May 21st – Giant Castle National Park Having had the Drakensberg in clear view for the last few days, it was time to explore in more detail. Not in the least, because the lower part of the Drakensberg consists of sandstones, some of them cavernous, in which Bushmen – the San people, more properly – … Read more
Sebaayeni Cave In the Ndedema Gorge and River, part of the Cathedral Peak area of the Drakensberg, some 17 shelters have been identified with Bushmen paintings – San people paintings, really. Sebaayeni Cave is the most important site, with over a thousand individual images. Unfortunately, the photos are not very good, a combination of youthful … Read more
The Battle Cave, near the Injasuti camp in the Giant Castle area of the Drakensberg, has been so named because it is one of the rare places where San people – more commonly known as Bushmen – have painted what looks like a battle scene, with arrows flying in all directions. But there is lots … Read more
The Main Caves are one of the most accessible San rock art sites in the Drakensberg, an easy half hour walk from the nearest accommodation camp. The paintings are distributed overs several caves, and although weathering has taking its toll, many are still in good condition. I am afraid my photography at the time – … Read more
May 21st – the Homelands Today I drove from Fort Beaufort to Kokstad, with a detour via Queenstown and Ladygrey and Barkley East. A long drive, some 700 kms, but the detour turned out to be fully justified, by my first views of the Drakensberg. This is South Africa’s central mountain chain, and its highest, … Read more
The Garden Route is broadly defined as the area between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, which is really the southernmost part of the African continent. It is not so much because there are a lot of gardens here, but because the coast is a lot greener, compared to the mountains further north – thanks to … Read more
May 10th, 1991 – Cederberg Before my departure to Southern Africa I had written to the chief forester in the Cederberg area, in search of information about Bushmen paintings in the surroundings (remember this was long before the internet era, and long before universal email communication). He had enthusiastically replied, and told me to come … Read more
May 6th, 1991 – Upington I entered South Africa in the middle of the night. The luxury touring I boarded in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, came with “refreshments, hot and cold meals and videos”, which meant two small cartons of apple juice, a meal you had to order yourself in a grubby restaurant halfway, … Read more
