Inspired by all the images from the Norwegian mountain world lately, we traveled with the whole family to the Drakensberg mountains. I actually got to go with Graham on a long hike Amphitheater.

Drakensberg is a mighty mountain range, which winds like a "dragon's tail" 1000 km through all of South Africa. In KwaZulu-Natal, the mountains are at their highest. The Zulus call the mighty mountain range uKhahlamba which means: «Barrier spear pointing up ». In the Sesotho language it is called Maloti: «Beautiful". These descriptions say a lot about both the history and the landscape of the area.
The mountains are some of the oldest in the world. The history goes all the way back to when the earth consisted of one land mass: Gondwana. The oldest stone remains in Drakensberg are around 2000 million years old. There are several thousand cave paintings from the San people in this area between 100 and 000 years ago. This is also where one has found what one thinks is "The Missing link" in evolution, "Homo Naledi".
Beautiful Three Tree Hill
We stayed at beautiful Three Tree Hill Lodge and I would recommend staying for several days in a row, because here is a lot and experience! The lodge offers guided foot safaris in the Spionkop Game Reserve. It is exciting to follow a 2500kg rhino on foot, list through shoulder-high "lionesses" to get close to herds of antelopes and see giraffes curiously staring down at you from the tree crowns.
The lodge also offers mountain biking. There are many different trails in the area, on some trails you can also stop along the way to try your luck fishing for mountain trout. You can also take a ride on horses that know how to behave, regardless of whether you are an experienced rider or a beginner.
See travel suggestions for Drakensberg:
High and low in KwaZulu-Natal
- Active holiday in South Africa

The Dragon Mountains with Amphitheater
The hiking opportunities in the area are phenomenal, and a full day trip to the Amphitheater is certainly included. I even got Graham on a hike. The mountain peaks extend to over 3150 meters and form a semicircle. In the middle of the Amphitheater is Tugela Falls, the waterfall is the world's second highest waterfall with its 2 meters. In winter, there is no water in the waterfall, but in the rainy season from October to March the waterfall is at its best. It is now during the dry season that it is best to go hiking in the area, as it is not so hot and little water in the river allows you to explore the large caves that the water bodies have excavated.
There are marked trails and you get a nice map. The tour we chose was in low-lying terrain up to 1900 meters. For a Norwegian who is accustomed to a tree line of 1000 meters, it is special that part of the trail goes through ancient rainforest and extra exotic it is when you see herds of Eland on the road. Eland is Africa's largest antelope and they thrive in height.

The battlefield and a Norwegian mountain peak
A guided historical tour of the battlefields I would recommend, whether you are interested in history or not. In this area of South Africa, the great powers of the 1800th century war to the early 1900s. One of the most famous battles between the Boers (the Dutch) and the English was here at Spoinkop.
By the way, did you know that Spoinkop is the name of a 603 meter high mountain outside Narvik named in 1900 after the mountain of the same name in South Africa? Why did the battle of Spionkop inspire a Norwegian mountain to be named after it? Well, that story you will get an answer to by taking part in a guided tour of the battlefields at Drakensberg or you can ask me…
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