“IT IS GOOD SOMETIMES TO TRESSPASS DEEP
IN THE WILDERNESS AND LIVE LIFE WITH
UNCOMMON INTENSITY,
EXPERIENCING SOMETHING THAT GETS
CLOSE TO THE SUBLIME”
Paradise Valley
LOTHENI DRAKENSBERG
December 2015 – Barely a month and a half after my last seven-day hike in the Drakensberg Wilderness, I had to heed the siren call of my beloved mountains once again. This time I was heading back to Lotheni, a spectacularly beautiful place where I have done hundreds of kilometres of exploration.
Most people who go to Lotheni follow the marked trails, which prevents them from experiencing and understanding the true beauty of this place. Exploring off-trail is hard work, and most people simply won’t do it, which is why they stick to the standard walks.
Lotheni is vast, with absolutely stunning areas that reward the explorer for all the hard work required to reach them. I could wax lyrical about Lotheni for hours, but instead I will stop here and share just one of its magical places with you.
Accessing this forest was going to be very difficult. It lies between steep valley walls that drop sharply from top to bottom. The valley is about four kilometres long, and a river runs through the middle, though it cannot be seen from outside the forest.
To make a long story short—after a huge amount of hard work—I finally made it into the forest. My breath was taken away by the sheer beauty around me, and it took quite some time before I could even move again. The feeling was as though I had arrived in Paradise… in the Garden of Eden. Never before had I seen such beauty contained within one place. It felt like the home of elves, fairies, trolls, and all the mythical beings you can imagine.
I promptly named the area Paradise Valley. Because of its location and the difficulty of reaching it, the valley has been spared the attention of civilisation and remains absolutely pristine and wild, just as it must have been hundreds of years ago.
I spent hours inside the forest exploring and taking photographs, and it was very difficult to tear myself away and continue with my hike. I followed the river by boulder-hopping and sliding down waterfalls, all the way to where it exits the forest. Because of the steep decline of the valley, there are countless waterfalls within it.
“The memory of the suffering always fades,
while the fulfilment grows brighter.”
Paradise Valley is indeed a very special place and will remain in my memories forever.
For the effort of using my legs, I was rewarded tenfold, as is always the case on my hikes in the Drakensberg Wilderness. I have touched some of the most magical places in the Berg—places of spectacular beauty where man was never meant to go.
Would I be willing to share the exact location of Paradise Valley?
“If I don’t tell the secret,
then it is my slave.
If I do,
then I am its slave.”
I am sharing some photographs of Paradise Valley, but seeing it up close is far better than any picture could ever capture. Do yourself a favour—go and explore the beauty and uniqueness of Lotheni. You will never regret it.
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: “Drakensberg Wilderness – A Solo Journey Through Paradise” –W Pelser
Photos: Willem Pelser
Compiled by: Willem Pelser
