Meet our Drakensberghiker Team!
Hike in the Drakensberg Mountains with Drakensberghiker
About Drakensberghiker team.
So that you can see who we are we have supplied a bit more information about the Drakensberghiker team. Drakensberghiker was started and is owned by Ian Shooter. He knows and loves the Drakensberg mountains as well as meeting interesting people.
Drakensberghiker also offers interesting and informative overland tours of Southern Africa through our sister business. Southern Africa Overland 4×4 Tours, and wilderness trails in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve and where ever possible we like to do a bit of fly fishing. Drakensberghiker can tailor-make a South African adventure holiday to suit your requirements.
The Drakensberghiker Team
Ian and his team know and love to share the Drakensberg mountains in KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho.
At Drakensberghiker, together with our fantastic team, we are keen to meet new people and share our hiking experience. Bringing people and families together to enjoy the Drakensberg mountains hiking trails we enjoy so much. In addition to this, we also enjoy taking more experienced hikers on some of the more challenging and extreme hikes in the Drakensberg mountains.
… “Do What You Love, Love What You Do”…
Our motto is “We Do What We Love, and We Love What We Do” … and so Drakensberghiker was born, doing what we love, hiking in the beautiful Drakensberg Mountains.
What we do is take people on hikes, treks, trails or backpacking all over the Drakensberg mountains of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and Lesotho. Check out our scheduled hikes here.
More about Drakensberghiker’s owner, Ian Shooter…
When Ian joined the Boy Scouts at the age of 11, he started a life-long fascination with hiking in the South African Drakensberg mountains.
Ian knows the Drakensberg Mountains of KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho very well indeed. In fact he has been wandering around the Drakensberg mountains since he was 10 years old. What a childhood.
He is registered with the South African Mountaineering Development & Training Trust as an Advanced Mountain Walk Leader. Ian loves to show his considerable expertise, knowledge and love of South Africa and the Drakensberg to anyone keen to explore it on his guided hiking trails through this remarkable mountain range.
After completing his national service, Ian studied and worked as a paramedic before moving on to study horse master ship.
He eventually moved to Canada, where he ran his own equestrian center. While in Canada he spent a great deal of time hiking, skiing and ice-climbing in the Canadian Rockies.
After 10 years in Canada, he returned to his roots in South Africa to start his own business.
He says his office is better than Bill Gates’ office. There is nothing better than arranging guided Drakensberg hikes in South Africa, and overland tours of Lesotho.
Ian’s love of South Africa, the Drakensberg, and knowledge of South African flora and fauna, and regional history are immediately evident. He is a strong and enthusiastic hike leader.
When not hiking in the South African Drakensberg, he spends his time mountain biking, trail running and canoeing (kayaking).
Ian is an enthusiastic cook, and he believes that hiking meals should be tasty and a compliment to the beautiful environment so you can expect some amazing food when you join Drakensberg Hiker for a hike!
More about the Drakensberg
The Drakensberg is the most magnificent mountain range in South Africa, and it is my office. Life doesn’t get better much than that!
The name “Drakensberg” has an Afrikaans origin, the word literally means ‘the dragon’s mountain’. The Zulu name for the Drakensberg is “uKhahlamba”, meaning ‘barrier of spears’.
The Drakensberg is the highest mountain range in South Africa rising to 3,482m above sea level. It runs almost parallel to the coast in the eastern part of South Africa. The whole mountain range is about 1000km long.
However, we spend most of our time hiking in the KwaZulu-Natal part of the Drakensberg. Our hiking trails take us from Sentinel Peak in the Northern Drakensberg, all the way to Bushman’s Nek in the Southern Drakensberg, some 230km of beautiful mountain scenery. This area is the most impressive and beautiful part of the Drakensberg, with an escarpment edge which is over 1000m high. The Drakensberg Mountains separate the province of KwaZulu-Natal from Lesotho and the Free State.
These mountains offer some of the best trails for hiking, backpacking and bird-watching in South Africa.
The South African Drakensberg dates back approximately 150 million years
It is made up of sedimentary rock capped by a solid basalt layer which can be up to 1400m thick in places. The Drakensberg is actually a volcanic mountain range.
If you want to learn more about this area you will have to join one of our hikes. Over the millennia, weathering and erosion have reduced the mountain range’s size, causing the plateau to erode in places, creating the steep-sided blocks and the fantastic pinnacles. This make for incredible Drakensberg scenery.
While hiking the trails of the Drakensberg we have opportunities to take amazing photos of stunning views, and best of all, we never get up high enough to get altitude sickness. Our FaceBook and Instagram pages have pictures of some of the spectacular vistas, rare bird-life and flowers to be seen on some of our guided hiking trails in the South African Drakensberg.
The uKahlamba-Drakensberg Park, which extends along the escarpment of the Drakensberg is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. They are very important to South Africa as the country gets a lot of its fresh water from these stunning mountains. Hiking here is part of the South African experience of a lifetime.
South African Drakensberg Fauna and Flora
The Drakensberg’s habitat is very unique and contains some of the most remarkable and diverse range of plants, birds and animal life. This tough wildlife has had to adapt to their harsh environment in the Drakensberg mountains.
Covering some 250 000ha of wilderness area, the South African Drakensberg is totally wild. Hiking here requires a real sense of adventure. We love the fact that there are no paths, camp-site or signs telling us where to go while hiking the trails on top of the escarpment.
In many cases, the only way to see this wild place is with an experienced guide.
Still have some questions about Drakensberg Hiker?
Please check our popular hikes and our scheduled hikes, or feel free to contact us…
