Hike a Berg classic!
DAY 1 3 KM
Cathedral Peak Hotel to Barker’s Chalet
After sorting out our permits and signing the mountain register at Didima Resort, we drive a couple of kilometres to the hikers’ car park at the gate of the Cathedral Peak Hotel.
After a kilometre up the tar road, on a sharp hairpin just below the hotel, we take a dirt track on the right, turning right again after about 300 m, onto the path down to the Mlambonja River. (The turn-off is marked but it’s easy to miss. If you reach the trout hatchery, you’ve gone too far.)
We take off our boots, roll up our trousers and wade through the knee-high water, using our trekking poles for extra stability on the smooth rocks, trying to stick to the indistinct path through the riverine debris and bush on the other side.
The path leads up a grassy slope towards the base of a sandstone cliff band, which we traverse accompanied by one of the most evocative sounds of the Drakensberg: the whistling call of red-winged starlings.
The path to our overnight spot – Barker’s Chalet at 1 640 m in altitude – is a little way further on. Pay attention here: It’s easy to walk past the rather indistinct junction. (Look for a smaller track continuing straight, at a point where the main path turns left up the slope.)
Barker’s Chalet is not actually a “chalet” – it’s a spacious overhang that can sleep
