The Drackensberg Mountains...

With our bus pass, we had the choice of two different routes from Durban to Johannesburg.  We could have gone north along the coast and then inland through Swaziland, but we chose to go inland from Durban towards the Drackensberg Mountains and the mountain kingdom of Lesotho.

 

My Father would have loved this area especially our day trip into Lesotho.  The southern Drackensberg (Dragon's Mountain) are very beautiful.  The mountains are ancient basalt flows from volcanoes.  They rise quickly and steeply from the rolling farmlands below.  The mountains form the eastern border of the mountain kingdom of Lesotho which is an independent country encircled by South Africa.  Lesotho was never conquered by either Zulus or Europeans largely due to its natural mountain defenses. 

 

We took the Sani Pass road from the South African side and snaked our way up the mountain pass.  The Drackensberg are the highest mountains in Africa excluding Kilimanjaro.  The only road into Lesotho from this side is the Sani Pass which is more of a trail of rubble and boulders than it is a road.  A high clearance 4x4 is required.  You will not be permitted on the road in anything else.  The road is single-lane and carved out of the side of the mountain bluffs.  It makes the climb up to the pass at almost 10,000 feet.  The Sani Valley is very beautiful.  The attached pic is looking back down the valley from a point about 1/3 of the way up.

 

Once we have the rest of the pics posted to the album, they will be worth a look.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean