guilbert's VirtualTourist Home Page

I have just come back from a wonderful holiday in South Africa, we flew to Johannesburgh and drove to the Central Drakensberg where my partner Reg and I spent 5 days hiking. We stayed at the Drakensberg Sun hotel, a great location with many local walks which include the Fern Forest, The Blue Grotto, Van Damm's Cascades and Steilberg. These walks can all be done without a guide and maps are provided by the hotel.

This enchanting spot is well worth a visit, it is situated just north of Cathkin Park Hotel on the slopes of the Little Berg. It is a lovely 2 hour walk

A three hour hike through indigenous forests with pools for swimming. An interesting variation is to visit the grave of Dick Barry, a pioneering climber who dies on Monks cowl in 1938. We combined this hike with the Fern Forest walk.

Cathedral peak is about 1 hours drive from the Drakensberg Sun, it has a lovely hotel where we enjoyed a leisurely lunch before starting our hike to the Rainbow Gorge, this hike starts with a very steep climb and covers some very boggy marshland, unfortunately we were unable to complete the hike as the river was in full flow and much too high to cross but we enjoyed what we did, there were great views. There are many hikes from here including Mushroom rock, Doreen Falls. Baboon Rock and Cathedral peak itself.

From Central Drakensberg we drove to the battlefields and stayed at Isandlwana Lodge which is situated on one of the most historically fascinating and visually stunning locations in Zululand. It nestles in the iNyoni Rocks escarpment just below where the Zulu commander stood during the famous victory over the British in 1879. It has 12 rooms each with stunning views across the sweep of the battlefields to the slopes of the hill itself, dotted with the low white cairns of painted rocks covering the men who fell during the battle.

At Isandlwana Lodge there is a resident historian named Robert Gerrard, he took us on the Battlefields tour, the morning covers the Battle of Isandlwana which took place in 1879 and was one of the greatest British defeats in history. The afternoon covers the Battle of Rorke's Drift, which took place on the 22/23rd January 1879, Rob has a gift of describing the battles which make you feel a part of it. This is a tour not to be missed

Staying at Shakaland is a cultural experience, overnight guests take part in the Shaka experience, the first part takes place at 16.00hrs on the day of arrival, followed by dinner and traditional dancing in the evening. The second part takes place at 10.00hrs the next morning. It gives you lan insight into the ways of the zulu, it includes layout of the traditional home, Greeting the home, Spear making, Stick fighting, Beer tasting, Zulu dress and traditional foods. We stayed 2 nights but one is enough to cover the cultural experience.

We had a great days hiking at Monks Cowl, maps are provided at the Rangers office and the paths are well marked. We covered the Sterkspruit falls, the pools, the Gorge and Nandi falls, also the Hiatikhulu Forest,a lovely day, the falls were spectacular as there had been a lot of rain but we had a glorious sunny day.