Game Pass Shelter – Best rock art in the Drakensberg

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Game Pass shelter is the most significant rock art site in the Drakensberg. Situated in Kamberg Nature Reserve this rock art site contains paintings made Bushman up to 3000 years ago.

Drakensberg bushman rock art kamberg - Game Pass Shelter

The Drakensberg mountains in particular are known for their wealth of rock paintings, often showing detailed and brightly coloured images of people, animals and part-human, part-animal figures known as ‘therianthropes’, with this site a prime example.

One of the panels of paintings here is particularly important in the history of rock art research, as in the 1970s it helped to inspire a new kind of approach to the understanding of the meanings and symbolism of San|Bushman paintings and engravings.

The trail to Game Pass Shelter is a two-and-a-half, to three hour guided walk, via the spiritually moving Waterfall Shelter. It is nothing short of a world-class experience in Khoisan rock art and living Zulu and San culture. Walks normally leave at 09h00, 11h00 and between 12h30.

The walk is preceded by a spectacular DVD presentation at the state-of-the-art Interpretive Centre that caters for a maximum of ten people at a time. Sessions are run seven days a week and can be arranged by appointment. The Centre is wheelchair friendly, but unfortunately the trail to Game Pass Shelter is not. There is a special audio-visual show on the trail and the shelter for those who cannot walk up to Game Pass Shelter.

The rock art at Game Pass Shelter

The most prominent painting panel at Game Pass shows a series of carefully depicted eland antelope in delicately shaded red, brown and white pigment, largely super imposing a group of ambiguous anthropomorphic figures wrapped in what appear to be bell-shaped karosses (traditional skin cloaks). Several small human figures appear to be running above them. These are some of the best-preserved rock paintings in the Drakensberg, with the largest animals around 30 cm long. To the left of this panel are two smaller sets of images, one with two further eland, some further human-like figures and a human figure with a bow; the other a small panel, for which the site is most renowned. An image around 50 cm long shows an eland with its face turned towards the viewer, depicted as if stumbling forwards, with its hind legs crossed. Grasping the eland’s tail is a therianthrope figure with hooves for feet. Like the eland, this figure has its legs crossed and is depicted with small lines like raised hairs bristling from its body.

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