Tuesday 27 October 2020

DRAKENSBERG MOUNTAINS - ROCK ART

 “ALL IN ALL, IT SEEMS THAT THE BEAUTY OF MOUNTAINS IS PROPORTIONAL TO THE RATE AT WHICH THEY ARE BEING DESTROYED.”

UNKNOWN


DRAKENSBERG MOUNTAINS ROCK ART





 Who made the thousands of rock paintings that can be found in innumerable caves and overhangs in the Drakensberg? When where they painted, and why?


   Most of us think that we know the answer to the first question at least: obviously, it was the Bushmen, or San as they are also sometimes called. In truth we know so little about these ‘first people’ that we are not even sure what to call them. They were tragically misunderstood, driven off the land they once roamed freely, enslaved and shot out to the last person before we took the time to ask them who they were – let alone what they thought about things. The tiny fragments of their history which remain are just sad tatters flapping in the wind of time.




 We can tell some of these paintings must have been done between the 1840s and 1890s, since they show men on horseback, horses, cattle and sheep, and in one or two places covered wagons with teams of oxen. But what about the rest? Dating them is fraught with problems, since by taking samples you destroy the fragile and already vandalized works. Also carbon, the element most widely used for archaeological dating, is found in such minute quantities in the pigments that has not yet been successfully used. From other archaeological evidence it has been estimated that the oldest may be around 35 000 years old, maybe more. They come to us from a time that dates so far back it lies beyond anything we know of the human culture on this planet. Often, at first glance, they look quite crude. However, if you visualize the works as they were in their prime you suddenly realize that even the oldest paintings reveal an artistic ability and an understanding of human and animal physiology and behavior that has never been bettered.



   Given this knowledge, it is hard to understand how anyone could wish to vandalize them – pouring water on the images, or cold drink, or rubbing them with half oranges to make the colors ‘stand out’, or shooting at them, scribbling over them with charcoal or stones, even crudely chiseling pieces off and ruining meters-long friezes. But people have done, and still do, all of these things. Some damage is done inevitably by inquisitive and naughty children. However, something that has recently come to light is that sangomas sometimes steal into the caves to take scrapings of the pigments, to be used in strong muti. The irony is that these Zulu healers understand the spiritual power of the Bushmen images better than anyone, and should behave better. Already probably less than 10 percent of the original works remain in anything like recognizable condition. How do you stop this kind of destruction? It’s hard, but we have to try, especially when we get round to answering the final question of why they were painted, and the significance of this massive outdoor gallery becomes clearer.



      There has never been any doubt that the Bushmen did the cave paintings….. well that’s not strictly true. Various researchers have in the past tried to attribute them to Black, Mediterranean and even Phoenician peoples, but we can disregard all that. In fact, one of the last Bushmen known to have lived in the Drakensberg was shot (Bushmen was seen as vermin and had a price on their heads) in what a few years later became Giant’s Castle Reserve. Around his waist he wore a leather thong from which hang small antelope horns that carried the pigments used for painting. We know he would have been a shaman, for it was only they who did the paintings ….. but we’ll get to the ’why’ a bit later. At first white settlers thought the paintings were crude if curious renditions of ‘a day in the life of a Bushman’ sort of thing. Hunters and wild animals were seemingly randomly rendered and often one atop of the other, with inexplicable lines and dots and strange things that were of little interest to the viewers. The first attempts at any real understanding of the paintings (and this came from attempts to understand the cave paintings in Europe), suggested the idea of sympathetic magic – these images were an attempt to capture the ‘spirit of an animal’ to ensure a successful hunt. This theory held sway until fairly recently, along with the theory that cave paintings are just crude renditions of every day scenes.

   But not everyone was convinced, and ever since the first European contact with the hunter-gatherers there were people who were convinced the paintings went to the core of the Bushmen culture. Just how right they were, was given scientific credibility only recently through the work of South African archaeologists, especially those at the University of the Witwatersrand Rock Art Unit.


   The first major piece of the jigsaw was the findings of George Stow, Wilhelm Bleek and Bleek’s sister-in-law, Lucy Lloyd who made it their lifetimes’ work recording the stories of the Bushmen as told to them by the Bushmen prisoners in Cape Town’s terrible Breakwater Prison (in the present-day V&A Waterfront). Bleek and Lloyd took down some 12 000 pages of verbatim dictation. The breakthrough was when Bleek heard the interpretation of paintings as given to a Natal magistrate Joseph Orpen by a Bushmen guide Qing during the Langalibalele rebellion. When the Bleek treasure trove was rediscovered and, through a stroke of academic inspiration, compared with the cave paintings of the Drakensberg, a door on the Bushmen’s secret world suddenly opened to rigorous scientific analysis for the first time.


      The road to Kamberg Reserve is a little-used dirt road, but it is well worth the taking for it will lead you to what is arguably the most important rock art site in the world – Game Pass. Not only are many of the paintings here in near pristine condition, and of exceptionally high quality, but there is one particular frieze, the study of which helped to place the central pieces of the rock art jigsaw puzzle.

   It was named the Rosetta Stone by Professor David Lewis-Williams as a sort of in-joke (and with reference to the nearby settlement of Rosetta); the name refers to the more famous Rosetta Stone that unlocked the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphs. The main image is of an eland in red and white, its head held low and hooves crossed, with hairs standing up along its neck, back, dewlap and belly. Standing behind is a human-like figure holding onto the eland’s tail. This figure has an antelope-like head (a therianthrope, or shaman in trance state that has taken on the power of an animal) and its feet are crossed, except that they are hooves just like the eland’s.


     Looking at this image, and with Qing’s words in mind about men figures with antelope heads, a penny dropped: ‘ they were men who had died and now lived in the rivers, and were spoilt ….’. To the Bushmen, a dance-induced trance and death were one and the same experience, so this painting is like and after-death experience conveyed in the world of the living. The eland in the painting is clearly dying, and, when the full meaning of the words ‘died’, ‘river’ and ‘spoilt’ came to be understood, it became apparent that there was a spiritual link between man and beast, between the painter and the supernatural world, that went much deeper than anyone had yet realized.


    The truth that emerged here and everywhere else was that these paintings were painted by Bushman shamans after participating in a hallucinatory trance dance. They are reflections of what the trance had revealed to the shaman, who in turn conveyed the vision for his people to share and unwittingly to the world thereafter. The paintings have thus been called ‘images of power’. In this contact we need to re-evaluate these caves as holy places, as the churches of the Bushmen who until modern times were thought, in the words of a missionary and historian respectively, to have ‘no religion’ no laws ……. A soul debased and completely bound down and clogged by his animal nature’ and ‘ it was for the world’s good that they should make way for a higher race’. Even our great ‘holist’ Jan Smuts considered the Bushmen to be no more than ‘mentally stunted desert animals’.



     Of course any artistically acute person looking at the images would have grasped something intrinsically sophisticated in them: they are incredibly fine renderings of humans and animals, often in motion, that could have been done only by true artists. That alone should have alerted arrogant critics to something a little deeper going on, but, alas, all that is past and now the best we can do is protect them. Luckily this is possible in the Drakensberg with a unified park under strong conservation authority. Unfortunately, it also means that the majority of caves with paintings in them is no longer accessible to the public. Only some can be visited and then only with a local accredited guide.




      The best such site, and the easiest to walk to, is Game Pass Shelter. The bonus here is that Kamberg reserve has a spanking new interpretive center where for a very modest sum you can watch a 20-minute video on the Bushmen and their art, as well as take a guided tour to the cave. And it’s always such a pleasure to stay at the EKZNW rest camps such as Kamberg, especially if you like throwing flies into the trout-filled dams, or just going walkabout in the Berg.




      It is way beyond the scope of this article to get into a deep interpretation of the art, but the keys to it can be gained by considering just a few almost universal, archetypal images. The most important ones to get a handle on are scenes indicating dying, which for the Bushman is synonymous with going into a trance. Once ‘dead’ (also variously conveyed as ‘going underwater’ or ‘flying’) the shaman assumes the character of the animal, which will often also be depicted as dying. The most common symbol for this dying is lines of blood streaming from the nose. Animals, mainly eland – the greatest of all creatures in Bushman mythology – man-animal therioanthropes, and even such creatures as snakes (in Giant’s Castle main caves) with bleeding noses are to be seen in most panels (although sometimes you have to look carefully to make out the marks). Water scenes, including fish, denote ‘going underwater’ and are not to be taken literally.



   In their book Images of Power David Lewis-Williams and Thomas Dowson make the point that rock art images should be understood as metaphors: just as a Bushman would be puzzled by our saying ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’ so should we be viewing their painted language. Another symbol of dying is flying, and in the Drakensberg there are a number of strange antelope-like creatures with long, trailing wings. These are antelope spirits flying in a trance state. There are two fairly good examples in Junction Cave.

   The next symbols to be discussed are lines or patterns of dots, which initially were considered graffiti, but mostly just confused people. But they too have ‘power’. Firstly, areas of dot patterns are called entopic phenomena and they are widely found in Aboriginal art in Australia. Their meaning was discovered through the research (if you can call it that) of Timothy Leary in the USA  when he experimented with LSD and other drugs in the 1960s. These dot patterns are strongly associated with hallucinatory states, and this is the crux of the Bushman trance: it was a hallucinatory state in which the senses were both heightened and mixed, very similar to an LSD experience.




     Lines and lines of dots that seem to connect unrelated things are ‘power lines’. There are many battle scenes to be found, most famously those in Battle Cave in the Injasuthi Valley. Close analysis reveals that the fight does not take place in the physical realm, but in the supernatural, and the lines of potency coming from an arrow tip, pointed finger or wherever (call them magic spells if you like) are what the battle is about.


      In fact all scenes which appear to depict everyday scenes need to be studied carefully to grasp their true meaning,. For example in Junction Cave above the Didima/Mhlawazini confluence there is a well-argued painting that appears to show a group of Bushmen crossing a bridge. But the women on the left clapping suggests it’s a painting of a trance dance, as does the figure that seems to have fallen off the bridge. He’s also clapping – a shaman that’s fallen into a trance. There are often symbols to be found in these scenes that are clues to their true nature, such as fly-whisks and other ‘ scepters’ which were used only in rituals such as trance dances. Unfortunately, they are now hard to see on the faded, flaking cave walls and so often escape the viewer’s attention.

   In areas where guides are available, the paintings are there for any hiker to visit and they represent one of the greatest collections of religious art in the world. They are our very own medieval cathedrals, and, if you wouldn’t miss a visit to Chartres or Rheims on a trip through the French countryside, why should you miss this?

Don’t destroy – Preserve.



We as hikers, explorers, and adventurers have the absolute duty to respect and protect our Wildernesses. Nobody else will do it for us. Take ownership!

 

 

 

The End.

 

Safe Hiking.




References and Acknowledgements

From the book – “Best walks of the Drakensberg”  – David Bristow

Photos:  ©Willem Pelser
Compiled by Willem Pelser




Thursday 15 October 2020

LOTHENI RESERVE - DRAKENSBERG


NO TIME CAN EVER RETURN OTHER THAN IN THE REMEMBERING. FOR ME, THE MEMORY IS ENORMOUS……IT WASHES THROUGH ME IN A MIX OF FEELINGS, SOUNDS, AND SIGHTS……..”

WILLEM PELSER






LOTHENI RESERVE
DRAKENSBERG


  Lotheni is situated in the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park, South Africa’s first cultural and environmental World Heritage Site.



   Lotheni is a magnificent mountain haven renowned for its scenery and atmospheric camp. Situated in a spectacular section of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park, the main activities revolve around mountain hiking and day walks with many scenic trails. The Emadundwini Trail (12 kilometers) is highly recommended and other hikes include the Eagle, Falls, Canyon and Jacobs Ladder Trails. Various routes to the mountain passes are also available, taking you up to the escarpment.


   The exceptional natural beauty of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park is evident in its soaring basaltic buttresses, golden sandstone ramparts, rolling high altitude grasslands, steep-sided river valleys, and rocky gorges. The area has incredibly rich biodiversity including man endemic species.


   This spectacular natural landscape also has many rock shelters, containing the largest and most concentrated group of paintings in Africa, south of the Sahara. These were created by the San people over a period of at least 40 years. The rock paintings are outstanding in quality and diversity representing the spiritual life of the San people who no longer live the region.



   The  name Lotheni first became known to the farmers who lived close to the mountains when patrols were organized to recover cattle which had been stolen by Bushmen raiders as early as 1847. These marauders descended the Hlatimba Pass from Lesotho and followed the Lotheni River and were bold enough to steal cattle from as distant a point as Karkloof. Something had to be done to prevent these raiders from passing through the unprotected Lotheni.

   Eventually in 1859 Chief Lugaju and his tribe were resettled in the Impendhle district to act as a buffer zone between the farmers and the raiders. Bushmen raids then ceased.

   Settlers, mainly from the British Isles, were attracted to the midlands of Natal and some even ventured into the foothills of the Drakensberg, especially once they found that they were safe from the Bushmen since no raids had been reported after 1872. The pioneers who first settled in the upper reaches of the Lotheni in 1890 were the McLeans and the Brookes. A while later the Laurens family arrived, followed by the Root family.

   When Charlie Laurens established a home in the Lotheni, he set about creating a settlement for friends and relatives from the Channel Isles. A survey was carried out but the expected settlers never arrived.

   During the severe rinderpest outbreak of 1894, Colonel Wilson from Underberg, with his black scouts, were send to Lotheni to prevent cattle from the north infecting stock in the southern part of the mountains. In the Nature Reserve there is a shelter called the Piket where the Colonel and his men were stationed for almost a year.

   That was not the only crisis during those exciting years in the Upper Lotheni. In 1873 during the Langalibalele Rebellion, Major Dunford and his force traversed the Lotheni Valley and then ascended the Hlatimba Pass.

   The origin of the name Lotheni is uncertain, but the opinion is that it was derived from the deposits of the dark shales so common in the valley and locally referred to as “oil shale”. To the black people these shales look burnt, hence the name “Mlotheni” or “In the Ashes”.



   The Lotheni Reserve is well known to trout fishermen who delight in casting their colorful flies into the cold, shallow waters of the Lotheni hoping to catch a prize brown trout, while in the distance antelope graze unmolested.

   What could be better to sit outside your chalet in the camp and to admire the magnificent view of the distant hazy peaks, with Giant’s Castle dominating the lesser peaks, the Tent, Hawk and Redi. From a particular angle the life-like shape of the Eagle adds to the charm of the Valley of the Lotheni.





Accommodation - Lotheni Hutted Camp

The comfortable hutted camp, electrically lit by generator from 17:00- 22:00, consists of 12 self-contained chalets:


Each with its own refrigerator, two- plate gas stove (with a small oven), bathroom, and toilet.


In addition to the chalets there are 2 six-bed fully self-contained cottages.
Visitors must bring all their own food supplies and do their own cooking.
The nearest source of provision is at the Lotheni store, which is 14 km form the camp.


The curio shop at Lotheni supplies some basic groceries.


deep-freeze is situated in the camp kitchen and is available for use by camp visitors, as is a single large gas stove.


Accommodation - Simes Cottage

Simes cottage is a converted old farm house and can accommodate 10 people in four rooms.

It is equipped with gas and visitors do their own cooking and need to bring their own towels, sheets, and pillow-slips.

The cottage is situated next to a small dam, which is regularly stocked with trout.

The dam is reserved exclusively for visitors staying at Simes cottage.


Accommodation - Campsites

There is a campground containing 14 campsites and served by an ablution block with hot and cold water, situated 2 km from the camp, further up the Lotheni Valley into the mountains.







Activities in Lotheni

Wildlife includes species such as common and mountain reedbuck, grey reedbuck, eland, grey duiker, Oribi, Cape clawless otter, mongoose and baboon. There is a diversity of birds, including black stork, verreaux’s eagle, bearded vulture, lanner falcon, Cape vulture, and giant kingfisher.


Many delightful walks and climbs may be undertaken and there are excursions of this nature to suit all ages. It is advisable to carry warm clothing at all times as the weather is often unpredictable.


Multi-day hiking is ideal to explore this stunningly beautiful area.

Mountain biking is allowed in designated areas. Picnicking is popular and visitors are encouraged to take packed lunches with them.


Although chilly, swimming in the Lotheni River is safe unless it is in flood. There is a very good swimming spot approximately 1 km below the camp at Cool Pools.


The park is popular rendezvous for trout fishermen. Approximately 16 km of the Lotheni River is stocked with brown trout. Should you wish to fish, the payment of a daily rod fee is required to be made at the Camp Office. Only fly tackle is permissible.






Gelib Tree Mountain Bike Trail

This 8 km Mountain Bike Trail starts close to the camp and crosses over several small streams, taking one up and down a few fairly steep, winding gradients.

Once on the grassland plateau, breathtaking views of the surrounding escarpment can be absorbed at length.

The historic Gelib Tree is passed on route and is an ideal rest point. The trail ends near the reserves entrance gate and a short ride in the direction of the camp brings one to the day visitor area. Here the three museum buildings may be visited and barbeque facilities are also available. A short stroll down to the river ends in the Flat Rock pools where a refreshing swim can be enjoyed. The energetic cyclist can cycle a further four kilometres along the tar road back to the camp. Alternatively family or friends can meet cyclists at the museum. No extra charge is presently levied for use of the Mountain Bike Trail.


The Emandundwini Trail

This Trail starts at the reception gate area and it is approximately 12 km in length. Take the Trail to the Lotheni River via the Tebetebe suspension bridge. Once across the river, follow the trail to the left. The route is circular and takes you through a variety of habitats including protea savanna, indigenous afro-montane forest, and grassland plains. A number of small streams have to be crossed and there are a number of steep inclines along the route. The trail offers spectacular views of the surrounding Drakensberg. Approximately half way along the trail one has the opportunity to wander through a section of indigenous forest. This forest is a good rest point and is excellent for bird watching. The trail is well marked and distances are regularly given.
The trail should take about six hours to complete, this will also allow for a number of rest stops. A brochure on the trail is available from reception.





The Eagle Trail

The Eagle Trail starts from the gravel road between the hutted camp and the campsite and ends at Simes cottage. It is approximately 12,8 km and takes about six hours to complete if one includes a number of rest stops. The trail starts with a long, fairly steep, incline. Along the route sections of afro-montane forest and protea savanna are passed, providing a diversity of plant life, which in turn attract a variety of bird life. Spectacular scenery of the high 'Berg can be seen along the length of the trail. At the highest point the trail doubles back along a grassland plateau and then winds down to the Lotheni River. The course of the river is then followed, until the trail ends near Simes cottage. At one point along the Lotheni River a large waterfall is passed and there are numerous pools for swimming. The trail is well marked and easy to follow. A brochure on the trail is available from reception.






The Jacobs Ladder Trail

This Trail starts at the reception office and is about 2 km long. It is an easy-going trail with only a few short inclines. It is highly recommended especially for family groups. The trail takes you over the Lotheni River via the Tebetebe suspension bridge and then runs parallel to the Lotheni River. The falls themselves are found upstream of a small stream, which runs into the Lotheni River. There is a large pool at the bottom of the falls perfect for swimming. The trail is well marked and it is necessary to cross the Jacobs River a number of times.





Canyon Trail

The Canyon Trail allows visitors access to the steep sided canyon, which is situated along the Bhodla River. The 12 km trail starts approximately 500 m from the museum, on the road to the camp. It takes you past the Gelib Tree, then winds up the mountain slope and leads onto a long grassland plateau.

Once on the top of the plateau the going is very easy with the trail ending above the canyon itself. The trail offers spectacular views of the Lotheni valley and the Hawk and Tent peaks as well as the Hlatimba Buttress on the escarpment. The more adventurous may find a route into the base of the canyon and follow the river up to a spectacular cascading waterfall, passing forest patches bursting with life en-route.





Gelib Tree Trail

This trail starts from the same point as the Canyon trail and is approximately 1,3 km. The trail is well marked and is an easy climb, ending at the historic Gelib Tree. From the Gelib tree you have a good view of waterfalls on the opposite valley and also of the high Berg.





Settler's Museum
Visitors should make a point of visiting the Lotheni Settler’s Homestead Museum. An interesting collection of early settler farming implements and home utensils is on display at the old Root homestead, which has been restored and refurnished in the style of the period.






General

No pets are permitted in the park.


Camping anywhere other than in designated areas is forbidden.


Gate entry time:

Summer (1 October- 31 March) 05: 00- 19:00
Winter (1 April- 30 September) 6:00- 18:00


The making of fire is strictly prohibited, except in designated areas in the camp and campsite, because of the hazard of veld fires.


Hikers are reminded that all refuse must be brought back to the camp for disposal.


Hikers must complete the mountain rescue register at the camp office before and after their hike.






Gate Opening and Closing Times:

Summer ( October to March ) 05h00 to 19h00

Winter (April to September ) 06h00 to 18h00


Office Hours:

The office is open from 08h00 to 12h30 and from 14h00 to 16h30

Distance and Time from Gate to Camp: 4 kilometers

Camp Telephone Number: (033) 7020540

Camp Fax: (033) 7020540

Check Out Time: 10h00

Check In Time: 14h00


    Shop

    Limited curios and supplies.


    Special Precautions:

    The weather is subject to change at short notice and can become very cold. Hikers need to be well equipped.

    The nearest town which has a full range of services is Underberg which is 50 kms away.


    How to get there:

    From the south turn-off on the N3 at the Underberg Bulwer on R617 and proceed to Underberg. Lotheni is 50 kms away on a gravel road except for the first 5 kms. From the north turn off the N3 to Nottingham Road and follow the signs in the village . The reserve is 62 kms away about half of which is gravel.

    Pets are not permitted into the reserve.

    "No entry fees will be charged for visits by KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Primary and Secondary School groups, from KZN Schools to KZN Protected Areas and St Lucia Crocodile Center provided that such visits:

    1.  Are authorized by the Head of the school

    2.  Are booked in advance with the Officer in Charge of the Protected Area or Crocodile Center

    3 . Do not take place over weekends, during KZN Provincial school holidays or Public Holidays".




    We as hikers, explorers, and adventurers have the absolute duty to respect and protect our Wildernesses. Nobody else will do it for us. Take ownership!

     

     

     

    The End.

     

    Safe Hiking.




    References and Acknowledgements

    From the book – N/A

    Photos:  ©Willem Pelser
    Compiled by Willem Pelser