From Ladysmith we drove south and west to the Drackensberg (dragon mountains) area. This is a world heritage site both because of the beauty of the mountains and the concentration of San (bushman) cave paintings. I have a great interest in the paintings because of a book (The Mind in the Cave) that explains San art alongside primitive Native American art and European cave paintings such as Lascaux and Altimira.
We had a great "interpreter" at the caves who not only explained the art but could also make the sounds of the San language which is based on some very strange clucking, hissing and cracking sounds. The art includes animals, people and shamans that are represented by a mix of human and animal features. Some date from 4000 years ago and some are as recent as 100 years ago. They are damaged by weather and some human destruction (such as bullet marks from British soldiers in the 1800's.
On the other side on the mountains is the kingdom of Lesotho, another country like Swaziland that is contained within South Africa. No matter what our GPS says, we're not going there!
I REALLY enjoy the blog... are you both blogging or is there a designated blogger?
ReplyDeleteCalder says 'he really likes the cave paintings.' Pru says, 'I really like the blog so far.' Thank you so much for taking the time to do this, we're getting quite the education about SA! XO
ReplyDeleteThe cave paintings were impressive. Were you able to record any of the language spoken? That would be cool to hear as well. Keep up the blogging. Loving it.
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