The eland, explained Sipelele, our young Zulu guide, was sacred to the nomadic San and Khoekhoe peoples who were once the main inhabitants and stewards of the Drakensberg region of South Africa. These indigenous artists created paintings on sandstone — in caves and on sheltered rock faces — that reflected the eland’s importance as a source of food and of spiritual power.

The paintings which we had driven three hours over indifferent roads and hiked an hour up a steep trail to see are often called the “Rosetta Stone” of southern African rock art, because in examining them scientists have learned a great deal about Khoekhoe culture and history. Located in Kamberg National Park, the paintings are protected by a deep overhang that shields them from the elements — and by a fence and a locked gate and a policy allowing only guided visits to the site. Sipelele, who leads this tour, told us that in the high season he sometimes makes the climb three times a day!

Getting there

It was a strenuous climb, especially for me. I’d arrived in South Africa a day earlier after 24 hours of travel, and I’d as yet had no time to adjust either to the time change or to the mile-plus altitude. It’s a long way from San Francisco to Johannesburg — or “Joburg,” as the locals call it — requiring two flights of roughly ten hours each, plus a short or long layover, depending on your route, and lots of movies! I arrived late in the evening, slept well, and in the morning Craig picked me up and we headed south.

We had three weeks in South Africa and had decided to spend our first few days exploring the Drakensberg area that borders Lesotho to the east. The region is dotted with national parks, and we were hoping to do a little hiking and get a feel for the area. I’m the planner in our family, so I laid out a route and made reservations — but without really understanding the distances involved or anticipating the fact that once you get off the highway you might encounter unpaved roads, serious potholes, wildlife crossings, walkers and hitchhikers, and dark, dark, dark after sunset. Still, the freeway that runs from Joburg to Durban is generally well maintained, and it turns out that Apple Maps navigation works extremely well both for finding one’s way and for estimating travel times in South Africa.

Aside from the trees, the landscapes in this part of the country reminded us very much of California. Driving the N3, we could almost imagine ourselves in the central valley… until we spotted a baboon making its way along the side of the road before slipping past the guardrail and down the slope. Not so much like California anymore! Then at a rest stop, we found three prides of lions in large enclosures and even a black panther, which we could pet (keeping our fingers well away from his biting end) through the wire fence.

ASIDE: What exactly is a black panther, you might wonder, as we did. Wikipedia, as usual, had the answer: a black panther is the “melanistic colour variant of any Panthera species.” So in Africa and Asia, black panthers are leopards; in the Americas, black panthers are jaguars. Their color variation can be an advantage; it occurs more frequently in forested environments where the dark cats blend in better with their surroundings. Wikipedia also notes what we observed: that the leopard’s usual pattern of spots is still visible in this dark coloration; it’s just more subtle. 

We spent that first night in Howick, because I had wanted to explore the Midlands Meander, a district where lots of artists and artisans have set up shop. But it turned out there wasn’t time for such lallygagging. If we were were going to make it to Kamberg in time to see the cave paintings and then get to our next stop before dark, we had to make tracks! I’ll spare you the specific challenges of these drives; suffice it to say, Craig got us to the pick-up point for our lodge with only minimal swearing (it was fully dark by that point). Driver Terence took us up the last four kilometers of road in his 4×4 pickup, and we were there: Greenfire Drakensberg Lodge! We were the only guests that first night, which was fortunate, since we were late for dinner.

At the lodge

We loved this lodge! It is relatively small — only seven chalets, each of which sleeps four or so — with a central lodge where excellent meals are served. A big fireplace, decks with glorious views out over the valley, cosy chalets with comfortable beds, and friendly and helpful staff all made this a great place to stay. But best of all was its remote location. This was getting away from it all with a vengeance!

When I booked this lodge, I was looking for something near Royal Natal National Park, which I had read was one of the best places for hiking in the Drakensberg. Especially appealing were the Tugela Falls, the highest in Africa, and I had envisioned an amazing day hike to see them. But it was not to be — not on this trip, at any rate. First, it was clear that running up and down the 4 km. track to our car was not going to be feasible. But more importantly, as Assistant Manager Jeremiah-was-a-bullfrog (that’s how Craig remembered his name!) explained, there had been no rain since April and the waterfall was not running. He suggested instead that we try the trail that leads up to a colony of endangered Cape vultures. It was a gorgeous day with no wind — quite unusual, he said — and perfect for this walk. So that’s what we did.

And it was a remarkable hike, a bit shorter than the previous day’s walk but considerably steeper — I don’t think the photos quite capture the verticality of this climb. (But take a look at the upper row of pictures: in the right-hand photo I’m standing in a green grassy area; this is the same patch of green that you can see near the top of the left-hand photo.) The last bit involved a scramble over rocks to the top, which was too scary for me.

Craig made it, though. He didn’t find the vulture colony, but we did see the birds wheeling and soaring over the valley. And we also saw (from a distance) herds of elands and even a secretary bird! This creature was so far away that even with my new camera I could capture only a fuzzy image (obviously, the below is not my picture!). But the outline was enough for Jeremiah to be able to identify the bird.

I had heard of secretary birds (or secretarybirds) but didn’t know much about them. They look like a cross between an eagle and a stork — a raptor body set atop strikingly long legs, with a crest of long black feathers at the back of the head. This crest, which reminded whoever named the bird of “the quill pens 19th century office workers used to tuck behind their ears,” is the source of their name. Counting the crest, secretary birds can stand more than four feet tall. Big birds!

Secretary birds are reluctant flyers. Instead of soaring above to scan for prey, they stalk through the grass, flushing out small animals. These they kill by stomping on them — or in the case of snakes, which are a favorite meal, by repeatedly throwing them into the air and letting them fall to earth or by grasping them with their toes and whacking them on the ground.

After two delightful nights at Greenfire (though, alas, with no further secretary bird sightings), Terence drove us back down the long, bumpy track to our car… and the next stage of our South African adventure. Stay tuned!

May we keep an eye out for the baboons along the freeway
and enjoy the insights offered by these unexpected encounters! 

Connections

• The Khoekhoe (sometimes spelled Khoikhoi) are linguistically related to the San (their language group is sometimes referred to as Koisan), but where the San were foragers, the Khoekhoe were herders (see Wikipedia: Khoikhoi.) I like this explanation of the confusion of names for these groups, which I’m quoting from one of the signs in the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg:

Newcomers to southern Africa found their own names for the people they encountered here. Ixam hunter-gatherers, met by incoming herders, were called Sonqua, meaning “those without cattle.” To sea-borne Dutch traders who landed on Africa’s southern shore in the 1600s, they were Boschjesmans, “men of the bush.”

The Dutch called the herders with whom they bartered for fresh meat Hottentots — after the strange clicking sounds of their complex language. They knew themselves as KhoeKhoe, meaning “men of men,” who owned cattle wealth.

• Learn more about the rock paintings in southern Africa: Nature (PBS): San Rock Art of the Drakensberg; see also Wikipedia: San rock art
• Wikipedia: Black panther
• Top Things To Do On The Midlands Meander (RhinoAfrica blog, 10/2/17)
• Greenfire Drakensberg Lodge
• Do you remember Three Dog Night’s 1971 hit “Joy to the World”? Listen to it on YouTube (oh, the mustache!) — and learn about its history: Jeremiah Was A… Bullfrog? Three Dog Night’s Accidental Hit ‘Joy To The World’ (Groovy History, 11/19/17)
• I wish I had taken that photo of the secretary bird you see here — but I didn’t. I borrowed it from Yoky [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], flipped it and added a border. You can see the original here. Learn more about secretary birds on Wikipedia or on the Kruger National Park site.

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