WHAT AWAITS YOU IN MALOTI DRAKENSBERG?

The Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site is a transnational park spanning the border between the Kingdom of Lesotho and the Republic of South Africa. The property comprises Sehlabathebe National Park (6,500 ha) in Lesotho and uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park (242,813 ha) in South Africa.

The area is renowned for its spectacular natural landscape, a haven for threatened and endemic species, and for its wealth of rock paintings made by the San people over a period of 4,000 years. It is the largest protected area along the Great Escarpment of Southern Africa and constitutes as the principal water production area in Southern Africa.

With its pristine steep-sided river valleys and rocky gorges, the park has numerous caves and rock shelters containing an estimated 690 rock art sites, and the number of individual images in those sites probably exceeds 35,000. The images depict animals and human beings, and represent the spiritual life of the San people, representing an exceptionally coherent tradition that embodies their beliefs and cosmology over several millennia.

FACTS

KwaZulu Natal province of South Africa.
The capital is Pietermaritzburg.

Ladysmith Airport [Ladysmith]
Pietermaritzburg Airport [Pietermaritzburg]
King Shaka International Airport [Durban]

The reserve provides a vital refuge for more than 250 endemic plant species and their associated fauna. It also holds almost all of the remaining subalpine and alpine vegetation in the KwaZulu-Natal province, including extensive high altitude wetlands above 2,750m. The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park has been identified as an Important Bird Area, and forms a critical part of the Lesotho Highlands Endemic Bird Area.

Maloti Drakensberg has had snow recorded on the summit throughout the year. It gets frosty! The winter months runs from May to September [low season] while the summer runs from October to April [high season]. The summer averages 22C [72F] while winter temperatures average 16C [61F].

English, Afrikaans and Zulu

Rand [ZAR]
US Dollars are not accepted.
Foreign exchange services are available in big cities and airports.

Mountain climbing
Hiking
SAN/Bushman rock art