Category Archives: uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park

Our experiences in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, South Africa

Drakensberg Malachite

Chlorolestes draconicus

Occurring along sunlit, rocky, high-altitude mountain streams flowing through forested and other densely vegetated habitats, the Drakensberg Malachite is a beautiful damselfly that is found only in the Drakensberg Mountain Range along South Africa’s border with Lesotho – as most of its distribution falls within the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, the IUCN considers the species to be of least concern. Nymphs live under water on rocks and roots, the eggs having been laid on vegetation overhanging the water and the larvae then dropping into the stream below after hatching. Both adults and nymphs feed on insects.

Drakensberg Malachite

Autumn Highlands Holidays – uKhahlamba Drakensberg

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After kicking off at Glen Reenen in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, the next destination on our Autumn Highlands Holidays itinerary was the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park in Kwazulu-Natal Province – we planned to spend five nights at Thendele in the Royal Natal National Park followed by five nights at the Giant’s Castle Game Reserve.

The Drakensberg is a favourite destination for many South Africans (like us!) and international visitors alike – with such magnificent scenery and diverse activities on offer to enjoy the great outdoors it is easy to understand why! We’ve already shown off the beauty of the Amphitheatre and the Cascades but the Drakensberg has so much more to see – just look:!

Moss and ferns growing on rocks in a forest at Thendele

View northwards from behind Thendele

Mahai stream

Moss and ferns growing on rocks in a forest at Thendele

Dooley Mountain

A quiet pool on the Mahai stream

Plowman’s Kop

View towards Devil’s Hoek from below Thendele

Looking towards Thendele from the Tugela Gorge trail

Tugela River

Policeman’s Helmet

Royal Natal scenery – a wider view of the Policeman’s Helmet

Royal Natal – Dooley Mountain

Small falls in Fairy Glen

Looking from Thendele towards Mahai

One would expect that any plants occurring in the often difficult climatic conditions of the Drakensberg would be very tough and hardy – and they are, but that doesn’t mean the plants found here are any less pretty than those found in more tropical climes! We’ll be showcasing a few of them in more detail in the coming weeks.

Moss growing on the trunk of a Real Yellowwood (Podocarpus latifolius) tree in the forest at Thendele

River Lily

Beautiful Drakensberg flowers

Highveld Cabbage Tree

Grassplume in the wind

Beautiful Drakensberg flowers

Drakensberg flowers

Highveld Cabbage Trees

Various kinds of ferns adorn the trails in Royal Natal

Common Tree Ferns

Common Tree Fern

River Lilies

Beautiful Drakensberg flowers

Common Sugarbush

Common Sugarbush dot a hillside below Thendele in Royal Natal National Park

The number of invertebrates that find a home in these harsh highland habitats always astounds me – there are interesting insects and spiders to be found almost everywhere you look! You can look forward to new posts featuring a few of these in the coming weeks as well!

Unidentified large moth

Male Giant Mantis / Common Green Mantis

African Grass Blue butterfly

Common Blue (Leptotes sp)

Julia Skimmer Dragonfly (immature)

Golden Orb-web Spider

Rainforest Brown butterfly

Common Hottentot Skipper (males)

Common Blue (Leptotes sp)

Cupreous Blue butterfly

Gaudy Commodore butterfly (dry season form)

Drakensberg Malachite

Pea Blue butterflies

Orb-web Spider

Highland Dropwing Dragonfly

Jaunty Dropwing Dragonfly

Gold-spotted Sylph butterfly

Water Bronze butterfly

Drakensberg Malachite

Rainforest Brown butterfly

Unidentified kind of spider

Do you still remember the great fun Joubert had photographing the guineafowls in Thendele? They’re just one of 83 species of birds we managed to identify during our time in “The ‘Berg” – here’s a few more of the feathered inhabitants of the Royal Natal section of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park and some of them will soon feature in their own posts here at de Wets Wild.

African Olive Pigeon

Familiar Chat

Fiscal Flycatcher

Southern Black Flycatcher

Cape Wagtail

Olive Thrush

Speckled Mousebird

African Black Duck

Black-headed Heron

Cape Robin-Chat

Cape White-eye

Chorister Robin-Chat

Common Moorhen

Dark-capped Bulbul

Egyptian Geese in flight

Male Greater Double-collared Sunbird

Hadeda Ibis

Helmeted Guineafowl youngsters

Little Grebe chick

Red-collared Widowbird

Southern Boubou

White-necked Raven

White-rumped Swift

African Dusky Flycatcher

Brimstone Canary

Black Cuckooshrike Male

Golden-breasted Bunting

Lazy Cisticola

Male Southern Double-collared Sunbird (male)

Jackal Buzzard in flight over Thendele

Levaillant’s Cisticola

Male Pin-tailed Whydah (lost the trailing feathers somehow)

Verreaux’s Eagle in flight over Thendele

Spotted Eagle Owl

Cape Rock Thrush (female)

Cape White-eye

Greater Striped Swallow

Tawny-flanked Prinia

We didn’t expect to find a pair of Southern Ground Hornbills roaming the grasslands in the rain at Rugged Glen!

We’ve already shown you some of the amphibians we found at Mahai, but Royal Natal is also home to many other kinds of four-footed creatures, both cold- and warm blooded.

Baboons grooming

Baboon posing for a photo

Female baboon with baby

Cape Grey Mongoose

Bushbuck ewe with unwelcome visitors

Bushbuck ewe in hiding

Common Duiker

Rock Hyrax, or Dassie

Southern Rock Agama

Red-sided Skink

Speckled Rock Skink

Thendele is the only accommodation option in the Royal Natal National Park (campers can set up their caravans and tents at Mahai or Rugged Glen) and is built in two sections – the older Lower Camp and the newer Upper Camp. All units have lovely views of the Amphitheatre, but those units in the Upper Camp are more spacious and has more privacy. On this trip however we stayed in unit 12, a 2-bedroomed chalet in the Lower Camp, for 5 nights, and had no reason for complaint – everything was in good working order and it was a very comfortable place to rest after a day exploring the scenic splendour on offer at Royal Natal.

Thendele Cottage #12, Royal Natal National Park, March 2019

Mist settling in at Thendele as we depart for Giant’s Castle

From Thendele we departed for Giant’s Castle, further south into the Drakensberg range, on the 26th of March. We were booked to stay at Giant’s Castle for 5 nights as well, but due to me feeling quite unwell we opted to return to Pretoria after just one night there. Unfortunately this meant that we left Giant’s Castle with very few photographs, but that’s a good excuse to return soon we think!

Gate into Giant’s Castle Reserve

Giant’s Castle, Unit 7, uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, March 2019

View from unit 7 at Giant’s Castle

Large moth of an unidentified species

Cape White-eye

Olive Woodpecker

Baboon on a wet thatch roof at Giant’s Castle

Rock Hyrax, or Dassie

Highveld Cabbage Trees forming a focal point in a wooded cluster of trees at Giant’s Castle

The Royal Natal National Park and Giant’s Castle Game Reserve are our two favourite destinations in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park. Both of these places can be booked through Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.

Location of Royal Natal and Giant’s Castle (drawn with Google Maps)

Autumn Highlands Holidays – Frogging at Mahai

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We recently started nurturing more than a passing interest in South Africa’s different kinds of amphibians, adding another fascinating facet to our enjoyment of our natural heritage. When we visited the Royal Natal National Park in March the trout dam at Mahai proved an excellent spot to go looking for frogs and toads, and other aquatic life, as soon as darkness fell.

(Look out for a special feature post about the Common River Frog to be published here in early June, and follow the links for more on the Painted Reed Frog and Raucous Toad in the meantime)

Common River Frog

Painted Reed Frog

Raucous Toad

Freshwater Crab

By day, the dam at Mahai is a favourite spot for a quiet picnic. We also saw a few trout fisherman achieving success with their rods.

Mahai Dam

The Amphitheatre from Mahai Dam

Tranquility at the Mahai Dam

Autumn Highland Holidays – Royal Natal’s Cascades

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While the Amphitheatre, which we showed you a few days ago, certainly is Royal Natal’s most awe-inspiring feature, there’s another spot in the Park that few visitors do not spend some time at, and that is The Cascades – a beautiful stretch of the Mahai stream where the water drops over, around and even through some large rocky barriers, just a few minutes walk from the camping area. The rock pools are a delight for people old and young to cool of weary feet and bodies after a tough day’s hiking.

The Cascades

At the Cascades in Royal Natal National Park

Autumn Highlands Holidays – All Eyes on the Amphitheatre

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At Royal Natal in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, there’s one spectacular natural feature that stands out above all the rest, literally and figuratively, and that is the amazing Amphitheatre – a wall of rock 5km wide with its highest peak, the Sentinel, towering over 1,800m above the Tugela River flowing in the valley below and 3,165m above sea level!

On our first day, the Ampitheatre was completely shrouded in clouds

Still heavy skies on the 2nd day, but they lifted the veil a little

Drakensberg Amphitheatre seen from Thendele in the Royal Natal National Park, 23 March 2019

The Eastern Buttress of the Amphitheatre

Sentinel Peak

Walking in Royal Natal

The Amphitheatre from the Tugela Gorge walk

The Amphitheatre from behind Thendele

The Amphitheatre from Thendele

The Amphitheatre from unit 12 at Thendele

The Amphitheatre

Tugela River

Iconic Royal Natal

The Amphitheatre from the Tugela River

The Amphitheatre from Mahai Visitor Centre

The Amphitheatre from Fairy Glen walk

The Amphitheatre from Mahai Dam

A Wet Welcome to Giant’s Castle

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We’ve arrived to a wet, cloudy and cool welcome at the final destination of our autumn holidays in the Drakensberg: The Giant’s Castle Game Reserve in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park.

Gate into Giant’s Castle Reserve

Giant’s Castle, Unit 7, uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, March 2019

View from unit 7 at Giant’s Castle

Fun in the Mountains!

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We’re still enjoying our holiday in the Drakensberg very much, and it seems we’re not the only ones taking a break!

Iconic Royal Natal

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Beautiful early morning sunshine illuminates the Amphitheatre formation here in Royal Natal National Park, with the Tugela River in the foreground.

Joubert’s photographic study of Thendele’s Guineafowl

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This afternoon we were relaxing on the veranda of our cottage here at Thendele in the Royal Natal National Park, when a flock of Helmeted Guineafowl came around for a visit, presenting Joubert with an excellent opportunity to practice some close-up bird photography – and with great success I might add!