What has been achieved is remarkable and gives us great hope for the future. While there will always be worries and niggles, we can forget these for a short while when we do something really valuable. On Saturday we made a huge contribution and difference by taking time and ultimately investing in our children. A […]
As a young child, many family holidays were spent celebrating a busy, active and happy 2 weeks at The Cavern Resort. Unfortunately my parents decided to join the caravan brigade, so trips to the beach and other Drakensberg resorts with camping options were visited. Then in the early 90’s, as we moved into our teens,
I’m a hiking addict – I simply cannot say no to an invitation to walk in the mountains. So when a friend offered to fly me to the Drakensberg to test walk the 17km Big Five Hike, which she’s persuaded a group of friends to do in order to raise funds for a rural pre-school,
Our grandmother, Ruth Carte, has always been held in quite high esteem by her grandchildren. She was a very determined woman but was also very private and at times quite reserved. She had a family to support and many folk who depended on her and since she was in hospitality she just had to make
The recently published Cavern Entertainment and Hikes Guide lists 68 trees found on Cavern Territory. This merely represents what has been found so far, mainly along the regular trails. On a recent walk on the circular Fern Forest Trail another five species were added: Casearia gladiiformis, Clerodendrum glabrum, Maytenus acuminata, Olea capensis and Scolopia zeyheri.
I don’t know why it is, but mountains seem to attract strange, eccentric yet colourful characters, people who opt out of society to make for the wild mountain areas. The Drakensberg has had its fair share of these people. There was de Baath, part-owner of Couch and de Baath’s farm and store at Ntabamhlope, which
Once upon a time leopards were everywhere. Even now they are not confined to the lowveld, but live in most rough or mountainous areas. The Drakensberg is no exception, although the general shortage of food means that leopards are few and far between. Being elusive and mainly nocturnal too means that they are rarely seen.
Of the many insects living at the Cavern the African Hummingbird Moth must be the most intriguing. Not all moths are nocturnal, and this species flies by day. It can easily be mistaken for a tiny hummingbird (except that hummingbirds are found only in America). It hovers, with wings faintly whirring and almost invisible, in
The Cavern has already been doing this for many years. We use low energy globes where possible and our geysers, freezers, pool pumps and other large electrical appliances are turned off at peak periods using load shedding devices. Now Eskom has asked us to save another 20%. The hot water temperature has been switched down
Most bird migration is a long-distance business. The idea is to breed in long summer days at middle latitudes, and to move to the equator or other hemisphere for the winter. But in KZN we see a very special short-distance migration where birds breed at high altitudes, moving downhill for the winter. This is altitudinal
