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

““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 Thomas Baines, in his unpublished Journal 1869-1871, relates how he reached a small wayside hotel at Sandspruit not far from Bergville.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 16^th 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 19^th 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 6^th 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!

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.