South Africa Off the Beaten Path Tips by geanster

It's this beautiful place with crazy rocks jutting out over nothing and waterfalls, and abseiling. Many of my friends did the jump. It looked awesome though! On the drive around the gorge, Ron threw on the brakes and jumped out to watch a Puff Adder slither across the road. It was rather small, but they're supposed to be very poisonous. I couldn't get quite as comforatable walking through the weeds after that. Where there's one, there's more. That's my motto.

There was one ledge we were all standing on and someone walked over to another vantage point and said, "wait till you see what you're standing on." We eventually made it to where he was and saw that there was nothing under us at all!

..."Take the Harding road from Port Shepstone, turn right to the Oribi Gorge (only 12 kilometers from Port Shepstone) and prepare for some breathtaking scenery and high adventure. The Oribi Gorge was formed over millions of years as the Mzimkulwana river flowed over the flat land surface and picked out fractures in the rock, gradually eroding them away and cutting deep into the earth's crust.

At the base of the cliffs there are rocks over 1000 million years old while the cliffs themselves are formed from sandstone deposited about 365 million years ago. The nature reserve is situated in the gorge, which is approximately 27 kilometers long and up to one kilometer at its widest point, and is administered by the KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service.

Due to its inaccessibility, the gorge has remained virtually untouched by man and has more than 500 plant species. It contains a wealth of semi-deciduous forests criss-crossed with antelope paths, and is home to 255 bird species and numerous small mammals including vervet and the rare samango monkeys.

For the more extreme adventures, the gorge offers the world's highest abseiling site, and in the rainy season (November to April) the river provides whitewater rafters with an adrenalin rush second to none."

Leave a Comment

Phone: 039 679 1644
Website: http://www.kznwildlife.com/oribi_dest.htm

I didn't take the time to hike these mountains but the friends of mine who did really enjoyed it. We did drive through the area and took some lovely photo's like the one I've attached. We stopped and had brunch at a little hotel in the area called Little Switzerland and soaked in the view. I have a restaurant tip for it if you'd like to find the contact information for it.

The hiking is supposed to be amazing as well as the bird-watching if you're into that. I will definitely try to spend more time there my next time around. The following excerpt comes from the very detailed and helpful website I gave the link for below...

"The Drakensberg mountains of South Africa or uKhahlamba (the Barrier of Spears) is a 200-kilometre-long mountainous wonderland and world heritage site. The largest proportion of the South African component of this area falls in the kingdom of KwaZulu-Natal."

Leave a Comment

Website: http://drakensberg.kzn.org.za/drakensberg/