KWAZULU-NATAL
Berg
TIME
By Milou Staub
Himeville. Underberg. Sani Pass. Three names that deserve far more attention than they get.
There is a moment on the drive inland from Durban, somewhere around the point where the highway gives way to two-lane roads and the hills start rolling in, when you realise that the Southern Drakensberg isn’ t going to come to you – you need to go to it. And once you do, it quietly, completely, and without any doubt becomes one of the finest corners you’ ve discovered in this country.
Himeville is the kind of town that takes about four minutes to walk through and several days to properly absorb. It sits in the foothills of the Southern
Drakensberg at an altitude that makes the air feel like it has been recently laundered, surrounded by farms and mountain passes with a slow rhythm of life that starts dismantling your city habits within hours of arrival. Mornings here, and at the nearby town of Underberg, arrive with the mooing of cows instead of screeching alarms. The hills roll endlessly in every direction, and the biggest decision before lunchtime tends to involve whether to walk, paddle, padel or simply sit on a veranda and watch the countryside get on with things. Here is what shaped my time in the region...
18 | WINTER 2026 • rovesa. co. za