Lake Naverone: Southern Drakensburg

Being a teenager in Shelly Beach years ago, I saw a postcard, or a postcard flyer for Lake Naverone, in the Drakensburg. The image had imprinted itself on my mind, and for years it’s never left me. One day- I said- I would go there.

And so the next part of our travels began.

The Drakensburg is a mountain range between Johannesburg and Durban. ” The name [was] given to the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, which encloses the central Southern African plateau”. It’s also apparently known as Mountain of the Dragons. It’s highest elevation is 3482 meres.

Seeing as the trip from Jbourg to Durbs is about 7-8 hours, we thought we would spend a couple of nights at Lake Naverone and split the journey up. http://www.lakenaverone.co.za/. We should have looked at the location of it first. The morning that we were to set off, we saw it was going to take us 6.5 hours to get there. We would have left earlier, had we known. Now, what seems to be a common occurrence is that Martin and I tend to stop at multiple fuel stations on the way; food, petrol, red bull, a wee, etc. Inevitably, this does put on -I would estimate- 30-45 minutes. Knowing we would be a ‘late arrival’, we phoned ahead and were told the key would be hanging up for us.

Eventually, after a long day; we were both exhausted and wanted a drink, we arrived. It was dark and we couldn’t quite imagine what it looked like.

Our accommodation was fantastic. I was thrilled. We found our key then followed the signs to our cottage. Stepping in, we found the heater turned on, fire ready for us in the fire place, and our 2 bedroom cottage awaited. I admit, despite the heat, it was still so cold. Our cottage was on the edge of the lake, but we knew we had no chance of really seeing it until morning.

Although there are 1x bedroom cottages at Lake Naverone, due to our last minute booking none were available. The 2 bedroom has 1 double bed in one room, and two single beds in the other. There are 2 bathrooms; one with a bath, one with a shower. The kitchen was reasonably sized and fully stocked with all sorts of utensils, which opened up to the lounge, with a door leading out onto a veranda.

Once morning came, the view was breathtaking. We were surrounded by mountains and the water was so still, there was a perfect mirror image. Attached to our jetty was a little boat, and some oars. Calling to us.

We spent the day heading into Underberg, having coffee, buying some food for dinner, and organizing our day tour for the following day up Sani-Pass and into Lesotho.

We headed out on that little boat in the late afternoon for sundowners; a couple beers later, we were happy, cold and had very full bladders! Being out in the middle of the water was so peaceful. I can imagine that during summer, everyone must be out on their boats.

We settled in for an evening with butternut soup, wine and cuddled on the sofa; fire raging in the background.