Most Beautiful in the Drakensberg
Route: Up Ndumeni River Gorge
Distance: 11 km
Duration: 3 to 4 hours
Grade: Easy
General: This is a popular walk, and no wonder since it is one of the most beautiful in all the Drakensberg, and easy enough for even small children. It's also a photographer's delight, with the moving kaleidoscope of the stream, colourful fungi and leaf litter on the forest floor, rocks and intertwined roots, penumbral light through the forest canopy, and then the lace-like rainbows in the narrow gorge that give it its name. The path is easy to follow, but don't wear your best shoes, for at times you have to walk in the stream.
A Dazzling Display
You can start this walk either at Cathedral Peak Hotel (and no doubt from the new Didima Hotel as well), or the guard house at the base of Mike's Pass which is supposed to be the point of entry for this area, or even from the top of Tryme Hill should you wish.
This route starts at the old hotel, on the Ndumeni path, crossing a stream behind the hotel's parking area and turning sharp left. The river rises way up among the cliffs of the Castle Buttress near the Organ Pipes. After 500 m you come to a fork, where you must turn left to skirt Tryme Hill, go through tall grass and across numerous streams for about 3 km, the path taking a wide arc into the eNdumeni Valley.
Mike's Pass can be seen across the valley wending its brave way up through the cliffs opposite. The shiny little flying jewels that are collared sunbirds can sometimes be seen flitting round the proteas that grow between the isolated yellowwoods and other trees on the forest margin. Some of these trees are marked with their national tree list numbers, so don’t forget to take a tree guide.
The path comes upon an pool 1 km into the forest where a large boulder forces the water over to create two falls. From here on there are numerous stream crossings, each one marked by a line of stones - but they will be underwater and very slippery after rain. Once you enter the gorge, the path ends and you have to walk in the stream bed. This is where the sun creates, in the perpetual mist, a dazzling display of rainbows.