“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
