FOR SOMETHING TO BE ADVENTUROUS IT HAS TO BE UNPREDICTABLE.”
UNKNOWN
Garden
Castle Reserve
Drakensberg
How often is it that we dream of adventure and exploration in this modern age? To get lost in a wilderness area and experience a life far removed from the human rat race. Garden Castle Reserve in the southern Drakensberg is indeed a place where dreams of adventure can come true. It is a vast and exceptionally beautiful wilderness area, made for long range hiking. There is so much to see and experience that a normal day walk would simply not do.
You need to pack your hiking bag for a number of days and venture forth into the wild wilderness, exploring and finding all the hidden gems awaiting you in this area. Garden Castle richly rewards those making the effort to explore the wilderness. It is a place which draws you ever deeper into her arms and there are truly some magnificent sights to behold.
Travel to the town of Underberg, go straight through and a few kilometers outside of town turn right onto the Garden Castle road. The roads are well signposted and also tarred all the way to the camp. Any vehicle will do. After about 32 kilometers you will arrive at the gate of the Drakensberg Gardens Hotel. Sign in at the gate and proceed through the hotel grounds to the Garden Castle Reserve office.
Accommodation outside of the reserve is plentiful and you will be spoilt for choice. Staying at the Garden Castle Hotel gives you close access to the reserve wilderness trails. There is a very nice and clean campsite available in the reserve itself with more than reasonable rates and immediate access to the trails. The campsite also boasts superb views and on most days you will have the place to yourself. Fuel is available right outside the hotel gates and the hotel operates a superette on their premises should you have the need to stock up on supplies.
There is a car park available at the office for the cars of the day walkers or those going on multi-day hikes. A picnic site is also available.
Garden Castle Reserve is one of the most beautiful areas in all of the Drakensberg and well worth a visit.
Most people tend to stay at the Drakensberg Gardens Hotel and do their walks from there. Mashai Pass and the Rhino Peak Route is a crowd favorite and on most days people will be trekking up the pass. The route can become quite busy, which, for a hardcore hiker like myself, distracts from the experience. The other routes available to the walker and which can be completed in a day seems to be discarded in favor of Mashai Pass, which is a pity as these routes are exceptionally beautiful. The area is an absolute paradise for the multi-day hiker and explorer and allows a person to travel wide and far. How far you can walk is the only limit. I have recently spent a fabulous 7 days in the area and it was absolutely magical.
There are various river pools available for swimming and currently the flowers in the area are a sight to behold.
For the day hiker there are 6 main trails available, all of them spectacular:
1) Mashai Pass and Rhino Peak.
2) Sleeping Beauty Cave.
3) Hidden Valley.
4) Bushman’s Neck.
5) Lake Naverone.
6) Bushman Rock, Three Pools, and Champagne Pool.
Maps are available from the reserve office and please take note that you are not allowed to visit any cave with Bushmen Rock Art without a guide, which can be arranged at the office.
For the multi-day hiker your imagination is the only limit as to where and how far you can go. However, when you do go, be properly prepared, and have your hike well planned as the Drakensberg is a very unforgiving place for those ill-prepared and can become a very hostile place very quickly.
Hiking in the Drakensberg is about the freedom of a wilderness experience, not about ‘how much’ or ‘how far’. Just go out there and enjoy the mountains like a bushman. Then you will discover why the Drakensberg is a Cathedral of the senses.
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: My Notebook
Photos: ©Willem Pelser
Compiled by: Willem Pelser