The Amphitheatre to Cathedral Peak Drakensberg Northern Traverse

• Challenging Drakensberg Hike

• Bucket List Hike

The Amphitheatre to Cathedral Peak Drakensberg Northern Traverse is definitely our most popular hike in the Drakensberg. You can watch a video I made of this hike here.

Also known as the Mini Drakensberg Traverse, this hike starts at the Drakensberg Amphitheatre and finishes at the magnificent Cathedral Peak.

The Amphitheatre to Cathedral Peak Drakensberg Northern Traverse is known as one of the top 10 hikes in the world. Come and join us on this hike and you will see why. We certainly get to see some of the best mountain scenery that South Africa has to offer. I like to stay at Sterkfontein Dam the night before the hike which makes it only a 2-hour drive to the start at the Sentinel car park. On the night before the hike, we camp next to a beautiful dam while having a good old-fashioned South African BBQ (braai).

The first night of our hike is spent camping on top of the Amphitheatre. Our camp site is nice and close to the tallest waterfall in the world. The Tugela Falls. Here we are camping at 2950m above sea level. The Tugela Falls tumble down the huge Amphitheatre Wall for almost 1000m so you can imagine how wonderful the views are!

Over the next few days, we wander along the Drakensberg Escarpment, where the views are best.

By day 3 we arrive at one of my favorite places, just above Rockeries pass in the Mnweni area where all my porters live. Tonight we camp near a huge Cape Vulture colony. This is a truly amazing place.  As we get closer to our destination we have the opportunity to walk along the Bell Traverse and climb Cathedral Peak if we feel like it.  The Bell Traverse does require a head for heights and some rope work. If we decide not to do this route we walk down Mlambonja Pass and camp below the Column and Pyramid. Here is a more detailed route description of this hike.