Activities in the Drakensberg
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Guide No: GAR6016 -::- Tel: 079 696 7108 -::- Mail: email@example.com
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Guide No: ACT1068 -::- Tel: 033 702 0330 -::- Mail: N/A
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The range is located in the eastern part of Southern Africa, running for some 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) from south-west to north-east. The mountains drain on the western slopes by the Orange and Vaal rivers, and on the east and south by a number of smaller rivers, the Tugela being the largest. The range separates KwaZulu-Natal Province from Free State Province, looming over the nearby coast of Natal.
A Guide to the Drakensberg describes the escarpment as lying "parallel to the south-eastern coast of South Africa from the Northern Province to the Eastern Cape." In the vicinity of Giant's Castle, it "swings to the south-west and enters the Eastern Cape", splitting there into the separate ranges of Stormberg, Bamboes, Suurberg, Nieuveld and Komsberg."
Caves and cave paintings
Caves are frequent in the more easily eroded sandstone, and many have rock paintings by the Bushmen. The Drakensberg has between 35000 and 40000 works of bushman art and is the largest collection of such work in the world. Some 20,000 individual rock paintings have been recorded at 500 different cave and overhang sites between the Drakensberg Royal Natal National Park and Bushman's Neck. Due to the materials used in their production, these paintings are difficult to date, but there is anthropological evidence, including many hunting implements, that the bushman civilization existed in the Drakensberg at least 40,000 years ago, and possibly over 100,000 years ago. According to countryroads.co.za, "[i]n Ndedema Gorge in the Central Drakensberg 3,900 paintings have been recorded at 17 sites. One of them, Sebaayeni Cave, contains 1 146 individual paintings." Southafrica.info indicates that though "the oldest painting on a rock shelter wall in the Drakensberg dates back about 2400 years", "paint chips at least a thousand years older have also been found." The site also indicates that "the rock art of the Drakensberg is the largest and most concentrated group of rock paintings in Africa south of the Sahara, and is outstanding both in quality and diversity of subject."
More info at Wikipedia