Getting to Mont Aux Sources took a 5-hour drive from a brown winter-lawned Joburg through some pretty unfetching landscape.

From A to B, but not in-between

Why is so much of travel in South Africa driving from A all the way to B, and skirting past mind-numbing, thank-God-I-don't-live-here places in-between the two?

We fled past frowning, plug-ugly towns that could hardly support a hairdresser's, let alone a burgeoning Goth movement for disaffected young people out of their minds with small town boredom. Check out Tim's pics!

Take a challenging hike with these package deals.

Thankfully, after about four hours, the landscape grew more purposeful, and our hearts quickened with the thought of arriving somewhere new and magic, somewhere... five hours drive from Joburg.

Camping Life

We stayed at the Royal Natal National Park (phew, what a mouthful) camp site, which was marvelous. Winsome green scenery, well-kept communal ablutions, and a charming lack of the usual music pounding, Klippies-swilling throwbacks you often find on the Highveld.

Tents were set up just in time before the rain poured down like a busted geyser. Rain was to become a recurring theme of our holiday.

Tugela Gorge

For day one, we decided to ease into it with the four-hour Tugela Gorge day-hike. The landscape is somewhat tame and arbitrary at first - a straight plodding path, plateaus of long grasses and the occasional boulder - but as you get nearer the gorge, it forests up nicely.

On your right are cascades of indigenous forest, with views of the giddyingly high mountains of the Amphitheatre to your left.

Edible Roof Insulation

Approaching the gorge, the landscape just gets better and better.

The forest grows ever lusher, and as you get closer to the foot of the mountains, you get a mouse-eye view of the Amphitheatre as it soars up and up above your head.

After rock-hopping over the stream at Devil's Hoek, we stopped for a snack, the traditional day-hiker's diet of Energade and Granola bars (which put me in mind of the taste of roof insulation; not that I've actually eaten roof insulation, mind you, but I feel fairly sure it would taste of Granola bar).

Cockney Slang

There are several landmarks on the trail, such as Policeman's Hemet, a mountain that looked more a boob to me. Ironic, as London Bobbies are sometimes known as ‘titheads' by South Londoners plying trades of ill repute.

After two hours of walking, a rainstorm slunk over the mountain tops and forced us to turn back, and miss out on the swim in the rock pools at the walk's end.

The thought of a picnic and swim beside these fetching pools had sustained us for the last few kilometers, but better safe than sorry. Mont Aux Sources awaited us the next day, and surely it would be a bright and shiny morning, as compensation?

Drive-Thru Hiking

Mont Aux Sources, the way we did it, is sort of cheating.

Instead of laboring up through the foothills, we drove there, along rough-shod, perilously high goat-roads to Sentinel Car Park, high up in the clouds, and right near the base of the chain ladder.

A tendon-stretching 3km zigzagging path that ploughs straight up for your parking is definitely the hardest part of the walk. Add buffeting wind and angled sleet, and you definitely feel far, far from Joburg... and your warm bed.

The Ladder

I'd climbed the chain ladder before - when I was seven. The intervening years and rigours of adulthood have left me a lot more fearful since I was then.

The ladder's 100 rungs' long, and each one takes a prayer and force of will to get up. Three-quarters of the way up, I made the mistake of looking down, and froze, my eyes clenched shut.

After some quiet crying and trembling of knees, I made it to the top and collapsed on the rock face, like a near-drowned swimmer on a beach.

The view is... beyond superlatives.

I suggest you see it at least once before you die. After many wordless moments of contemplation, and with me still thinking uncomfortably vivid thoughts about mortality, we climbed back down through the clouds, towards tea and biscuits.

Like New Zealand, but Not Quite

In summary, the Drakensberg Amphitheatre is majestic, but it lacks the truly regal variety of a New Zealand Palette.

You couldn't shoot Lord of the Rings here, but you could have a good crack at filming something a little smaller, like The Hobbit, for instance.

You can imagine Bilbo and the Dwarves hunched, while stoically labouring up the slopes to Mont Aux Sources.

Smaug the Dragon could definitely make a natty lair on the Devil's Tooth; a towering, vicious-looking fang of rock among the peaks of the Amphitheatre.

Gollum could be found lurking in Tugela Gorge, waiting to feed on hapless day-hikers. It is a magical place, something that would definitely flash before your eyes if you, say, fell off a chain ladder.

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