DRAKENSBERG, SOUTH AFRICA

SOUTH AFRICA’S MOST popular walking area rarely features on British radars. Trips to the country tend to focus on safaris and big game. And that’s a shame, because the 1000km span of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg mountains is enough to send any traveller into rapture.

The dual names reflect the poetic powers of two communities: the Zulu name uKhahlamba means ‘barrier of spears’, while the Afrikaans Drakensberg means ‘dragon’s back’. Either works.

On the border with Lesotho, the mountainous escarpment of the Maloti-Drakensberg Park sweeps in a 200km arc, the equivalent of the Lake District bursting beyond its boundary all the way to the Yorkshire coast. Except that these mountains are taller. Much taller. Thaba Ntlenyama peaks at 3482m, three times that of Scafell Pike. You would have to head north as far as Kilimanjaro to find a higher summit.

The Drakensberg peaks are packed with basalt buttresses, sheer cliffs and sandstone outcrops. Steep river valleys plunge into rocky gorges, Cape and bearded vultures soar ominously on thermals above, while 665 caves serve as galleries for more than 35,000 rock art paintings by the San people, who lived in this area for over 4000 years.

In the northern region, The Amphitheatre is an unmissable sight: an epic curtain of rock, 5km long and up to 1000m high. Bold walkers can scale a chain ladder to gaze over the escarpment from the top.

Perhaps best of the lot is the sight of Cathedral Peak, reached after a challenging 10km walk from the hotel that shares its name – a walk that is rewarded by jaw-dropping panoramas in all directions.