Walk to Cannibal Cavern

With a local mountain guide, descendant of the original cannibals, leading the way and sharing his intimate knowledge of the area with us, we made full use of the glorious sunshine which greeted us on our last morning at The Cavern after the snow fall the day before, to hike up to the infamous Cannibal Cavern. Despite huffing and puffing due to our lack of fitness and the altitude of 1500m above sea level, and the crisp snow-chilled air biting the back of our throats, we revelled in the spectacular scenery of snow covered peaks, dramatic cloudscapes, pockets of evergreen forest, dry grassland and scattered sugarbush covered slopes with patches of melting snow, as well as sweeping views down the valley.

This was a moderate long walk of about 2½ hours, with a long gentle climb and then some fairly steep sections approaching the cavern, and downhill all the way back. We unfortunately did not have time to return via Surprise Ridge which gives one panoramic views of the Amphitheater,  shrouded in cloud on this particular day anyway.

On tour for African Insight - August 2011
Overland tour with the van der Lee family from the Netherlands.

The Legend of Cannibal Cavern
"In the early 1800s, King Shaka started fighting to get more land for his people. Tribes that he chased off their land had to flee into uninhabited places. This happened to the Amazizi tribe and the only place they found safety was in a huge cave in the Drakensberg mountains which we now call Cannibal Cavern. Fierce fighting outside forced them to stay in the cave from about 1815 until 1828 and when starvation set in, they were forced to eat the bodies of those who had died. This lead to their tribal name - amazimo is the Zulu word for cannibal. When the troubles finally ended, they moved down to the flat lands below and resumed normal life. Many people working at The Cavern today are 7th generation descendants of the original cannibals." - The Cavern activities brochure

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