MZANZI ISSUE 16

Regional Feature
From sun-soaked beaches, impressive
mountains, midlands backroads, and wellloved
game reserves, KwaZulu-Natal is surely
South Africa’s province that has it all. Sure, as
a son of KwaZulu I may carry a rather slight
(read generous) bias, but I assure you that after
a couple of days in the province you won’t need
much convincing.
Land Rover South Africa gave me the challenge
to prove that their new Range Rover Evoque was
as versatile as they claimed it was and I thought
there’d be no better playground to put her to the
test. Along with a fellow travel journalist I set
out in style to take in a sample of what KwaZulu
has on offer.
Berg: Drakensberg
wonderland at The Cavern
‘Dearest, you cannot visualise it! This is not to be found
on paper or in words – it just gets you and you can feel
it’. These words were elegantly penned by Bill Carte to his
beloved Ruth in 1941. The letter was a heartfelt proposal
imploring Ruth to marry him and join him in South Africa,
a land that he’d fallen hopelessly in love with. Fortunately
for him, she said yes and moved to this new land, and so
The Cavern was birthed.
Bill was absolutely right when he said that trying to describe
the Drakensberg is no easy task. The magnificence of
these mountains has a profound way of silencing you,
reminding you of how small you are in this overwhelming
environment. South Africa’s most dramatic mountain
range has its origin in the Eastern Cape and then hurtles
northwards for almost 1,000 kilometres before finally
reaching its end in Limpopo.
The resulting great ridge of peaks inspires both its names:
Drakensberg meaning ‘dragon mountain’ in Afrikaans and
Quathlamba in isiZulu meaning ‘barrier of pointed spears’.
We decided to take the Evoque up one of SA’s highest roads
to The Sentinel. From this vantage point the legendary ‘Chain
Ladders Hike’ begins - a six-hour roundtrip to the top of the
Amphitheatre. A high clearance vehicle is needed for the
rollercoaster ride up, which the Evoque simply lapped up.
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