Drakensberg Walking Tour

Magnificent landscape and challenging hikes. This is definitely a challenging itinerary; however, the views are worth it. We experienced outstanding service and flexibility that ensured we were able to fully enjoy our hiking adventure in the Drakensburg.

Trip turned out to be different to trip notes. Trip notes mention limited luggage storage from hiking day 3 to hiking day 5. It turned out no luggage transfer at all and I ended up trying to carry everything I would need for 3 days in my 24 litre day pack. If we were told about this, I would have prepared a bigger day pack and prepared differently.

The hikes were great, the accommodation was fine, the transfers worked, but the description of the trip is in need of an update. Firstly, the National Park entrance fee, mentioned on the last hiking day, is 120 Rand per person, not 30 (if you are an Australian). You will also need to pay this on the first hiking day if you decide not to do the return leg back to the Cavern. The write-up mentions day 4 as being strenuous, but actually this was the easiest of the first 4 hiking days that involved ascents. The "Big 5" hike on day 2 was the most strenuous, with 18km and close to 1000m ascent in total, and a scramble up a gully. On the first hiking day, on the guides advice, we did not return to the Cavern, but did some exploring around the Grotto and then walked down to the National Park. There is another option to do a circular route back to The Cavern via the Hole in the Wall track which the guide said we were capable of doing, but we had booked the return transport from the National Park. It should be mentioned explicitly in the notes that on the 3rd hiking day you will need to pack and carry whatever you need for the day 3,4,5 hikes and the 2 night stay in between. Day 3 is a 700m ascent. The reason given for the need to carry the extra gear is "lack of storage space" in the small hotel, but the real reason is that while the hike between the 2 hotels is 14km, driving takes over 120km, so logistics are difficult. The last hiking day is a 700m descent and our guide took us down via The Crack route which involved ladders. We were down in less than 3 hrs, because the guide had other work in the afternoon. The guides as The Cavern were great. The guide on days 4,5 was so-so. He spent most of the time on day 4 chatting to a couple of young girls that joined the walk, but the track was so easy we really didn't need his services anyway.