Sleeping with the DRAGON
We’re spoilt for choice when it comes to campsites in the Drakensberg. There are 24 across its main section, from Bushman’s Nek in the south to the Amphitheatre in the north. As the crow flies, it’s about 160 kilometres of ‘clear mountain streams and age-old forests, of frothing cascades tumbling into pools of laughing water, of green mountain slopes and secret kloofs, of wild flowers and singing birds’, as venerable Drakensberg scribe, Reg Pearse, put it.
I visited in November, when the midweek campsites were quiet and afternoon showers struck like clockwork. As I made my way between them, I realised there are two types of campsite in the Drakensberg. The Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife ones are very basic, with hot water often the extent of the facilities, but boy, their locations are hard to beat. If you’re a hiker, these are the ones for you. On the other side of the spectrum are the resort campsites that offer an array of activities and a fair dollop of comfort (what I call the three Ps: pool, pub and private ablutions), which are ideal if you’re a bit older or have a young family.
In both categories, I came upon a similar scene. A couple or a group of friends sitting with their camping chairs in a row, facing the mountains, chatting contentedly. They’d be having coffee or a glass of wine, maybe passing food around and occasionally sitting back to take in the changing light on the Berg. This is the twilight time – after a day of exploring and just before the smell of fires and braaivleis waft through the campsite – when the wind stills, the mountains soften and a hush settles on the land. And you get the feeling that camping is how the Drakensberg is best experienced: outdoors, with friends, bare feet on the ground, a gaze upon its mountaintops and a mixture of longing and awe in the heart.
1 Hlalanathi
55 SITES
ELECTRICITY
Hlalanathi, meaning ‘stay with us’ in isiZulu, has a view of the Amphitheatre, which is alone worth coming for. Opened in 1983, this family-owned resort is set on a rise above a bend in the Tugela River, with a row of
