Sehlabathebe National Park

Sehlabathebe National Park occupies the highest and most isolated plateau of Lesotho, a landscape of deep valleys, open grassland and distinctive sandstone formations called the Wooden Neck. The park was established in 1970 and in 2013 was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site as part of the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area that Lesotho shares with South Africa, recognition of both its outstanding natural values and its role as a refuge for species found nowhere else.

The vegetation of the park is one of its most remarkable features. The high-altitude wetlands, locally known as 'seepage fens', support a suite of plant species found in few other places on earth, many of them endemic to the Lesotho highlands. The Erica flamma cliff faces and the unusual giant Watsonia species that bloom on the southern slopes in summer are particular highlights for botanists. The park is also home to the endangered Maloti minnow, a small fish restricted to the upper catchments of the Orange River system.

The San rock art at Sehlabathebe represents thousands of years of human occupation of the highlands. The paintings are found in shallow overhangs and caves on the sandstone cliffs, depicting eland, elephant and human figures in red and ochre pigment. Unlike many rock art sites in southern Africa, the paintings at Sehlabathebe are relatively undisturbed because of the park's remoteness and the lack of a resident human population in the immediate area.

Access to the park is difficult at any time of year. The unpaved access road from Quthing requires a high-clearance vehicle and becomes impassable after heavy rain; in winter the same road may be blocked by ice. There are no accommodation facilities inside the park boundary, and visitors must camp or make a day visit from Quthing, a round trip of several hours on the rough track.

The inaccessibility that makes Sehlabathebe difficult to visit is also the reason it has survived in good condition. Unlike parks in more accessible parts of southern Africa, there is no significant encroachment from agriculture or settlement, and the traditional seasonal grazing that once put pressure on the high pastures has been reduced by the depopulation of the surrounding highlands.

The park forms a contiguous conservation unit with the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park across the border in South Africa, and the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area coordinates management of shared species such as the Lammergeier bearded vulture and the lesotho salamander, which range across both territories.

Night skies in the park are exceptional; the absence of artificial light for many kilometres in every direction makes Sehlabathebe one of the finest places in southern Africa for astronomical observation. On moonless nights the Milky Way is bright enough to read by, and the Southern Cross and the Magellanic Clouds are clearly visible from the plateau.

UNESCO World Heritage inscription as part of the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area places it among globally significant protected landscapes.

The combination of endemic high-altitude flora, San rock art and the remote highland landscape is found in few other places accessible to visitors in southern Africa.

The park offers exceptional solitude: visitor numbers are extremely low and the park infrastructure is minimal, which many travellers find a positive rather than a limitation.