Best Places to visit in South Africa: Drakensberg a Hikers Paradise - Mont Aux Sources.
Are you a keen hiker? So what are you waiting for, pack your bags and come join me on a Drakensberg adventure.
I will be blogging on places to see in South Africa every week. I am starting with the most beautiful mountain range in South Africa the Drakensberg range and will cover different hiking spots, game reserves and holiday resorts.
The Drakensberg Range:
The Drakensberg range stretch for 1000km (600miles). It lies over Lesotho, and parts of it in Kwazulu Natal and the Free State. The Dutch settlers gave it the Afrikaans name Drakensbergen but are also known as the “Mountains of Dragons” because of its spiky mountain tops caused by millions of years of erosion which looks like the back of a dragon.
South Africans revers to it as the great Escarpment which forms the border between Lesotho and Kwazulu-Natal. It consists of sedimentary rocks and quartzite layers of over 2000 million years’ old.
You will come across the most exquisite Fauna and Flora, experience tranquility with breath taking views when hiking these mountains.
The Fauna: consists of over 299 bird species, klipspringer, Eland, mountain reedbuck, white rhinoceros, black wildebeest and especially the three endemic frog species found in the mountain streams.
The flora: The mountains are filled with beautiful plant life. You will be blessed to be part of 2 153 plant species of which a 119 are endangered and listed in the Red Data Book. You will enjoy the beauty of long strips of lushes green and gold grasslands, see the conifers, aloes and proteas - South Africa’s national flower.
You can also experience the San bushman paintings on the cave walls.
[Image Credit](i1253.photobucket.com/albums/hh582/crazymumzysa/drakensberg_map_zps8hbnawjj.jpg
Mount-Aux Sources:
Mount-Aux Sources is the highest section of the Drakensberg mountain range. You can reach this peak by climbing chain ladders from the Sentinel car park near Witsieshoek.
The name Mont Aux Sources or Fountains Mountain was given by French missionaries because of all the rivers running through the mountain. The Tugela river originates from this mountain and flows out into the Indian Ocean at Kwazulu Natal. The Tugela falls is a 947m cascading water fall which is the second highest in the world.
The Mont Aux Sources is a luxurious 4-star Hotel at the foot of the mountain which offers a variety of activities like hiking, horse riding, fishing and mountain biking. http://www.montauxsources.co.za/
If you ever think of visiting South Africa and want to experience our magnificent Drakensberg mountain range you can make use of the following websites.
This site offers a Drakensberg Forum where the hikers will tell you about places they have hiked, what the weather is like, give warnings on bad weather conditions and fires last but not least they post the most exquisite photos.
http://www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/1-drakensberg-forum.html
If you want to go hiking in the Drakensberg you can use this site as here you can find the list of GPS waypoints of the pass summits, caves, peaks, escarpment, huts, campsites, and path junctions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drakensberg_hiking
Love this! I also love hiking.
If you ever have the opportunity you must come you will love hiking here in South Africa.
Beautiful shots. I never realised South Africa was so green.
These photo's were taken during our Summer season in December. Kwazulu Natal is always beautiful and green.
Just amazing.......
What's the kind of that flower ? Is it any kind of Orchid ???
Flower is a Protea
Thank you for answering @royalmacro @mayhemfreak you are correct. Have a wonderful day!
No, it is a Protea royalmacro. Thank you very much, they come in different species with a variety of colors.
Maybe if possible this is something i will love to experience
It is very tiring and you need to be quite fit but it is absolutely worth the pain.
I love your photos. thanks!
It is my sons photography, he loves playing with the settings and has a natural eye. Thank you team 101.
Hi crazymumzasa, just a heads up on the the amphitheater area.. It is with a VERY sad face that I have to inform you (and visitors) that the Amphitheater area is a large safety risk at the moment. The chain ladders is open but most of the escarpment area is closed for visitors. Full Closure Notice here: http://www.climbing.co.za/2016/05/drakensberg-safety-recent-attack/
Oh wow thank you very much mayhemfreak, that is really sad as it is so incredibly beautiful there. By the sound of it you enjoy hiking.
Indeed! My "other" home the drakensberg. ;)
The whole beauty of nature, in just a single post! Amazing work :)
I had to UpVote and Follow you!
I truly enjoy nature and its beauty and why not share it with the world. Thank you chris.roy
Вот это улыбка!!!))))))))))))))))) Очень классные фото! Я влюблена в ваши фото!
Спасибо за улыбку . Это действительно красиво в нашей стране , и я люблю делиться этим с миром .
nice photos, followed you
I love taking photos of the places we visit but my son is the best at it though. Thank you very much myfirst.
An amazing place. We spent a week hiking there when I was a schoolboy - 1970s. It was November-time and we headed out to hike to the top of Mont-Aux-Sources. The top of the mountain did not look like the pictures - all shrouded in mist. It rained a lot. We made it to the bottom of the chain ladder shown in your photos
The wind was howling through the gap and we were too cold to take the chance of applying cold hands to cold iron. We pitched our tent at the foot of the ladder (3 of us) and hunkered down for the night. Wind howled all night and the tent shook - we slept very little but we stayed dry. Next morning we turned back and found the rest of our party had found a cave not far behind us - fire and dry.
The price for me - frostbite in my fingers - in November, I ask you
Amazing thing is my brother got lost up there in the winter some years before - when they found him, he had been walking in circles - they followed the tracks in the snow. Maybe that was in my mind when we chose to set camp.
Maybe one day I will go back
Wow what an experience. Jip, the mist can get very thick up there and you can get quite lost. Always good to have GPS and a solar power bank with you. I truly hope you will be able to enjoy this hike again. My son actually lost his camera there and some university boys picked it up and placed some of the photos in the newspaper, family told us about the article and he was lucky to meet these boys who kept his camera safe for him. It is nice to still have some honest people left in this world.