Drakensberg - growing commercialisation

Hi

This appeared in my Facebook feed from Berg Flying:

Berg Flying: Heli biking done by Rockslide Mountain Bike Tours and PYGA Industries,


I then commented and received a response as follows:

Me: Is that even legal? World Heritage site?

Berg Flying: Hi Richard, the bikers get dropped off on the part of the ridge which is outside
of the park, and their route goes along the boundary of the Amaswazi tribal land
and Culfargi, which is park of KZN Wildlife, however it is all done outside of the
KZN Wildlife areas. I hope this answers your question.

I would suggest that since the Red Bull sponsored GT record run, there has been new interest in using the Drakensberg as backdrop and location for extreme sports footage and commercial productions. The concern is how popular is it going to become, and will the people involved stick to the regulations.

There is currently a movement to "modernise" access to and create new facilities/use of the Drakensberg, with the Cable Car project, and what seems to be a renewed effort to promote the Drakensberg as an ideal extreme sports location. What other ideas are being worked on that could see the potentially radical transformation of this area.

Change is inevitable, it will be interesting to see what the future brings.

What is heli biking? Sounds silly to be honest.

My humble opinion is that this topic is not all negative. I guess we should call it progress. I think the problem is that we don't share the same mountain culture as e.g. in Europe. Hence the implimentation of regulations is what concerns me.

Do we have the manpower, skills or even willingness? More importantly, do officials actually care as much as users?


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Was it my imagination or at 2:12 did he actually touch the rock art? If he didn't touch it, his finger was very close to it.

I have no problem with inviting additional mountain sports to the Berg, provided they are managed and regulated properly. I have no problem with cycling if they stick to existing trails (not sure if bikes do more or less damage than human feet though).

As for the helicopter - it would appear that they are flying into another sovereign nation most likely without permission. While one can argue that this is no better than the hiker that crosses the border at least a dozen times on the Yodeler's Ridge highway, I would imagine that the presence of a helicopter makes this a serious issue.

Further to which - isn't it the Maloti/Drakensberg WHS, i.e. including parts of Lesotho?

Given the current state of our governments parksboard/rangers (not all of them) I doubt that rules and regulations will be upheld long term.

From my experience with the Drak gardens team, there is no enthusiasm and seems the job is just a means to an end aka payday.

When hiking in the area we report smuggler activity, hunting dogs or anything else that we come across. If not drunk when on duty the staff generally don't seem interested in the least and I have never myself seen any rangers on patrol in the area (even on public trails).

My two cents...

While more commercialisation will bring more funding and possibly hands on deck for maintenance and regulation control in the area I fear, as with most things in our country, enthusiasm for will wane and the eventual degradation that we see everywhere else will creep in.

How would this work and be sustainable?
My only thought would be that if communities such as ourselves were roped in and subsidised/sponsored to help with maintenance perhaps? Hell most of us would jump at the chance to get into the mountains and pay from our own pockets!

See where I'm going with this?

Silverthorne wrote: From my experience with the Drak gardens team, there is no enthusiasm and seems the job is just a means to an end aka payday.

I have always found the Garden Castle and Bushman's Nek guys (technically 1 nature reserve) to be by far the most enthusiastic EKZN officials. I have had many a long chat with them about some of their adventures in the mountains. They also tend to be very up to date with what's going on up there.

If my understanding is correct, every marked trail on the map is supposed to be checked once a week by EKZN officials - for rock art vandalisation, stranded hikers, locals movements etc. I know Garden Castle does actually do this, I seriously doubt the majority of other regions do.

Giants Castle on the other hand, I have seen more enthusiasm from a rock.

Re sightings of locals on top: I can understand their lack of interest - you are informing them that you walked into Lesotho and saw Basothos and that the Basothos had hunting dogs with them. Understand it from their perspective, it would be the equivalent of walking up to the car guard at a shopping centre and telling them that I walked into Checkers and saw bread on sale, the bread had a price tag on it. Basothos live in Lesotho, they use dogs to hunt in order to feed themselves. They have lived like this for hundreds of years, and have every right to continue to do this for the next few hundreds of years.

Out of interest - how did you know they were smugglers?

ghaznavid wrote:

Silverthorne wrote: From my experience with the Drak gardens team, there is no enthusiasm and seems the job is just a means to an end aka payday.

I have always found the Garden Castle and Bushman's Nek guys (technically 1 nature reserve) to be by far the most enthusiastic EKZN officials. I have had many a long chat with them about some of their adventures in the mountains. They also tend to be very up to date with what's going on up there.

If my understanding is correct, every marked trail on the map is supposed to be checked once a week by EKZN officials - for rock art vandalisation, stranded hikers, locals movements etc. I know Garden Castle does actually do this, I seriously doubt the majority of other regions do.

Giants Castle on the other hand, I have seen more enthusiasm from a rock.

Re sightings of locals on top: I can understand their lack of interest - you are informing them that you walked into Lesotho and saw Basothos and that the Basothos had hunting dogs with them. Understand it from their perspective, it would be the equivalent of walking up to the car guard at a shopping centre and telling them that I walked into Checkers and saw bread on sale, the bread had a price tag on it. Basothos live in Lesotho, they use dogs to hunt in order to feed themselves. They have lived like this for hundreds of years, and have every right to continue to do this for the next few hundreds of years.

Out of interest - how did you know they were smugglers?

Hi ghaznavid.

The hunting parties were on SA soil not on the escarpment or near it... This was on my last hike in July before the snow when we were in the mzimkhulu vally.

I've met with basothos and their hunting dogs on the escarpment (see my prof pic theres one behind me) we greated spoke what little we could and had one become our tour guide for a while. We gave them some cigarettes, R20 or so and my old water canteen, which they were thrilled with I didn't report these guys ofcourse

As for the smugglers. These guys use the Mzimkhulu valley to the bridge where a taxi collects and they head back. Signs of their packs (broken pieces), and the usual weaved reed and dagga here and there on the trail. Also candles in caves and fresh signs of fire.

We often sit with our backs to a rock and watch the valley talking nonsense. One occation we spotted what seemed to be two wite/beige dots moving down the valley. One of my friends shot up to get a better look (giving away our position with a nice silhouette) and immmediattley the dots dissapeared. (the old basotho blanket vanishing act).

*edit*

Just to be clear. My post started with the statement that this is my experience and not all the rangers are unenthusiastic.. There are guys doing their jobs. Kudos to them

One of the riders is Patrick Morwood of Morewood and now PYGA Industries, both bike manufacturing companies based in PMB.

As a keen mountain biker and downhill rider, I would love to see more trails in certain parts of the berg for mountain bikers, and love both past times equally. Previously forested land is already disturbed, and is often near to existing nodes of development e.g. within the Cathedral Hotel and Champagne Sports Valley. I would say these would be good spots for trial mtb trails.

Properly built and maintained mtb and dh tracks can last for a long time, and with the correct draining and other properly created features, would also not cause erosion issues.

I would say that the berg is going to become the location for more of these type of activities, just not sure how they are going to be policed. There might also be legal issues within the park ito accidents and recovery. When you hit something hard with speed, it usually results in something broken...not usually the bike!

So I came across this on Facebook and it raised my concerns for several reasons.

www.rockslidemtb.co.za/

They provide mountain bike tours in the berg and although they don't give specifics on their routes it sounds like their overnight tours take place on the escarpment and possibly within the boundaries of the world heritage site. They also provide a service where riders can be dropped off in remote areas with a helicopter.

My concerns are:
1. Is "helicopter centered" tourism seeing an increase in the berg? Is it legal, are there limits on their use over a world heritage site and in a wilderness area?
2. I'm a weekend mountain biker and I have seen the potential negative effects mountain bikes can have on trail degradation. Is there any Ezemvelo KZN policy on the use of mountain bikes inside the park?

I'm not proposing a total ban on helicopters and mountain bikes in the berg but I'd be interested in what others think on the subject and whether there are any existing policies on their use in the wilderness area.

Also in the promo video, it looks like one of the guys is touching some rock art! That is not good.

Heli-Biking never really caught on in the Alps, perhaps because there are so many other cheaper and easier options for up-lifts. However in the Berg it could be different? It is important that there are restricted and limited official landing sites and that the trails used for the descent are carefully maintained.
Mountain bikes are here to stay; and helicopters are a necessary evil needed in case of emergency.