Game Pass shelter is one of the great South African rock painting sites of the Maloti-Drakensberg. It is sites like Game Pass that led the Maloti-Drakensberg to be proclaimed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The site is in the Kamberg Nature Reserve, an area of outstanding natural beauty. It has been a spiritual place for millennia. The beautiful shaded polychrome paintings, some of the finest in the world, are dominated by the image of the eland. For the San painters, the eland was God¡¯s favourite animal, the animal most filled with spiritual power. The eland is the largest antelope in the world and it is particularly fat.

The San believed that spiritual power resided in this fat. By painting eland on the rocks in their multitude the painters were building up reservoirs of power in the shelter and creating and maintaining an already-spiritual place. They would call on this power in their rituals, such as the trance dance. Today Zulu traditional healers and Khoe-San descendants still make pilgrimages to Game Pass to draw on this ancient power. They take off their shoes before entering the shelter and go in humbly, such is the important and sacredness of the place.

The site is open to the public today and provides an important source of employment for members of the local Thendela community. On a few days of the year the site is closed so as to allow local people to conduct their traditional ceremonies at this sacred place in private.

Game Pass is one of the most beautiful places one could visit. But please note, it is a relatively strenuous walk up the mountainside. Although it takes approximately two hours to get there, the site is well worth the climb.

For more information on visiting Kamberg, follow this link to the Ezemvelo KZN wildlife website