AT A GLANCE

Why go?

Royal Natal National Park, tucked into the high northern Drakensberg of KwaZulu-Natal, is where South Africa's most photographed mountain wall stands: the Amphitheatre, a near-vertical escarpment of basalt more than five kilometres around and roughly a kilometre tall. From its rim plunges Tugela Falls, at about 948 m the tallest waterfall in Africa and a serious contender among the world's highest. This is the dramatic face of the uKhahlamba–Drakensberg, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of gigantic buttresses, hidden valleys, virgin forest and crystal-clear rivers, managed as part of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife's protected estate.↗↗↗

What makes the park special is that the same cliffs can be met at more than one level. Serious walkers climb to the very top of the falls along the chain-ladder Sentinel route; day-trippers and families can follow the gentle Tugela Gorge path from the valley floor and look up at the wall, or spend the morning picnicking and birding among Mahai's forests and streams. Whatever your legs and appetite for exposure, Royal Natal rewards a stay of two or three days rather than a single drive-by viewpoint.