Access roads to the Drakensberg
Altitude: 2540m
Last 8km are untarred road (from Witsieshoek), of this about 2km are paved and 6km dirt
High clearance recommended but not essential
Dedicated discussion thread for this road
Royal Natal (036) 438 6310
Altitude: 1600m
Good tar road with the odd pothole.
45km from Bergville
Mnweni Cultural Centre 072 275 0579
Altitude: 1280m
17km dirt road
35km from Bergville
Didima / Cathedral Peak Hotel (036) 488 8000
Altitude: 1400m / 1460m
Good tar road with the odd pothole.
45km from Winterton
Monks Cowl (036) 468 1103
Altitude: 1480m
Good tar road with the odd pothole.
33km from Winterton
Injisuthi (036) 431 9000
Altitude: 1450m
The last 5km to the gate are dirt. Half of that is decent dirt road, the other half is rather rough but should be manageable by all cars at a reasonable speed.
30km from Loskop
Giants Castle (036) 353 3718
Altitude: 1750m
The last 12km has been tarred and is in good condition.
Gate to the camp is 7km tarred, in good condition
Can be accessed from either Loskop, Mooi River (66km) or Nottingham Road, all are tarred with some very bad sections with lots of potholes
Highmoor (033) 267 7240
Altitude: 1990m
42km from Rosetta (50km from Nottingham Road), of which 30km tar road with lots of potholes, 8km good dirt road, and the last 4km from the gate to the camp is good tar road with the odd pothole.
Kamberg (033) 267 7251
Altitude: 1750m
The last 10km are decent dirt road
45km from Nottingham Road
Lotheni (033) 702 0540
Altitude: 1560m
46km of dirt road
76km from Nottingham Road
Mkhomazi (033) 266 6444
Altitude: 1570m
12km dirt road, accessed from Lotheni road. Dirt road has a few bad patches but is fine for all cars if driving slowly.
43km from Nottingham Road
Vergelegen (033) 702 0712
Altitude: 1520m
Partial dirt road, bad in sections. High clearance vehicle recommended for islands in the middle of the road.
35km from Himeville
Cobham (033) 702 0831
Altitude: 1640m
13km good dirt road from Himeville (graded and in good condition, update Oct 2022)
Garden Castle (033) 701 1823
Altitude: 1830m
Good tar road the whole way.
Accessed through Drakensberg Gardens
33km from Underberg
Bushmans Nek (033) 701 1823
Altitude: 1760m
32km good dirt road.
You can cut 5km dirt road off by taking the turnoff 10km further from Underberg
38km from Underberg
Other roads
Sani Pass
R74 - Sterkfontein road
Please post any missing info or corrections and I'll keep this post updated
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- Smurfatefrog
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I haven't been to Lotheni since the mid '90s but I just remember it being a long, long dirt road.
My Corsa bakkie made it comfortably to Vergelegen in June 2008, but it was a bit sketchy in places. Others in our group were in an old Corolla and also handled the tricky bits ok. I've heard it has since deteriorated. I imagine a high clearance vehicle is recommended now.
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High clearance definitely recommended for Vergelegen, but a normal car can still make it through (I wouldn't like to do that though). A lot of the problems have to do with a high island in the middle of the road.
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
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How things have gone backwards in a year (or 11 months to be exact since I last climbed Mt Amery, accessing via this road).
12 months ago (measured beginning of June 2014 during family holiday) they had 1.1km's of paving done. Now 1.8km's of paving. 700m in a full year.....5500m remaining (or at this pace, well... do the maths...)
The slow rate of paving is one thing, and something that has not bothered me at all if the rest of the road is at least graded (filled-graded) periodically.
But the rest of the road's condition is now absolutely atrocious. Using the same vehicle as last year, a sedan with decent ground clearance, we now barely made it without damage. Last year it required taking it slowly in only a couple of places.
My general perception on this project has made a complete 180 now. This is going nowhere, in fact it is going backwards, paving laid a year ago already shows signs of damage (It is a harsh environment, so I have some sympathy for the contractor, but zooming out from their particular performance to the performance of the project as a whole this one is not looking good).
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The Drakensberg, declared a World Heritage Site in 1999, is a beautiful, rugged mountain environment with a unique, fragile ecology. These attributes attract those who are keen to explore its natural wonders. It also attracts developers whose intentions, unfortunately, are often focused on self-enrichment at the expense of the environment. It has today become a matter of finding the correct balance between the two objectives. Considerable success has been achieved towards this goal through the creation of development nodes and acceptable policies determined by provincial government and conservation agencies.
But for conservation there's a lot more than can be done!
John Hone, Encounters With The Dragon
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
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From my side: Hindsight is off course a wonderful and handy thing, yet unfair to exercise perhaps, but I do wish they rather left the Sentinel road as it was: maintained as a C-gravel road. I recall driving up there with a 1-series BMW back in 2006, taking care along the way as the car was not blessed with decent ground clearance, but it managed. Right now there is NO WAY such a car will get even 200 meters from the (Witsieshoek/Sentinel) fork up the road.
@ Diverian, yes they do charge, R30 per person, it however includes the good road pass towards Witsieshoek, so perhaps justifiable to some extent (I'd say R10 per person would be OK). It may deter the graffiti artists a bit....
Off topic a bit, but we did enjoy a great Sunday lunch at Witsieshoek. The place is really starting to look up now.
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Personally, I'd rather the road was left in a poor state. I'm all for development where necessary but sometimes development just creates other problems. I overnighted up there about a month ago and when I came back down on the Sunday, was greeted by an almighty party happening in the car park. The sleeping quarters were being used as a kitchen to prepare braai meat. There were lots and I mean lots of beer cans and bottles strewn all over. People were drinking and chucking beer cans and bottles over the fence and the same were being discarded along the trail.
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They have also put in some promising work on drainage, both on the 2 sides of the road, and also by putting in ditches for the water to flow from inner side to outer side. These ditches though need you to slow down!
And, in some fairness to them, they can not and do not do work in the wetter summer months.
The bottom section, especially the first proper bend after the Witsieshoek turnoff has gotten really bad. I slowed right down in my Subaru Forrester to avoid hitting rocks. It is possible to drive down in a Honda Jazz at night but I was a passenger and was more asleep than awake at the time, so cannot provide the juicy details. Except that we did drive into one of the side ditches to dodge a rock and spent an hour jacking up the wheel and throwing rocks under it to escape.
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