the maloti-drakensberg mountains

"The Drakensberg, declared a World Heritage Site in 1999, is a beautiful, rugged mountain environment with a unique, fragile ecology. These attributes attract those who are keen to explore its natural wonders. It also attracts developers whose intentions, unfortunately, are often focused on self-enrichment at the expense of the environment.

It has today become a matter of finding the correct balance between the two objectives. Considerable success has been achieved towards this goal through the creation of development nodes and acceptable policies determined by provincial government and conservation agencies.

But for conservation there's a lot more than can be done!"

John Hone, Encounters With The Dragon

This site is an initiave by Vertical Endeavour, a community-driven website featuring mountains, with a special emphasis on the Maloti-Drakensberg region.

Vertical Endeavour commemorates all who have made a positive contribution towards sustainable development, preservation and better recognition of this region.

For further interaction with an active community interested in mountains, visit us at www.vertical-endeavour.com

"Over it all stands the Drakensberg itself, timeless, aloof, inscrutable,
but with a wild beauty of its own that tugs at the heartstrings.
It is a world of indescribable and ever-changing splendour,
a world of basalt giants that stand as sentinels on the roof of South Africa;
a world of unspoiled nature,
where the cry of the martial eagle breaks the silence of distant peaks,
where the thunder roars and winds shriek through lonely crags like dragons in torment;
where giant yellowwoods dream away their age-long sleep in hidden valleys,
and where man, in all his vast loneliness, can find himself."

RO Pearse, Barrier of Spears