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The southern Drakensberg is a different animal to the northern Berg. Without the big family resorts and far from any national highway, it’s a landscape of big skies, huge mountains and dirt roads that seem to go on forever. Here, a group of girls who attend the school at Mariazell mission station, the most far-flung of the mission stations, walk home through a summer shower.

Taken by Jon Minster

Southern splendour

The southern Drakensberg is a different animal to the northern Berg. Without the big family resorts and far from any national highway, it’s a landscape of big skies, huge mountains and dirt roads that seem to go on forever. Here, a group of girls who attend the school at Mariazell mission station, the most far-flung of the mission stations, walk home through a summer shower.

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Submitted on 19 May 2012 | 06:05:15

That's rellay thinking of the highest order

Submitted on 10 November 2011 | 04:34:56

I hate my life but at least this makes it berablae.

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The Trappist Trail

By Jon Minster
Published 11 July 2011

In the southern Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal you’ll find a network of mission stations built by Trappist monks almost a century ago. Read about the fascinating history of the mission stations and Abbot Francis Pfanner, the man behind them all, in the August issue. To whet your appetite, here are a few unpublished photos.

Mariannhill mission station near Pinetown, Durban, is the biggest of all the Trappist mission stations in KwaZulu-Natal. It was the headquarters of Abbot Francis Pfanner’s cause and it’s where he’s buried, even though he died at faraway Emmaus, near present-day Umzimkhulu.

A statue of Mary keeps watch over Kevelaer mission station near Bulwer.

Cows have right of way in the Umzimkhulu valley near the dairy-farming town of Creighton. When they’re on a mission, there’s nothing you can do but wait your turn!

Maristella, inland from Port Shepstone, is the Trappist mission station that’s closest to the sea. When we visited, the rain sluiced down and the church was a chilly, forlorn sight in the drizzle.

Inland from the holiday spots of the KZN South Coast is a landscape of dramatic hills, often shrouded in mist. It’s a poor, rural part of the country. Take a GPS or someone who knows where they’re going, because the roads aren’t marked on many maps.

King’s Grant Country Retreat has been built on the site of the former supply farm for Mariathal mission station near Ixopo. The buildings on the farm were built by the monks in the typical Trappist style, using bricks fired from the red clay of the area. Most beautiful is the small chapel – these days a sought-after wedding venue.

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