I ♥ Kamberg Because ...

I ♥ Kamberg

Hi, I’m Gerhard from Qambathi Mountain Lodge in Kamberg.

Kamberg IS BEST KNOWN FOR its Bushman Rock Art, fly-fishing and breath­tak­ing moun­tain scenery.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Highmoor or on one of our game drives with Giant’s Castle in the back­ground. The views are really some­thing spe­cial with Mount Eskirne and Mount Cleopatra very dom­in­ant every­where you look.

THE BEST nature PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN by just driv­ing around Kamberg. There are so many treed lanes, wild flowers, cloud shapes and Berg views for that per­fect picture.

OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT the trout dams or at the Bushman Rock art which is the best pre­served in the coun­try. Continued

Guitar legends reunite for Splashy Fen 2011

Splashy Fen 2011

Collectively known as The Aquarian Quartet, acous­tic gui­tar maes­tros Steve Newman, Tony Cox, Syd Kitchen and Greg Georgiades are set to reunite after a break of six years for a spe­cial per­form­ance at next year’s Splashy Fen Music Festival in the Drakensberg over the Easter week­end from April 21 to 25. In the his­tory of South African gui­tar greats there has never been a group­ing quite as music­ally super­charged as The Aquarian Quartet, with all four mem­bers regarded as among the most invent­ive and skilled gui­tar­ists that the coun­try has ever pro­duced ... Continued

Comedy comes to White Mountain from 23 to 26 September!

Comdy at White Mountain

A stable of top stand-up comedi­ans from the Durban School of Comedy will be head­ing for the Drakensberg later this month to per­form at the annual White Mountain Festival near Giant’s Castle from September 23 to 26.

Included on the bill for the daily com­edy hour are Glen Bo, Neil Green, Dusty Rich, Gareth Woods, Paul Cowan, Tharuna Devchand, Duncan Whithers and Jem Atkins, with a guest appear­ance by Johannesburg musical comedian, Deep Fried Man.  Comedic styles range from tra­di­tional stand-up with a darker edge to quirky, impres­sion­istic and anec­dotal ... Continued

Vusi Mahlasela confirmed for White Mountain 2010

One of South Africa’s most cel­eb­rated musi­cians, Vusi Mahlasela is set to enthrall audi­ences at this year’s White Mountain Festival, com­ing up over the Heritage Day long week­end from 23–26 September at White Mountain Lodge near Giant’s Castle in the Central Drakensberg.

With a sound that is a hybrid of folk, world, blues and soul, Mahlasela is an accom­plished singer-songwriter, gui­tar­ist, per­cus­sion­ist, com­poser and arranger, whose music has bridged gen­er­a­tions both at home and abroad.  Renowned for his dis­tinct, power­ful voice and poetic, optim­istic lyr­ics, he has per­formed along­side the likes of Alicia Keys, Dave Matthews, Josh Groban and Angelique Kidjo at shows that include Nelson Mandela’s 90^th birth­day cel­eb­ra­tion in London’s Hyde Park and, most recently, the 2010 FIFA World Cup Kick-off Concert in Soweto. Continued

The Drakensberg Lifestyle Resort — a review

Drakensberg Sun

Going on hol­i­day as a fam­ily of four is a rare and often expens­ive treat these days. And with two chil­dren under seven, a hol­i­day is rarely a holiday!

I grew up in KwaZulu Natal Natal and the majestic moun­tains of the Drakensberg were always a wel­come refuge for us.  But liv­ing in Cape Town, the ‘Berg’ as it is fondly known, is hardly con­sidered a local hol­i­day des­tin­a­tion! However, when one has fam­ily in Natal, as we do, a visit to Granny can often be com­bined with a few days res­pite in the Berg. And so it was for us dur­ing the school hol­i­days of April 2010 ... Continued

Border hopping on Horseback

One of my ‘must-dos’ when I star­ted trav­el­ling in South Africa was to exper­i­ence the wild moun­tain ter­rain of the Drakensberg. The only thing put­ting me off was that hik­ing up peaks soun­ded like extremely hard work, so when the oppor­tun­ity presen­ted itself to explore on horse­back it seemed like the per­fect answer. I booked a 3 day ride out­ride with the highly recom­men­ded Khotso Horse Trails in Underberg in nervous anti­cip­a­tion. Will the horses be safe? Will the guides know what they are doing? All the usual fears that nag ahead of an adven­tur­ous expedition.

My mind was put at rest as soon as I met Steve Black who owns the horse trails as he explained that Khotso means ‘Peace’ in Sesotho. As he drove me through the beau­ti­ful KwaZulu Natal Midlands, trees gil­ded with autumn col­ours, I could already feel myself unwind­ing from the fren­etic pace of Durban. We arrived in Underberg in the late after­noon to a refresh­ingly cooler cli­mate than the coast. At 1,500m above sea-level Underberg is the height of many European ski resorts and on this April even­ing there was a def­in­ite nip in the air ... Continued

Peaks, Valleys and Champagne ... in the Drakensberg

One of my favour­ite hol­i­day spots is the Drakensberg in KwaZulu Natal. Don’t get me wrong, I love the beach and there is noth­ing bet­ter than an early morn­ing swim in the Indian Ocean, but the Drakensberg offers just as good a hol­i­day and there is no need to watch out for jelly­fish and sand in your sarmies! Continued

Visit the Drakensberg

The Drakensberg moun­tain range, trans­lated from Dutch as Dragon’s Mountains, is the most extens­ive in South Africa, span­ning a dis­tance of around 1000m, and boasts the highest peak in Southern Africa, Thabana Ntlenyana, at 3482m in height. This par­tic­u­lar peak was named by the Lesotho people, and means “nice little moun­tain” in SeSotho, how­ever, there are many other fam­ous peaks within the range, includ­ing Cathedral Peak, Giant’s Castle, and other mys­ter­i­ously named and majestic peaks ... Continued

New Photographs of South Africa

Thanks to every­body that has taken the trouble to sub­mit pho­to­graphs to us. We've selec­ted some of them to dis­play at South Africa Photographs, July 2009. We'll be upload­ing more as they come in. Please keep them com­ing! We par­tic­u­larly liked this one that came in today taken in the Drakensberg, KwaZulu Natal ... Continued

Take in the majestic Drakensberg at Tamakwa

Tamakwa Country Lodge

Joshua and Gabby are two lov­ing golden Labradors who are likely to give you an effus­ive greet­ing at the four-star Tamakwa Country Lodge nestled in Rosetta, above a scenic river walk with a strik­ing view of the majestic Drakensberg. The lodge offers lux­ury bed and break­fast accom­mod­a­tion with com­fort­able cot­tage ambi­ence, a lovely log fire and spec­tac­u­lar views from beau­ti­fully appoin­ted verandas.

We stayed in the pristine two bed­room Lavender Cottage sur­roun­ded by blue pan­sies and sat, in the late after­noon on the ver­andah gaz­ing down at the pink brush which hides the delight­ful river­side walk. Trout fish­ing can be arranged, but it was a little chilly to start mess­ing around by the river.

Our cot­tage was beau­ti­fully looked after and lacked for noth­ing. Tamakwa also fea­tures a hid­den treas­ure as far as fab­ulous food is con­cerned, in the shape of young chef Jonathan Crawford who cre­ates a daily four course set menu at The Rose res­taur­ant set within the main lodge and also open to those not stay­ing at the lodge. Continued