NO matter how many times you claw your way up that steep, rocky, rutted track – negotiating the hairpin bends and switchbacks and often-icy corners, trying not to notice the sheer drop-offs at its edge – Sani Pass is always an adventure.
Over the past 25 years or so we have scrambled up this iconic pass – or inched our way down it – many, many times and we have got to know it well.
However, we hadn’t ‘done Sani’ for quite a while so when we decided to go to Gauteng via Lesotho, we looked forward to reacquainting ourselves with our old friend.
In South Africa, a formidable barrier exists between our eastern coastal plain and our lofty interior. On a clear day, heading inland from the coast, this ‘Barrier of Spears’ – the mighty Drakensberg mountain range – suddenly shimmers into view, a massive, rugged, uninterrupted buttress that stretches right across our horizon.
What an up-lifting sight it always is.
Ranged roughly north to south for about 240km, the Drakensberg stretches from Mpumalanga and the Free State, through KwaZulu-Natal and into the Eastern Cape, forming the escarpment that edges our Highveld regions.
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Rugged Sani Pass is one of the few portals through this awe-inspiring range. It is, in fact, KwaZulu-Natal’s only roadway into the mountain kingdom of Lesotho and its notoriety makes it a great tourist attraction. Sani is a magnet for many adventurous souls and is probably on the bucket list of almost every owner of a newly acquired 4X4 vehicle.
However, it also forms a vital artery between Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal for many people who live, work or conduct business in the isolated, mountain kingdom.
Originally a bridle path then a rough track, it has been improved over the years and is now a half-decent road, but it still presents a formidable challenge, particularly in wet or snowy conditions when it can become quite treacherous.
DAVID HOLT-BIDDLE HAS FOND MEMORIES OF SANI PASS: From my Hide: Sani and Sloggett’s ice rat
The turnoff to Sani is about 3km north of Himeville and the pass itself begins at the South African border post, about 25 bone-jolting kilometres of gravel road after the turnoff. When we’d stopped at Cobham for a walk and some breakfast to fortify ourselves for our Sani adventure, the day had been sunny and clear, but a few low clouds had drifted across the sky by the time we’d negotiated the excuse of a road to the border post.
Not long after we started winding our way up the mountain pass, the clouds turned into a fairly thick mist, following us as we climbed and obscuring much of the lower levels of the pass.
Although we would have liked a better view of the dramatic mountain scenery through which we were travelling, it was still a beautiful drive. Summer had sent an abundance of sparkling waterfalls and streams leaping and skipping down the mountain slopes. It had carpeted the mountains and the Umkomazana River valley in velvety green and had transformed the pass into a veritable flower garden.
When it comes to garden design, Mother Nature reigns supreme, especially there on that steep mountain road where she had artfully mixed and matched the myriad, multi-coloured mountain flowers that flourished in spite of the harshness of the environment.
As we wound our way up and up, climbing some 900m to a height of 2 892m above sea level, in just eight steep kilometres, it was like travelling through a carefully nurtured parkland.
Every corner, every stream or river bank, every bit of the narrow road verge were covered in masses of wild flowers and shrublets and bushes, all dressed in their summer splendour, in every colour of the rainbow.
HERE’S AN EARLIER STORY BY JUDI DAVIS: Tickling the dragon’s ribs
In its benign mood, Sani Pass is lovely but when the flowers disappear and the green melts away the pass has a magic of its own. In winter, harsh Sani is all shades of brown, but the monochrome scenery highlights the rugged beauty.
At times the pass is dusted with snow and the waterfall at one of the corners becomes an icefall for most of the colder months.
Summer or winter, fair weather or foul, this magnificent pass always has something different to offer. And Sani, we agreed as we reached its crest, just never disappoints.
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