For over 80 years we have called The Cavern home. To us, it’s the great outdoors. It’s the place of many happy returns. It’s our gathering spot, it’s a space for reconnection and its greatest appeal is its ability to restore. There is nothing quite like a mountain, its vastness and its beauty to heal
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
The Cavern was originally a grazing farm but in the 1930’s it was bought by Walter Coventry after he resigned his post as Superintendent of the Natal National Park. He continued cattle ranching here and started a small guest house, accommodating mostly friends he had made over the years while running the Hostel at National
How did The Cavern get its name? This is an extract from Incwadi Yami (1887) by J.W. Matthews M.D. in which the adventurous doctor describes finding evidence of cannibals in the massive cave above the hotel. “Next day, with native police and horses which our host had kindly provided, off we started before the sun
The Drakensberg, which forms a natural border between the garden province of KwaZulu-Natal and the Kingdom of Lesotho enclave, boasts a fascinating history dating back to a time when nomadic San tribes traversed the area hunting wild game and creating remarkable collections of rock paintings in shadowy caves and on jagged cliff overhangs and hidden
