Hi everyone, I need assistance with details of the Drakensberg Contour Path, stretching from Cathedral Peak to Lotheni in the South. Its apparently a seven day trail distance 150km, and include all major peaks - Organ Pipes, Cathedral, monks Cowl, Giants Castle & Injisuthi, going through gray’s pass, and Bannerman’s pass etc. Im looking for route description and maps / coordinates to plot on the slingsby’s. if anyone has recommended sleeping spots, caves, and water point recommendations, it would be a great help. Appreciate more info. Thank you.
Hi @Martin . I can help with a link to the maps part of your query. The new Slingsby’s Maps for the Drakensberg are the only ones endorsed by KZN Wildlife. You’ll need all three in the series; North, Central and South. You can buy them here: Slingsby Maps Archives - Tracks4Africa.
All the best!
Hi Joshua. Thank you, but I have all the maps already. The problem is with missing detail, and warning of people that have walked parts of the contour path stating that it is badly maintained and some parts is overgrown (cannot be followed) due to deterioration. Have you done the whole contour paths of sections?
Also, the contour path only leads up, or rather down to Lotheni, and then there is no track over vergelegen down to the start of the Giants Cup trail. Any advice?
Ah I see. I have only done sections of the contour path and some are very tricky to navigate being severely overgrown. I don’t know the area between Lotheni and Cobham well at all, unfortunately.
Gavin Raubenheimer’s book on Drakensberg hiking/climbing could be super useful, especially for tackling very technical climbs such as Monks Cowl, see here.
That being said, if you are attempting to summit Monks Cowl (as opposed to just going around it), I would hope you are already very familiar with Drakensberg climbing - some of the routes up Monks Cowl are some of the most dangerous and technical in the berg.
On the contour path itself, I did a section of it in the Cathedral Peak area a couple months ago and it was downright miserable - severely overgrown, which is annoying in some areas but dangerous as you lose the path in and out of steep ravines.
Neggy nancies aside tho, the contour path is super beautiful, so good luck!