We have hiked through the Amphitheatre but have never had a good look at the whole area. This area we have put off for a long time and together with a few buddies (In the photo below: Farouk, Rinaldo, Ryan, Richard, Elaine & Roger) spent 3 days meandering through all the crooks and crannies. It is an amazing place with many little mini cutbacks and surprises. The massive cliffs throughout this area are breath taking, making the Amphitheatre one of the most remarkable places in Africa.
Elaine and myself have over the past 6 years hiked all the Berg, some places a couple of times and the Amphitheatre was the last place on our list to be discovered. Maybe because it is the easiest place to access and the mass of hikers going there discouraged us. If you had to ask most people if they have gone to the Drakensberg Escarpment they would say Amphitheatre.
We went up the Gully route coming out on Beacon Buttress. I have done the chain ladders before and wanted to experience this alternative route with an aim to photograph the view from Beacon Buttress.
We spent the 1st night above the Tugela Falls together with a mass of other tents. It looked like some sort of Flashy Fen music festival...tented village, not my cup of tea. To make it worse there was a drone making a very annoying noise, definitely not a place to experience mountain solitude!!
We spent the 2nd night tenting at Ribbon Falls Stream and enjoyed a quiet evening having the whole place to ourselves.
On our walk back on the 3rd day some went to see Crows Nest and others along the escarpment for more photos. On the last morning we witnessed a typical Drakensberg cloud inversion and later during the day the clouds spilled over the escarpment engulfing all the views bringing a fresh winter coolness to the air. To view the photos please click on this link..... http://richardhuntphotographer.blogspot.co.za/p/amphitheatre-exposed.html
