Underberg

Underberg sits in the Mzimkulu River valley at the foot of the 1,904m Hlogoma Peak in the southern Drakensberg foothills, about 121km south of Pietermaritzburg in the Harry Gwala District. The settlement dates to the 1880s but was formally established as a town in 1917 when the railway from Pietermaritzburg reached the area. That railway connection transformed what had been a remote farming settlement into the commercial hub for the entire Southern Drakensberg district. The railway is long gone, but Underberg has kept its role as the main service town for the region.

Sani Pass is the headline attraction. The road begins about 45km from Underberg at Sani Pass border post, climbing from around 1,500m at the bottom to 2,874m at the top of the escarpment into Lesotho. In a standard 4x4 it's a serious mountain road; with a local guide or shuttle it's one of the great drives in southern Africa. The views from the top are on a different scale entirely, and the Sani Mountain Lodge at the summit holds the title of highest pub in Africa.

Below the pass, the Southern Drakensberg offers some of the best trout fly fishing in the country. The Underberg-Himeville Trout Fishing Club, founded in 1954, controls around 16 still waters and 14 river beats along more than 60km of the Umzimkulu and Pholela Rivers. Splashy Fen, the annual music festival held on a farm near Underberg each April, draws thousands of people to a site that sits at the foot of the escarpment in genuinely extraordinary scenery.

The town itself is a proper small commercial centre: supermarkets, banks, a petrol station, a hospital, and the support infrastructure for a large surrounding farming district. It doesn't trade on charm but it does the job, and the landscapes that surround it do the rest.