Drakensberg Tourism Association
P. O. Box 672, Bergville, 3350
Tel 036 448 1557
Fax 036 448 1328
Email info@drakensberg.org.za
Despite rich soil, abundant water and breathtaking scenery, its high altitude, climatic extremes and heavy snowfalls saw pioneer farmers dismiss this region until the very last. The original San hunter- gatherers spent summers here but followed animal migrations to the coast before winter's onset.
Himeville was named after Sir Alfred Hime, a road engineer elected Prime Minister of Natal in 1889, while Underberg describes that town's location beneath the mountains. The five-kilometre buffer between the two settlements relates to a certain animosity now fully consigned to history. Proof that all hatchets were well and truly buried came in 1970 when the Garden Club planted a roadside row of oak trees to symbolise the new-found unity between the two towns.
