the 6th August 1950. How did they feel when
they looked up towards the unclimbed summit? In their own words: “Outlined
above us against the deep blue sky, and glowing in the rays of the setting sun
it seemed god-like in its appalling sheerness and utter impossibility”.
Undaunted they started, and after 8 pitches involving some of the most
difficult E, F and G pitches, the party stood on the summit. The Tooth had been
crowned.
The finest walk in the Park is to the gorge
where some of the most glorious valley and mountain scenery is to be seen.
Following the Tugela the path passes through indigenous forests and contours
grassy slopes covered with wild flowers and proteas. It is common to see buck
as well as other forms of wildlife on this walk.
The well-known
Policeman’s Helmet, carved by the elements from sandstone is another
attraction.
On reaching
the Gorge one is conscious of the lofty Amphitheater with its battlements and
turrets looming high above, and the infant streams racing down the gullies to
join Mother Tugela.
Many other delightful walks can be undertaken in
the park where one can recognize landmarks and peaks named after people who
have climbed, lived and worked in the mountains.
Little is
known about a dear old man who lived for a considerable time in the
Mont-aux-Sources area, collecting and identifying indigenous flowers and
studying the fauna and avifauna. His name was F. S. Pardoe. He displayed his
specimens in a small museum in the park. There he lived in a caravan, where he was
visited daily by his friends, the red-wing starlings, and guinea fowl which
flew in to be fed by him. It was clear that this man knew no other life that
the life in the mountains, nor wanted one.
Dramatic rescues
have been carried out by local men, sometimes under dreadfully adverse
conditions.
To the west of the Park is the homeland of the
Basotho ba Borwa, the Batlokwa tribe. The capital is Witzieshoek, from which a
road winds to the base of the Sentinel. Not far from the end of the road is a rest
camp 2100 meters above sea-level where accommodation is available and beautiful
views of the Amphitheater and the Quathlamba stretching south can be obtained
for those who are not able to climb. The mountain road has made the trip to the
top of the Amphitheater and back an easy day’s walk.
Go there,
explore, preserve, and enjoy!
The End.
Safe Hiking.
References and Acknowledgements
From the book – A
Cradle of Rivers, The Natal Drakensberg,
DA Dodds.
Photos: ©Willem Pelser
Compiled by: Willem Pelser
