GIANT’S CASTLE

 “THE VIEW WAS OF A

TRIANGULAR PEAK, SOME TWO THOUSAND FEET ABOVE US, STANDING IN A CLOUDLESS SKY”

CALIBAN. ON SIGHTING GIANT’S CASTLE, 1912

GIANT’S CASTLE

   On a clear day you can see, from a hilltop in Mooi River (a small farming town in the shadow of the Drakensberg), the Giant’s Castle massif dominating the skyline some seventy kilometers to the west. The image resembles a huge figure lying on its back, staring into the sky, peaceful, silent and contemplative. The Castle itself, which forms the Giant’s head, has three high points, the middle or ‘nose’ being the main summit. This point rises to 3 314 meters, unusually high for a peak set away from the main escarpment wall.

   Known to the Zulu people as Bhulihawu, ‘the place of the field thrasher’, or Phosihawu, meaning ‘the shield finger’, the peak is the largest example of a singular mass in the Drakensberg, extending away from the range in an easterly direction for more than three kilometers. The more superstitious called it Ntabayikonjwa, ‘the mountain to which you must not point’, for fear it will retaliate with bouts of violent weather. Owing to its size, the peak’s ability to manipulate the forces of nature on occasion is quite feasible.

When looking up from in its immediate valleys, Giant’s Castle’s main summit takes on a spectacular pyramidal shape, with two sweeping ridges descending to the southeast and north, like great arms embracing the valley below. Many of the earlier climbing routes are found in this area, and a beautifully placed mountain hut waits in the valley, providing a good base from which to start most of the Castle’s technical climbs.

THE PLACE OF VULTURES

   Around to the right of this valley extends the mighty north wall. In 1997, one of the most ambitious Drakensberg routes was completed on this enormous precipice. The climb, following an extremely thin weakness, boasts some of the finest and most committing climbing in the Drakensberg range to date, testament to the high level of mountaineering that can be achieved in the area. The route was named after the Bearded Vultures, or Lammergeier (meaning ‘lamb grabber’), that grace the peak’s surrounding skies.

   As early as 1941 the peak had been considered as a mountaineering objective, when a climber pioneered a route up the treacherous looking Eastern Gully.

   Despite this early interest, face-climbing proper only began when climbers completed what is now considered a classic line up the north face in 1950. The opening of Schole’s Route fired a new interest in the peak as a mountaineering and climbing sanctuary. The establishment of a second route on the north wall in 1971, veering right from the start of Schole’s Route, reasserted the peak’s importance as one of the range’s most challenging mountaineering summits. With routes like Lammergeier and more recently the Land Der Gesetzlosen (‘Land of the Lawless’), the Giant’s north wall is fast becoming a big-wall test piece for southern African climbers.

   On the southern slopes, winter mountaineering and ice-climbing developments add a new dimension of challenge on the Giant, offering an aspect of the sport that is often difficult to practice in Africa owing to the warm climate.

   The Giant, with its shear faces, particularly its north wall, holds numerous future climbing prospects. The peak is likely to be a focal point in African climbing in the 21^st century.

Giant’s Castle is a place of dreams, of staring at the stars by night and the blue skies with white cotton-wool clouds by day.

IT IS A PLACE UNTOUCHABLE BY MAN. IT IS A RESTING PLACE OF GIANTS.

1 – Frontal Route – First Climbed 1955

2 – Schole’s Route – First climbed 1950

3 – Colli Extendenticum – First climbed 1971

4 – South East Ridge – First Climbed 1954

5 – Lammergeier – First Climbed 1997

6 – Land Der Gesetzlosen – First Climbed 1998

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.

Acknowledgements

Extract from the book – Serpent Spires – Duncan Souchon

Photos – Willem Pelser, The Mountain Man.

WILDLIFE OF THE DRAKENSBERG - THE STORY OF THE ELAND

 “THEY SHALL DWELL SAFELY IN

THE WILDERNESS AND SLEEP

IN THE WOODS,

AND NONE SHALL MAKE

THEM AFRAID”

BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL

WILDLIFE OF THE DRAKENSBERG

THE STORY OF THE ELAND

Eland, Lotheni Reserve

   There are literally hundreds of species of wild flowers, trees and ferns in the Drakensberg. The birdlife is fantastic and on these rolling hills roam eland, Oribi, mountain reedbuck and grey rhebok, and on the high ledges of the mountains the shy little klipspringer browses.

   When the Giant’s Castle Reserve was first proclaimed in 1903, its main objective was to provide a sanctuary for the fast disappearing eland, one of the noblest, and certainly the largest, of South Africa’s antelopes. At one time it was the commonest antelope in the Drakensberg. We know this from accounts of early hunters and also from the Bushman paintings that adorn the cave walls in the sandstone cliffs of the Little Berg, where the eland is the commonest animal depicted. But by the turn of the century the herds that roamed these mountain solitudes in peace and security were gone and the numbers were down to a meager 200 individuals. It was considered that in 1900 there were only 20 left in the area of the present reserve.

Baboon foraging

   The eland, Taurotragus oryx, (the Zulu name is Impofu), is 150 cm to 180 cm in height, about the size of a large ox, and a weight in the Drakensberg of up to 452 kg. This is considerably less than the weight - up to 820 kg – of eland found in other parts of Africa. He is buff colored, turning to grey as he grows older. He has a very distinct black vertical stripe from his horns to the root of his tail, and long, hanging dewlaps. Both sexes have fairly long, spiraled horns. The eland is both a grazer and a browser, and is particular to Buddleia salvifolia and Halleria lucida. In his wild state he is nervous and wary. If a herd of eland spots you – they have excellent eyesight – they will stand still for a few moments and then make off at a brisk trot, either up a slope or round the shoulder of a hill, seldom downhill. Their call is a low, barking note. Although a large animal, the eland is not aggressive. In spite of their great size they are excellent jumpers, and will easily clear a two-meter fence.

Eland herd at Lotheni Reserve

   The Drakensberg eland are of especial importance, because they are directly descended from the original eland of that particular district. In the Sudan there is a giant species Taurotragus derbianus gigas, which can weigh up to 1000 kg.

   Today, in Kzn, they occur from Giant’s Castle south to Cobham. Under former natural conditions it is almost certain that they used to winter in the Thornveld, spending only their summer in the Drakensberg, but owning to increased hunting and the opening up of the Midlands of Natal to early settlers, they sought permanent refuge in the Drakensberg.

Lotheni Reserve

   They are, however, great wanderers, and the Natal Parks Board at one stage erected a strong 220 cm 10-strand eland fence around the Reserve. With their great jumping ability it did little to restrict the movement of the eland, however, and when the fence fell into disrepair it was not replaced.

   In 1958 two eland were killed in the Upper uThukela Location, between Cathedral Peak and the Royal Natal National Park. They were probably following their old instinct of migrating to the Thornveld. The concentration of eland in the Drakensberg throughout the year does not cause problems of overstocking or overgrazing because of the high calf mortality. This is as high as 60 percent, and is due to the poor nutrition of young animals in the harsh mountain environment.

  The eland is generally a docile animal. Even bulls in captivity rarely become vicious, although one should remain cautious and vigilant near any ”wild” animal.

Eland Family with calf - Lotheni

   Eland meat is tender and most palatable. As far back as 1848 it was proposed that the eland should be domesticated.

   Actually there have been several attempts at domesticating the eland. A notable one was made at Askanya Nova, in southern Russia, in 1895, where a good deal of useful information was collected. In 1954 a small herd was established at Zezani, in the heart of Zimbabwe Mopane country. It was soon found that the eland would flourish in an area quite unsuitable to cattle, and the opinion was formed that eland meat was equal, if not superior, to beef.

   Here in the Drakensberg the first attempts to domesticate the eland were made as far back as 1907. A number of calves were caught and sent to Cedera. Nothing came from this attempt, but a year or so later calves were supplied to several farmers in the Natal Midlands, notably to Andrew Sclanders and the Moe brothers at New Hanover. The Moe’s were the most successful in achieving results, and one of the brothers actually rode an eland round the show ring at an agricultural show! 

Thendele – Royal Natal National Park

   A most ambitious experiment was carried out by the Natal Parks Board at Lotheni, on the southern slopes of Giant’s Castle. Here an eland domestication unit was established some years ago and the eland was studied. The herd reached about 40 head, and valuable information was obtained concerning the growth and handling of the domesticated animal.

   It has already been proved that the eland can be domesticated, that the meat is excellent, and that eland farming can be carried on successfully in areas to dry for conventional cattle farming. The Russian experiment showed that small, selected herds soon deteriorated through inbreeding, and the present small numbers of eland preclude the possibility of larger domesticated herds. However, the eland has not caught the attention of the rancher, who still finds it easier to raise cattle.

   Today, in the Giant’s Castle Game Reserve, and in the area south of Giant’s Castle, the eland is flourishing. From being on the danger list, numbers have now increased to a figure which makes the future of the eland assured. (Poaching however, have increased, and due to the vastness of the area and lack of rangers, goes on unabated and without fear of prosecution – Willem Pelser.)

Mid-winter, Lotheni Reserve

   There is no doubt that KZN Wildlife, has done magnificent work, not only in the establishment and running of its game reserves (there are more than 40 game and nature reserves in KZN) but in control of wildlife generally, and in restocking the reserves with species that had died out.

   But there are significant dangers ahead. There are some who hold that prior to the European settlement of the country, the game was largely migratory in character. Animals rarely wintered in the Drakensberg, preferring the sweeter grass and warmer valleys of the Thornveld. The inferior size of the Drakensberg eland underlines this. Today, with our fences, our railroads and highways, our ploughed lands, our developing towns and cities, migration is impossible, and the game is confined to one area all the year round. This leads to damage through overgrazing. Once man interferes in any way whatever with the delicate balance of nature, the result is dangerous. Chain reactions set in, with incalculable results. Damage due to overgrazing could lead inevitably to eventual paddocking and artificial feeding, and the game reserve would be reduced in status to that of a glorified zoo. If this happens it will have been I direct consequence of the tourist’s desire to see game, for the species being introduced are in little danger of dying out. In other words, it is apparently the profit motive which is dominant, and the results would be that fauna would be protected at the expense of flora.

Lotheni Reserve

   This clash of interest between the demands of the tourist industry and the demands of the nature conservationists is ever- present one. When our game reserves were first proclaimed they were designed purely for the protection and conservation of game. It was only later that tourists started clamoring to see game. In America this tendency has reached alarming proportions. The Yosemite National Park in California is visited by thousands of tourists a day, whose noise practically drowns out even the thunder of the Yosemite Falls! The Kruger National Park, with its huge camps, its stores and restaurants, its tarred roads and its filling stations, is in danger of going the same way. So far, in KwaZulu-Natal this pressure has been largely resisted. There should be no roads in the reserves, apart from the access road. There has been some moderate expansion and modernization of hutted camp facilities but it has generally been sympathetic to the environment. Man should be prepared to go out on the two legs God gave him, carrying his food on his back, and glad to make the effort needed to enjoy what nature has to offer.

   Should we make a distinction between reserves and recreational areas? Nature Reserves, certainly, should be primarily for wildlife and environmental conservation. They can be used for outdoor recreation within reason, but they should be kept primarily for the genuine lover of nature. Fortunately, the Parks authority makes this distinction, but our Drakensberg hotel resorts are losing their original purpose. These resorts have been invaded by a motley crowd who wanted little more than their bowls, their tennis and their golf, their cards and their sundowners. They rarely lift their eyes to the mountains, they rarely venture into them, and never once do they feel their hearts stir with wonder and delight at the wilderness around them. Tennis and bowls and golf are first class and worthwhile recreations, but our Drakensberg hotels, originally at least, were designed mainly for lovers of nature, hikers and mountaineers.

Herd at Lotheni Reserve

   In his annual report for 1967/1968 Dr. D. Hey, former director of Nature Conservation for the Cape, said: ‘It is most important to reduce the public pressure on nature reserves and national parks by providing recreational facilities elsewhere for those who are not particularly interested in wildlife, but merely wish to relax out-of-doors. It is quite possible for a nature reserve to be destroyed by an excessive number of visitors.” He could not have put it more clearly. Let us at least keep our Drakensberg Reserves inviolable from this sort of thing.

   Man has got to do a lot of rethinking if he is to survive. In the past he has adopted the arrogant assumption that he is apart from the animal kingdom, sole owner of the world in which he lives, that he is Lord of Creation and can do what he likes with his environment. Since 1600 the world has lost 101 species of birds and 46 mammalian species, 44 of the former and 27 of the latter within the last 50 years. And year after year he spews out, at an increasing rate, his polluting gases into the atmosphere and his filth into the oceans.

Antelope at Thendele, Royal Natal National Park

   Man is not a distinct entity. He is and inseparable part of the whole of nature, and you, and I, and all the creatures of the wild, are fellow travelers, with a common goal, a common destiny, and a common fate on a small and very vulnerable planet travelling through the depths of space.

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.

 

LESOTHO AND THE NATAL DRAKENSBERG

                                                       “THESE MOUNTAINS OF

UP-POINTED SPEARS

HOLD ELAND, ORIBI AND
RHEBOK

CAPERING OVER YELLOW ROCK

TO SANDSTONE CAVES THAT
FORM A BARRIER

ACROSS THIS SWEEPING
MOUNTAIN RANGE

DESPITE CENTURIES CHANGE

STILL REMAINS A KIND OF
HUNT, ELIMINATING FEAR AND CANT.”

ALLEN ROSS

LESOTHO AND THE NATAL
DRAKENSBERG

FIRE OF THE DRAGON

   Some 160 million years ago, huge flows of lava poured out of the fissures in the ground in quick succession. They probably reached as far as the present coastline of Kwa-Zulu Natal and individual outpourings varied from e few centimeters to many meters thick.

   After about 20 million years the flows stopped and the resulting basalt has since been eroded back at a rate of about one centimeter every five years. It is fairly resistant and forms not only the high prominence's of the main range and the Lesotho Highlands, but also the hard capping of the Little Berg. Once this cover has been removed, the sandstone erodes rapidly, as is seen in the steep valleys and gorges that cut into the Drakensberg.

   Therefore this is not a mountain range to the usual sense, but a high escarpment being subjected to downward and headward erosion.

   Millions of years of erosion have pushed the high cliffs back and left many outlying pinnacles, buttresses and ridges, detached from the main escarpment but of the same spectacular height. The humbling scale of the Drakensberg is not experienced anywhere else in southern Africa: when one thinks of mountains here, it is the Drakensberg’s grandeur that first comes to mind.

   The main rim of the escarpment averages 3 000 meters above sea level, rising to 3482 meters near the top of Sani’s Pass, where stands Thabana Ntlenyana, the highest point in Africa south of the equator. To the north-east the highest peaks on the Drakensberg watershed are Mafadi Peak behind Injasuthi Buttress, at 3 459 meters, and Champagne Castle behind Cathkin Peak, at 3 374 meters above sea-level.

   From the watershed the Lesotho Plateau dips over broken mountain country steadily down to the west, where it is bordered by the Maluti Mountains.

   Resting like a crown on the high tableland, it forms a natural fortress in which lives a pastoral nation in relative isolation from the rest of the world.

A rough stone hut shelters Basotho shepherds

   This nation, the Basotho, was brought together by Moshesh out of the turmoil of the ‘forced migrations”, when as well as Mzilikazi other chiefs fled westward from Shaka’s wrath. Among these were the Matiwane, whose Amangwane tribe decimated the peaceful Mzizi clans in the Little Berg. In turn the Batlokwa, led by the indomitable Mantatisi, plundered the area to the west.

   Mantatisi, a tall, straight, lean woman, reputedly of exceptional intelligence, was utterly insensitive to human suffering and soon became one of the most feared leaders in these violent times. Ousted from her territory, she led her way up the Caledon Valley among the sandstone foothills of the Maluti range.

   The weaker tribes were continually attacked and their cattle and crops pillaged. The country was plunged into despair as slaughter and famine increased; refugees drifted aimlessly across the land in search of food and shelter. No crops grew along what had been valleys of plenty, no herds grazed peacefully in the pastures. Starvation eventually drove people to devour their slain enemies, then their fallen comrades, and later their own family members who succumbed to the ceaseless trekking.

Makers of traditional hats – Lesotho

   Cannibals formed themselves into hunting bands that went out raiding for fresh supplies. Surviving members of the once-peaceful Bafokeng, the ‘mist people’, became such vicious hunters that even today they are known as ‘Marima’, the ‘cannibals’.

  Most of the cannibals fled into the mountains and occupied the sandstone caves that had once been the homes of the Bushmen. At Mamates the largest caves in Lesotho were once the haunt of the dreaded chief Rakotswane, while caves near Mo’hale’s Hoek are still called Cannibal Caves. Ten years after the end of strive and unrest, French missionaries found abundant sheep, cattle and crops for the people along the Caledon Valley, but still they were living as cannibals.

   Meanwhile, Moshesh had gathered many refugees on the Thaba Bosiu and welded together a new tribe, known as the Basotho. Later, when the Basotho came into conflict with white men over border issues, neither Boer or British forces could dislodge Moshesh and his people.

Old lady grinds maize

   The first known inhabitants of Lesotho were the Bushman hunter-gatherers of whose past we know so little and yet whose passing is so deeply regretted. Cannibalism, continued tribal wars and finally the onslaught of the white settlers caught the Bushmen in an ever-closing trap and they were mercilessly hunted and exterminated. This Late Stone Age culture, which has survived into the Space Age in some remote places, was incessantly victimized because its ways were not understood, its understanding of nature not appreciated and because the Bushmen ‘refused to be tamed’.

   It is not known how long the Bushmen dwelt in the sandstone caves of the Little Berg, but for many centuries this was a paradise where they lived in harmony with bird and animal, snake, flower and stone. They grew no crops and domesticated no animal, yet lived among the plants and beasts with an intimate knowledge of all they saw. They inoculated themselves against snake bite and knew every poison and delicacy in their environment. Modern science is often at a loss to explain what the Bushmen took for granted. Long before European culture knew about the moons of Jupiter, the Bushmen told stories of them: the stars were the campfires of departed souls that wandered across the heavens, forever hunters of the skies.

   They told of when the land had been flat marshland – as we know it was millions of years before their time, in the days of dinosaurs.

Bushman Painting – Kamberg area

   With all their knowledge these diminutive hunter-gatherers had the simplicity and cheerful disposition of children, were generous souls who denied material possessions and upset nothing in the ecological balance of their surroundings. Most interesting, though, was their love of dancing, story-telling, and, of course, painting. The last Bushmen known to have been shot in the Drakensberg, in 1866, was one of their artists; around his waist was found a leather belt on which hung ten antelope horns containing the various pigments used to adorn cave walls. The Bushman paintings found in southern Africa exceed all other cave paintings in the world in both quality and quantity – and nowhere more so than in the Drakensberg. An artist who studied and loved their work, Professor Walter Battiss, said: ‘No artist has said more, saying less.’

Lanner Falcon

   Although today we marvel at the way in which the Bushmen bridged the gap between human reasoning and the instinctive behavior of animals, the chauvinism of the white colonists regarded these children of the earth as savages, wild and hardly human. The ploughs and guns, the herds and horses of the white invaders tore up the Bushman’s Eden. By 1890 there were no known survivors in the Drakensberg or Lesotho, although years later signs of their presence were still occasionally found. In 1903 the Giant’s Castle Game Reserve was proclaimed, and one wonders how, if they had survived for a few more decades, the Bushmen would have fitted into the nature reserves of today, for their wise use of the land and its resources seemed instinctive. They apparently destroyed nothing but for their survival and there is evidence to suggest they practiced controlled veld-burning in the Drakensberg to rotated the feeding patterns of the wild animals, an example of ‘agriculture’ advanced for Stone Age man. It has been observed how well they tended the delicate Little Berg, while invasions by both black and white farmers soon led to overgrazing, ploughing, tree-felling and excessive veld-burning.

   The Little Berg cannot take much abuse. Even the paths made by hikers in the more popular trail areas are taking a heavy toll of the thin and slippery ground cover. In an attempt to conserve the natural resources of the Drakensberg, it was proposed that the area be divided into four land use zones. Protection of these zones is not enforced by legislation and they are still open to misuse.

   The first zone, the Wilderness Heart, extends from the top of the Little berg to the watershed and, being ecologically fragile, should be managed primarily for water conservation. The slopes and valleys of the Little Berg make up the Landslide zone, the most fragile of all. Below this, the Trail zone has great scenic and ecological diversity and is suitable for hiking and horse riding on constructed paths. Although the zoning allows for only rustic accommodation, plans have been mooted to develop luxury resorts in this area. Finally, the Threshold zone allows more intensive land use in the form of agriculture and the provision of accommodation.

   The vegetation of the main Drakensberg range, between the Amphitheater in the north and Giant’s Castle in the south, is determined mainly by altitude and orientation to the sun. At higher altitudes the range of temperature extremes increases and the vegetation becomes shorter and hardier. Likewise, north- and east- facing slopes receive more sunshine than south- and west-facing ones, and this too influences plant development. Forests are more prevalent on the cooler slopes and in the damp, shady gorges, while protea savannah occurs at the same altitude but on the slopes receiving more sunshine.

   Fire has had considerable influence on the Drakensberg’s vegetation and the larger, exposed trees are most vulnerable. Grasses are better equipped to survive the ravages of veld fires as their growing points are at ground level. Fire, therefore, has tended to maintain the extensive grasslands while checking the advance of woody plants and besieging the trees and tall bushes in protected areas. In the sub-Alpine belt, which is regularly subjected to fire, certain woody plants such as the mountain cedar and the Erica-like Philippia evansii have managed to re-establish themselves only after a period of more than 20 years undisturbed by fire. In previous times they and the forests probably covered a far greater area than they do today.

   Mountains have many moods which can change significantly in moments. Winter shows the Drakensberg’s finest face when snow blankets its surfaces and powders its slopes. Erica's burst their living greenery through the powder, and icicles hang from the cave and rock lips. The chill pierces deep into all living things, but the freshness is thrilling to the well-prepared visitor as the frozen ground crunches and crackles underfoot. This is when avid mountaineers pack their bags and head for the hills.

The Outer Pinnacle

   During the glorious summer months it is a stirring experience to sit on the edge of the escarpment enjoying the panorama below, and to watch one of the frequent angry storms that begin in the valleys and move up the slopes of the range. The weather changes suddenly and wild, billowing clouds shroud the peaks, breaking in furious dark waves over the cliffs. Whips of lightning that crack into the basalt spires are enough to make a hardened sinner repent, and it is not unusual to hear the resounding crack as boulders and overhangs give way and plummet to the valley below.

   No-one should venture into the Drakensberg without sufficient food, warm and waterproof clothing, bedding and preferably a lightweight tent. Even experienced mountaineers have perished here through miscalculations or misfortune. Only 70 years ago it was believed that to be benighted on top of the Drakensberg would mean certain death.

   The mountains may be kind and beautiful to those who abide by their demands, but are cruel and relentless to those who flaunt them.

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.

Acknowledgements and References

Extract and photos from the book ‘Mountains of Southern Africa’ – D. Bristow and C. Ward

Bushman Painting – Kamberg Area  –  Photo by Willem Pelser