Saturday, August 28, 2010

uKhahlamba - The Barrier of the Spears

The Zulus call these mountains uKhahlamba - The Barrier of the Spears, though in the atlas they bear a more recent Afrikaans name - Drakensberg - Dragon Mountains. 

A very kind Piano Teacher from one of the local schools here lent me a book - "A Photographer's passion for The Drakensberg - Encounters with the Dragon".

Such are the quality of the photographs {the selection below is a just that - a selection!} and the definition of my digi-camera that I thought the best thing to do would be to post these and let you look at your leisure. You'll have to forgive the obvious 'book creases' etc but it's the thought that counts!

Unfortunately I won't be able to visit this area on this current trip, but Sarah Wolff {the teacher} comes from this part of the country, and was keen to share its beauty. 

  One thing that has become extremely obvious whilst spending 5 weeks 'locked' in Johannesburg is that there are HUGE tracts of wild land largely untouched by the regular daily footprint of man. This country [South Africa] is FOUR times the size of the UK with roughly 2/3rds the population - you can guess the rest. So here is just a taste of what you probably never thought might be found in South Africa!!?? 

I've posted some of the opening quotes from the book too . . . . enjoy! 
Apologies about some photos being wrong orientation - time is not on my side, so you'll just have to turn your head or the computer :-) {forgive formatting from Wiki cut & paste too!}
The range is located in the eastern part of Southern Africa, running for some 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) from south-west to north-east. The mountains drain on the western slopes by the Orange and Vaal rivers, and on the east and south by a number of smaller rivers, the TugelaKwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa and the Drakensberg mountain kingdom of Lesotho being the largest. Looming over the nearby coast of Natal the range covers the border between KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa and the Drakensberg mountain kingdom of Lesotho.

































































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