Sani Pass

Seen from above, the Sani Pass looks like a child's scribble on the face of the Drakensberg: a thin gravel line that zigzags straight up the escarpment between walls of basalt. In about nine kilometres between the border posts it climbs 1,332 metres, from 1,544 metres in the KwaZulu-Natal foothills to 2,876 metres at Sani Top on the rim of the Lesotho highlands, with gradients as steep as one in three and a tight stack of hairpins in its upper section.

The setting is the real reason to come. The pass threads the Drakensberg, where grassy slopes give way to sheer cliffs and winter snow and ice can close the road altogether. At the top the land changes abruptly: instead of a summit, the high plateau of Lesotho opens to the west. Looking back, the view drops all the way down the gorge to the foothills of KwaZulu-Natal.

The route is far older than the road. San hunters and later Bantu-speaking peoples used it as a footpath, long before any wheel reached it. The Basutoland government cut a two-metre track in the 1920s; in 1949 David Alexander began running goods over it with a war-surplus Willys Jeep, the first motor vehicle to tackle the climb, and tourist drives followed in the 1950s. Even now South Africa generally lets only four-wheel-drive vehicles onto the pass.

Sani Top has its own small legend: the pub at Sani Mountain Lodge, at about 2,874 metres, is widely billed as the highest in Africa, and its windows look straight down the hairpins you have just climbed. From the lodge, walks range from short rambles along the escarpment edge to multi-day treks across the high plateau.

Getting there

The South African border post sits at the foot of the pass beyond Himeville in KwaZulu-Natal; the Lesotho post is at the summit, and the road continues into Lesotho towards Mokhotlong. The nearest airport is Pietermaritzburg Airport (PZB), about 107 km away by straight line. A four-wheel-drive vehicle is required on the South African side, and passports are needed to cross.