In a recent article, I described the road to nowhere (click here to read), that was the road leading up to the Sentinel car park. My focus was the area around Mont-Aux-Sources in the Drakensberg, and I highlighted how this car park made the Tugela Falls and the mountains around it that much more accessible to hikers. It has not always been that way.
Mont-Aux-Sources map (Barrier of Spears)
In the early days, hikers would come up from the Royal Natal National Park, cross over at the Basutu Gate, which is where the Witsieshoek Mountain Lodge is today, into the valley of the Elands River and then up Namahadi Pass. This was a 2 to 3 day trek. The trip was shortened by a path laid out by Walter Coventry. He was the lessee of the National Park hostel (later the hotel). This path would pick up from the Basutu Gate follow the ridge, past the Sentinel and up the Gully, which brought the hiker above the plateau of the Tugela Falls.
The path from the car park has seen some improvements over time. The Mountain Club cemented the initial stretch to the first section of the zig-zag. I don't know when that was, possibly in the 1970s. Further improvements have been made recently by Free State tourism, stabilising the path up the zig-zags and beyond using hollow bricks...
