THE DRAGON MOUNTAIN

"BEWARE IF YOU DO NOT EXPERIENCE FEAR IN THE WILDERNESS.

NOT TO FEEL FEAR DEPRIVES YOU OF THE SUPREME JOY OF MASTERING IT”

WALTER BONATTI

THE
DRAGON MOUNTAIN

The Drakensberg range is part of the Great Escarpment which is the edge of the interior plateau of Southern Africa and which extends from the North-Eastern Transvaal, near the Tropic of Capricorn, for a distance of about 960 kilometres to end in the Stormberg in the Eastern Cape.

The Wolkberg, in the extreme North, is spectacular and well deserves its name – “the Cloud Mountain”. It rises at the point where the range separates the Highveld from the Lowveld. It was on the slopes of the Wolkberg, where the clouds cling to the litchen-covered cliffs, that John Buchan, the novelist who eventually to become Governor General of Canada, dreamt his dreams and from the highest point, the Iron Crown of Prester John, one can see the great chain running southwards towards the KZN border.

At this point the range turns in a south-westerly direction, separating KZN from the Orange Free State, until it climbs majestically to Mont-aux-Sources. Here it swings in a south-easterly direction, now separating KZN from Lesotho and seems to tower over the rest of South Africa. At giant’s Castle the mountain wall swings once again in a south-westerly direction and continues as part of the “Roof of Southern Africa” to the Cape border. Continuing on its journey, but not quite as high, it now separates Lesotho from the Cape Province finally to end in the Stormberg of the Eastern Province.

From Mont-aux-Sources to the Cape border the escarpment is known as the KZN Drakensberg or the “High Berg”, where the range averages a height of about 3000 meters and is one of the most important geographical features in South Africa, containing some of the most rugged and wild mountain scenery on the African continent.

The origin of the name Drakensberg is obscure and probably we shall never know who actually decided to call the range the “Dragon Mountain”. But one thing is certain that long before the Voortrekkers reached the area in 1837, this was its name.

Did the name perhaps originate from the serpents of Bushmen mythology? Bushmen certainly believed in supernatural serpents, which can be seen in paintings in the various shelters of the KZN Drakensberg. It is possible, however, that the black tribesmen after seeing those paintings, or having heard stories of mythological serpents related by the Bushmen, believed that these creatures actually lived in the remoter regions and on meeting Europeans they told them about these monsters. This seems feasible when one considers that, in the days of Sir Isaac Newton, “…….. The Alps then were still haunted by portentous dragons” – as described by Sir Leslie Stephen in 1870. The Bloemfontein Advertiser on 26^th April 1877, published a letter to the editor headed “Strange if True” which describe how a Boer and his son had seen a huge dragon, the thickness of a wagon wheel, with wings and a forked tail. The Boer called it the flying Dragon. The writer said that when asked why it is called the Dragon Mountains, he was told because a dragon lives there. The writer also stated that the tribesmen told him the same story. He always had it described as an enormous serpent.

Allen Francis Gardener, founder of the City of Durban and also the first European to explore the remote regions of the southern part of the KZN Drakensberg in 1835, refers in his book to the range as Quathlamba. This name was also used in early maps. The name, sometimes spelled as “uKhalamba” is in effect the correct Zulu spelling of the first word. It means “a barrier of up-pointed spears”.

The Amangwane living in the foothills often refer to the Berg as uluNdi, which simply means “the heights”.

The KZN Drakensberg is the highest mountain range in South Africa giving rise to many of the major rivers so important to the economy of the country. The High Berg is really an escarpment and many a visitor has climbed to the top expecting to find a great drop on the other side similar to the one looking back into KZN. Instead he finds, confronting him, the desolate mountainous plateau of Lesotho.

The watershed, which is often the edge of the escarpment, is the national border between Lesotho and South 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.