Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg Park

by Leigh Kemp, 3 September 2007

The Drakensberg mountain range, stretching along the eastern side of South Africa, is a place of rugged beauty made up of plateaus, peaks, cliffs and deep valleys. It used to be a spiritual home for the San people, whose rock paintings adorn many of the caves and cliff faces. Today a large section of the range has been proclaimed a conservation area and a World Heritage Site under the name Ukhahlamba-

Drakensberg Park.

My first ideas of the Drakensberg were shaped from books in our library at home where I read of the majesty and beauty of the place. Names like Giants Castle and Golden Gate formed a picture in my mind of an almost mystical place - and when the world famous Drakensberg Boys' Choir visited our town the image of a mountainous wonderland echoing in song took root.

At boarding school there were fellow scholars from Natal who spoke longingly of holidays hiking and fly-fishing in 'the Berg'. It was to be many years before I had the opportunity to experience the Dragon Mountain (Drakensberg) - also known as Ukhahlamba (Barrier of Spears).

A human history

The Drakensberg has been home to the hunter-gatherer San people for thousands of years where they lived in caves and shelters and left a rich legacy of paintings on the rock walls. The Drakensberg has more than 60% of all known rock art sites in southern Africa and the paintings have been described by UNESCO as "world famous and widely considered one of the supreme achievements of humankind...outstanding in quality and diversity of subject and in their depiction of animals and human beings ... which throws much light on their way of life and their beliefs. 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.”

The San were pushed out by the southern migrating Nguni peoples and then the Boer farmers who settled in the area to get away from British rule. The Boers crossed the mountains in their ox-wagons - which you soon realize was no feat as you look out over the valleys and peaks. The Boers were stock farmers and hunters, shooting the game that the San relied on their survival for and in turn the San hunted the domestic stock thereby bringing them into conflict with the Boers who would often shoot the San on site.

Today, if you stand for a moment in the silence of the mountains, you may hear the echoes of the many dramas that took place in the foothills of the Drakensberg, from the bloody rise of the great Zulu king Shaka to the Anglo-Zulu War and the Anglo-Boer wars.

History of the park

The Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg Park was proclaimed in 1993 and is made up of a number of previously established nature reserves and state forests making up a total area of 2943 sq.km. The forests and reserves included in the new park are:

- Royal Natal National Park 8,094ha

- Loteni Nature Reserve 3,984ha

- Kamberg Nature Reserve 2,980ha

- Vergelegen Nature Reserve 1,159ha

- Rugged Glen Nature Reserve 762ha

- Giant's Castle Game Reserve 34,638ha

- Mkhomazi State Forest 49,156ha

- Cathedral Peak State Forest 32,246ha

- Garden Castle State Forest 30,766ha

- Cobham State Forest 30,498ha

- Highmoor State Forest 28,151ha

- Monk's Cowl Sate Forest 20,379ha

The Park is now part of the Drakensberg-Maluti Transfrontier Conservation and Development Area and was established in June 2001 by the National Environment Secretariat of Lesotho and the KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service with the help of the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank. It totals 8,113 square kilometres in area, 5170 sq.km. in Lesotho (including Sehlabathebe National Park) which includes over 80% of the Afro-alpine zone of southern Africa, and 2,943sq.km. (36.3%) in South Africa.

Fauna and Flora

The park has a rich variety of plant and animal species. There are 98 endemic plant species out the 2153 known species including the rare Protea nubigena, a plant found nowhere on earth except on a high ridge in the Royal Natal section of the park.

The park is also home to 299 recorded bird species including the globally endangered Cape parrot and white-winged flufftail. The blue crane, Cape vulture and bald ibis are counted as globally vulnerable, while the pallid harrier and black harrier are on the near-threatened list.

Among the park's 48 species of mammal are the threatened eland and endemic grey rhebuck, which each currently number around 2 000 - the highest population nationally.

Part of the reason for the Drakensberg's rich biodiversity is its extremes of altitude, from 1 000 metres above sea level to 3 500 metres. It is home to aquatic, forest, scrub, fynbos, savannah, mountain grassland and heath plant families, including a large number of species listed in the Red Data Book of threatened plants.

Epilogue

The Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg Park is a magical place where you can imagine giants roaming the ridges and valleys and if you listen closely you may even hear the sound of heavenly voices.

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