At Rugged Glen, which borders on the Royal Natal Nature Reserve, you can see the Berg on horseback.

On our first afternoon here, we decide to explore the mountains on horseback. The Rugged Glen Nature Reserve is near the Royal Natal Nature Reserve and a popular place for horse riding.
Wellington Dlamini is the guide who accompanies us on a two-hour circular route through the Forgotten Valley – a distance of about 14 km. (You can ride for longer which will give you time to visit a rock art site as well).

We’re surrounded by mountains and rolling green foothills. The iconic Amphitheatre, which you’ll find on practically every postcard of the Drakensberg, is close by, but it’s covered in cloud.
My horse’s name is Princess, a bright little Basotho pony. First we head towards the Mazizi settlement next to the rushing waters of the Tugela River. The source of the river is high above the Amphitheatre at Mont-aux-Sources. Then we cross a small stream and head up in the direction of the Forgotten Valley. And it really does feel like we’re lost in time here. On one of the ridges
I see a few shy mountain reedbuck watching us. A raptor circles high overhead.

Wellington points out the sur­rounding peaks, with names like Sleeping Beauty and Mhlangomo, which means “the cow would like to graze down there but can’t find its way down the mountain”. Or something like that.
I’m really relaxed and have to remind myself that I’m on horseback. Even a late-afternoon shower doesn’t break the magic, and we head back to the stables at a light gallop.
Later, from the stoep of our chalet at the beautiful Thendele Camp in the Royal Natal Nature Reserve, I admire the towering panorama of the Berg, shrouded in grey.
Just before dark, the clouds part for a few minutes, like a curtain being lifted.
The silhouette of the Amphitheatre, with its horseshoe shape and vertical cliffs that rise more than a kilometre, reveals itself in all its glory.

RUGGED GLEN
Where? Turn right just outside the Royal Natal Nature Reserve to Rugged Glen.
Cost: R150 per person for a two-hour ride (three hours, R200, six hours, R350).
Contact: 036 438 6422; www.kznwildlife.com   

There’s some rock-hopping required on the final stretch of the Tugela Ravine day hike. The Amphitheatre Wall is visible behind the clouds.

Baboon alert

A clatter in the kitchen wakes me. Surely it can’t be the cleaner already? Nope, it’s a male baboon that makes off with a packet of 2-Minute Noodles.
We probably didn’t shut the sliding door properly.
Fortunately the rascal didn’t steal our lunch for today’s hike up Tugela Gorge, as the two little shops inside the park stock only basic supplies.

The park takes its name from the Royal Family’s visit back in 1947; you can still see the ruins of the hotel where they stayed.
The 14 km hike up the gorge is one of the most popular day outings in the Drakensberg. The Tugela has cut a meandering path through this gorge, and if you’re up for it you can hike all the way to the base of the magnificent Amphitheatre.

It’s normally a five-hour outing but the last bit can get tricky so many people turn around at the “tunnel” which leads deeper into the gorge (there’s a chain ladder here which you can use if you want to avoid wading through the stream).
On a good day, you should be able to see the Tugela Falls, plunging in five sheer cascades over 900 m down the Amphi­theatre, the equivalent of a 300-storey skyscraper, and one of the highest waterfalls in the world.

Even though you don’t need a guide on this outing, we decide to support a local initiative. It’s apt that our guide is named Elijah – just like the biblical prophet who spent a lot of time in the mountains.
Our Elijah tells us that he used to herd cattle as a child, and walk 24 km to school and back every day. Eight years ago, he started the Siyaphambili Tourist Guides and Porters Service (siyaphambili means “to advance”.) After he became an accredited guide, Elijah started to train others in the community.

The hike starts in a lush bit of indigenous forest that reminds me of the Tsitsikamma.
Then we follow a contour path on the bank of the bubbling Tugela River. If you look back you get a great view of Thendele camp and then you see the Policeman’s Helmet, a rock formation on the right-hand side.
Elijah knows a lot about fauna, flora and history. He tells us, for instance, that the Bushmen who once lived here used the bulb of the Natal lily (Crinium moorei) as soap.
But he says the guides are struggling to make a living: “Many people visit the Drakensberg to find themselves, and then they don’t want a guide.”

After about 6 km we reach the end of the footpath. Now we’re in the ravine. Here you have to rock-hop and cross the river three times. It’s rained a lot and the river is full – so we’re happy to have Elijah helping us over the slippery rocks.
We call a halt at midday. To the left I can see the unmistakable, long thin spire of the Devil’s Tooth. But a curtain of mist rises to smudge the Amphitheatre. We won’t be able to see the Tugela Falls or the Amphitheatre proper­ly, but it doesn’t really matter. The ravine is beautiful.

Accommodation: From R395 per person in two-bedroom, selfcatering chalets. You can also camp at Mahai (from R75 per stand, R85 with electricity).
Activities: Hiking, swimming, fly-fishing.
Guides: Elijah Mbonane 073 137 4690
Contact: 036 438 6411; www.kznwildlife.com  

Conditions change quickly and dramatically in the Berg. This view from the Cathedral Peak Hotel shows Inner and Outer Horn on the left and the Bell in the middle.

When storm clouds brew

Today the weather is against us. I’m trying to think of something to do while it’s raining. Maybe we should visit a sangoma in the beautiful Mnweni Valley or… no, we hear the river is flowing too strongly and we’ll have to wait two days for an appointment.
I call the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir, which has Wednesday afternoon performances but
no, they’re only starting again in February.

Fortunately we spot a brochure for All Out Adventures, a nearby adventure centre. Will it offer quad bike rides in this weather?
All Out Adventures looks like a training centre for circus performers with activities like Bungy Bounce, Flying Trapeze and a 300 m-long foefie slide. But not in today’s weather, they say. Fortunately, Eugene Heuschen agrees to take us out on an hour-long quad bike ride of 12 km.

Kate and Duncan Stuart from Cape Town, who are on honeymoon, join us. Kate’s right hand is in plaster – she had a mountain bike fall a few days before her wedding. Today, she rides pillion behind Duncan.
Eugene gives us each red overalls and waterproof clothing to wear – we look like welders in the video game Super Mario Brothers.

You can choose to ride an auto­matic or gear-shift quad. We have a few trial runs on a practice circuit before we hit the road.
The bikes are surprisingly easy to steer.
It’s a lovely route in open veld between the mountains with a few drifts and dongas to negotiate. I’m glad we’re well padded because it’s quite a muddy business. The Tugela River is flowing too strongly for us to cross it on the quads today. We keep to a gentle pace.
The hour flies by. What fun!

In the afternoon we decide to head to Bergville and then take a winding road to one of  the Drakensberg’s most charming destinations: Cathedral Peak Hotel.
This classy hotel, which has been upgraded over the past three years, first opened its doors in 1939. Albert van der Riet was the first owner; today, William (Albert’s son) and Belinda van der Riet are in charge.

The hotel is buzzing. Not only do they have a spa and gym but they also offer lots of outdoor activities like free guided hikes to waterfalls and rock art, bird hides and a golf course.
I run into Duncan and Casey Pratt, a couple who’ve just returned from working in London. They’re on holiday with their five-month-old boy Braden.
“You hike for five days here, but you still put on weight because of all the food,” Duncan says, laughing.

“We’ve holidayed in the Pyrenees, but the Drakensberg is much more impressive,” Casey says. “I like these mountains more than anywhere else I’ve been. This is home.”
And what could be nicer than to sit outside on the stoep, after a busy day, and admire the beautiful view of the mountains: the Inner and Outer Horns, The Bell, and of course, Cathedral Peak itself. In the garden two people are playing outdoor chess.
Then, almost without our noticing, the clouds gather around Cathedral Peak again.
The dragon’s belly is making rumbling noises again.

All out Adventures
Where? A good map is available on the website
Cost: Quad ride costs R440 per person for 12 km.
Contact: 036 438 6242; www.alloutadventures.co.za 
Cathedral Peak-hotel
Where? From Johannesburg, take the Bergville turnoff and follow the signs. From Durban, go via Winterton. Map on website.
Cost? From R790 per person sharing, dinner bed and breakfast (out of season rate).
Contact: 036 488 1888 www.cathedralpeak.co.za

On a helicopter flight over the Drakensberg you get a real sense of the vastness of the mountain range. You even stop along the way for a glass of bubbly.

Get a bird’s eye view

The Champagne Stopover helicopter flight offered by Westline at the Cathedral Peak hotel catches my eye: It’s a 15-minute flight over the Berg’s escarpment and you land somewhere at a height of around 2 140 m and enjoy a glass of sparkling wine in the thin air.
That morning we have to wait a bit though because of the mist and cloud. But just before lunch our pilot Alan Wilson says we can take off.

Up, up, up we go! It’s so different from flying in a light aircraft: The chopper is quite steady, almost gentle. We first do a big turn around the hotel, then past Baboon Rock and then…we’re on top of the dragon’s spine.
It’s an amazing experience to see this world from above. Green, grassy mountains below and around us, as far as the eye can see, waterfalls tumbling down the cliffs after the recent rain and rivers that rush down ravines, even a few dagga plantations, tell-tale darker green square patches, hidden in remote valleys.

Those 15 minutes become one long, blissful moment.
We land on top of the escarpment and walk to the edge of a cliff. It’s like being at the top of the world. Unbelievable.
To the left I can see the escarp­ment stretching out endlessly northwards. Woodstock and Spioenkop dams lie far below in the valley and I can see the Sterkfontein Dam on the opposite horizon, just below the Maluti Mountains. It’s a thin, silver strip.
Alan pulls out the glasses and the three of us sit in silence. Then he says: “You can just sit here. That’s what it’s all about…” And then he jumps up. “Hey! Lammergeier!”
Above us is an enormous bearded vulture with a wingspan of about 3 m. It’s watching us.
Three smaller vultures circle for a few minutes, also showing an interest in us.
“Listen, okes, get the drift: We’re not dead!” Alan shouts and waves his arms.

The Didima Rock Art Centre is a fascinating exhibition in the Cathedral Peak area that opened in 2003. Here the history of the early inhabitants of the Drakensberg is told through a series of panels and audiovisual exhibits.
Some of the rock art that you can see along the footpath here at Didima dates back to the late Stone Age and is about 4 000 years old.
The museum is a great curtain raiser, a kind of basic introduction to rock art. It’s fascinating to see how important the eland was to the spiritual life of the Bushmen. Some of the figures are of people turning into eland during a trance dance – the therianthropes.

Eland were also useful to the hunter-gatherers of the Drakens­berg. Apart from the flesh, which they described as “sweet as honey”, they used the fat and blood from the antelope to make their paintings.
Rock art has deep symbolic meaning, and is not, as anthropologists used to believe, mere diary entries of daily events.
This is driven home when you read the words of Qing, possibly the last of the rock artists in the Berg who was interviewed in 1873 by the colonial admini­strator JM  Orpen: “We don’t know where Cagn! (God) is. He answered, we do not know, but the eland do.

“Have you not hunted and heard his cry, when the eland suddenly start and run to his call? Where he is, eland are in droves like cattle.”

Westline Helicopters
Where? Cathedral Peak Hotel.
Cost: The Champagne Stopover costs R890 per person.
Contact: 036 488 2055; www.transec.co.za

Didima rock art centre
Where? At the Didima camp in Cathedral Peak.
Cost: R50 per person (including an audio-visual display).
Contact: 036 488 8000; www.kznwildlife.com

It’s hard not to whoop on the new Drakensberg Canopy Tour. One of the cables is 179 m long!

In the tree tops

Our last destination is Champagne Valley in the central Drakens­berg, about 50 km outside Winterton where Cathkin Peak and Champagne Castle are two of the best-known icons.
But neither is visible this morning because it’s pouring and the clouds are hanging low over the mountains. I’d heard that a canopy tour had opened close to the Drakensburg Sun.
I enjoyed this in the Tsitsi­kamma and so we decide to go and take a look.

To my astonishment, guides Quinton Kruger and Simon Mabuza are keen to accompany us on the 12 zip-lines that start at Grotto Forest, even in the rain.
It works like this: You have a harness and a helmet and glide through the trees and between rock faces on a cable. You can slow yourself down by putting a gloved hand to the cable. Or, as in our case, if it’s wet you have to hold on tight to the cable to slow your pace because the water makes it slippery and faster.

Fortunately Simon is waiting for us at each platform to make sure that we don’t come in too fast. As soon as we’re safely attached to the tree, Simon tells us more about the plants and trees in this forest.
This tour is the largest of its kind in the country. Where the Tsitsikamma’s longest zip-line was 90 m, here you can go on an astonishing 179 m long ride. And at the highest point you slide off a cliff with a rushing river 60 m below you. The adrenaline flows and I shriek with excitement as I glide between the cliffs…

It’s tough to say goodbye to these mountains. As we drive off, I look back at the brooding mass and think of words penned by Reg Pearse in his book Barrier of Spears: “Over it all stands the Drakensberg itself, timeless, aloof, inscrutable, but with a wild beauty of its own that tugs at the heartstrings […] and where man, in all this vast loneliness, can find himself.”

Where? Opposite the Drakensberg Sun in the central Drakensberg.
Cost: R450 per person (including a light lunch).
Contact: 036 468 1981; www.drakensbergcanopy tour.co.za

(Note: Prices accurate in May 2010)