Drakensberg Wilderness Hiking South Africa - Mountain of the Dragons - Where Adventure beckons.....: IN THE SANI PASS

“I AM AN EXPLORER OF MY OWN FEAR, HOPES, DREAMS, AND POSSIBILITIES. IN REALITY MY ACTIVITY IS NOTHING BUT A PASSION FOR LIMITS.”

UNKNOWN

IN THE SANI PASS

DRAKENSBERG

Up the valley of the Mkhomazana River, the classic pass from KZN to the summit of the basalt island finds its way. This pass, known as Sani (pass of the Bushmen), was used from early times. It climbs through singularly wild country, full of memories of rustlers, renegades, and many vicious fights when vengeance-seeking tribesman and farmers encountered bands of the wiry little Bushmen cattle thieves.

Long files of pack mules and donkeys still make their weary way up this pass, while Sotho horseman in their blankets and straw hats ride their hardy ponies to the most improbable heights.

South of the Sani Pass stand the twin Hodgson’s Peaks, 3257 m high, named after a farmer accidently killed there while on a punitive raid against Bushmen rustlers. They act as reminders of past days of hard riding and misadventure.

The Drakensberg continues southwards, its unbroken line of cliffs looking down on a sweeping stretch of farming community. The foothills are a pattern of maize fields, sheep and cattle pastures, while rivers such as the Mzimkhulu and the Ngwangwana have their sources on the heights, rush down through many a gorge, fatten from their tributaries and feed deep pools where trout lurk and the mountains admire their own reflections, on surfaces like glass.

Beyond the Cape border, the Drakensberg swings south-westwards again. For another 300 km the wall of cliffs continues without a break. There are no holiday resorts and little development. Farms make a patchwork of the downlands, but the foothills and the main wall of the basalt island remain inviolate. It was in this part of the range that the legend of the dragon had its origin. It must have been easy to believe such tales in such an area. The wall of mountain seems remote and aloof. To the Zulu tribespeople they were uluNdi (the heights), another world of snow and rains, while they lived in the warm and fertile lowlands. What manner of creatures – mammal or reptile – lived beyond the edge of the escarpment only legend could describe. Even today there are dark valleys, caves, and rustler’s hideaways where few men ever walk.

As the mountain wall continues southwards it slowly loses height. Farmlands crowd closer to the foothills. The highest road pass in Southern Africa, Naudes Nek, climbs to the 2500 m level and then manages, with a last wriggle, to clear the summit. The route is dramatic and spectacular, with heavy snow in winter, masses of red-hot-poker flowers staining the slopes like pools of blood in March, and nearby, the bulky peak of Makhollo (great mother), looming up to an altitude of 3000 m.

Still further south there is another pass, Barkly Pass, which penetrates the Drakensberg through a red colored sandstone valley. The range, by this point, has lost both height and bulk. Its sandstone foundation is more apparent, and the giant cliffs of basalt have vanished. Sheep by the hundreds of thousands graze along the slopes; but the Drakensberg still retains its beauty and its wildness, with farmers and rustlers waging an interminable war.

Then, abruptly and fittingly, this noble range comes to its southern end at a last towering mass of cliffs known as Xalanga (place of the vultures). From the Sentinel in the north to Xalanga in the south, the wall of basalt has provided South Africa with a mountain backbone 450 km in length. North of the Sentinel, the name of the Drakensberg is applied to the escarpment of the central South African plateau, and this continues for another 600 km with, especially in north-eastern Mpumalanga, some majestic scenery.

But, the ‘mountains of the dragon, proper, are the eastern edge of the basalt island, the rainy roof and the greatest heights of Southern Africa.

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.