Central Drakensberg
The Central Drakensberg streaches from Giants Castle To Monks Cowl
 The Central Drakensberg is perhaps the most spectacular region of the majestic
Drakensberg. The Central Drakensberg is the country's highest and most impressive
mountain range rising to over 3000 meters.The Central
Drakensberg escarpment
is frequently covered in snow in the winter months, transforming the area into
a picture-postcard winter wonderland. For the more adventurous there
are also many trails which use caves up in the mountains as overnight stops.
A weekend of hiking and climbing, interspersed with dips in the icy pools and
rivers, goes a long way to restoring those weary of city life.
Most of the Central Drakensberg makes up a good part of the whole Natal Drakensberg
Park, a wilderness area with an abundance of wildlife. Hikers are frequently
surprised by bushbuck, oribi, mountain reedbuck, tiny duiker, and the largest
of South Africa’s antelope species, the eland, as well as many others.
Enormous lammergeier, or bearded vultures, fly overhead and baboons bark from
the cliffs. The spring is heralded by carpets of wild flowers and the pink
and orange watsonia, like miniature gladioli, bloom thickly on the hillsides.
In autumn the fields and lower reaches of the Drakensberg are often a waist-high
sea of confetti-like pink, white and deep velvet red cosmos blossoms. In the
higher reaches on the slopes of the Little Berg, varieties of protea trees
show their prehistoric flowers, and ancient tree ferns and the odd cycad dot
the gullies. Hikers should note that there are 24 species of snakes in these
mountains, and not all of them are willing to give way to humans!
The Central Drakensberg mountains also contain thousands of Bushman
painting sites, evidence of the small, primitive San people who practiced
a prehistoric life style in the area long ago. The earliest of these paintings
are about 800 years old, and the golden age of the painters was between 400
and 200 years ago.
Central Drakensberg Attractions
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