Rock art tourism

Created by the ancestors of the San/Bushman, South Africa’s rock art is world-renowned.

Strangely, most tour operators and travel agencies don’t seem to know about our rock art. So they will seldom recommend a visit to see rock art.

Ask them to add a visit to a rock art site to your trip!

If you have an appetite for rock art, I can help to whet it. Whether you are looking for a half-day excursion, a full-day hike, or a multi-day journey into the mountains, I offer day trips and multi-day hikes in the northern Drakensberg, including areas within the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Park as well as the Mnweni and AmaZizi Traditional Authority Areas.

Where possible, we contribute to local economies by employing local guides and, when necessary, local porters.

Every trip is different. I draw up itineraries according to your interests, level of fitness, the time of year, weather conditions, and the availability of guides. Prices therefore vary depending on the duration and logistics of the trip.

Wherever you are staying in the Drakensberg, I can arrange a guided day trip to nearby rock art sites. These can be relaxed half-day walks or full-day hikes depending on your location, interests, and the sites available in the area.

I currently offer multi-day hiking trips to two main areas of the northern Drakensberg.

The Didima Gorge is a beautiful landscape in the Little Berg below the high peaks of the Drakensberg, within the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Park. The area contains numerous painted rock shelters, including several major sites as well as many smaller and equally fascinating places.

The Didima rock art was made famous through the work of Harald Pager, who spent years in the area during the 1960s carefully recording and copying the paintings. His book Ndedema, published in 1971, remains a classic of southern African rock art literature.

These are wilderness-style hiking trips. Participants need to be fit enough to carry their own food, clothing, and bedding. We camp in rock shelters and spend several days moving through the landscape. Trips can range from two to seven days depending on your preferences and level of experience.

Sandwiched between the Cathedral Peak and Royal Natal nature reserves are the Mnweni and AmaZizi Traditional Authority Areas. This is a very different landscape to the wilderness concept often associated with the Drakensberg. It is a lived-in and active environment, with villages, agriculture, and livestock moving through the mountains during the summer months.

These trips offer an opportunity not only to see rock art, but also to experience aspects of rural South African life and hospitality. The Mnweni area in particular contains several excellent rock art sites.

As with the Didima trips, we camp in rock shelters and travel on foot through the mountains. Trips can range from two to seven days depending on your interests and fitness.

A visit to a rock art site can be disappointing if the guides don’t give you time to stop, look and appreciate the experience.

Often the guide cannot offer more than a short, scripted commentary, answer questions, or point out special details that are easy to miss. You end up walking past the most significant and meaningful parts of the place without knowing it.

A superficial experience and a wasted opportunity.

With an expert and enthusiastic guide, a visit to a rock art site is a totally different experience:

Rock art is a non-renewable resource. Once damaged it cannot ever be replaced. When you visit a rock art site there are some simple rules to bear in mind. 

• Do not touch the art with your hands or any object (e.g. a stick). The fats and oils in your hands and other parts of your body hasten the decay of the art and contaminate it for any dating techniques and chemical analysis.
• No matter how tempting, never throw water or any other liquid over the images. Not only is this illegal, but the practice rapidly destroys the art.
• Avoid stirring up dust from the shelter floor. This dust settles on the art and bonds with water and other substances to form an opaque crust over the paintings.

• Never remove any stone tools or other artefacts from rock art sites. You may think that no one will miss a single artefact but if many people do the same, the sites will be destroyed.
• Always get permission from the landowner or relevant officials before visiting a rock art site.
• Follow the wilderness motto of “Leave nothing but your footsteps behind”.
• If you see other people damaging the art, intervene. If they persist then contact management or the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA). 

Acknowledgement: This code of etiquette comes from the book Fragile Heritage: a rock art fieldguide (1998), by Lewis-Williams and Blundell and Rock art of the Waterberg (2025) by Wadley and Laue.