Apart from stunning views and a lovely spot to just relax - there are also a few legends surrounding the peak.
The Secret or Legend of Ntunjambili
According to Greytown Museum records, the ‘area has an interesting history’ which is told in the words of Mr GM Tatham. (The Journal of the Mountain Club of South Africa. 1960)
In the days before Chaka (Shaka ka Zenzagakona), there lived a tribe ... in the Mapumulo Valley, to the south of Kranskop. During a period of famine, a tribe of cannibals from Msinga (to the north) moved into the area in search of food. Over a period of time the local tribe was wiped out, except for the Chief’s son and his bride who knew the secret of Ntunjambili ... (which was)...to approach the ‘Kop’ on the southern side and sing a special song, whereupon the whole ‘Kop’ split in half, opening a way through the rock mass to a normally inaccessible cave on the northern side.
This couple lived there for some time, going out only to get water and what provisions they could find. The cannibals, angered at being cheated of their prey, set watch to discover the secret. One day the watch was rewarded - they heard the special song :-
Ilitsha li ka Ntunjambili, Ilitsha li ka Ntunjambili
Ngivulele ngingene, Alivulwanga abantu
Livulwa yezinkonjane
Zona zindiza phezulu, Ngibulele ngingene.
Rock of two arches, Rock of two arches
Open and let me in. It is not opened by man
It is opened by the swallows, Those that fly above
Open and let me in.
The song was sung, the Kop opened. The cannibals, fearing that the crack would close, threw in boulders to ... (keep) it open. They then entered the cave and ate the young chief and his bride before returning to Msinga, where they remained till Chaka (Shaka) destroyed them.
Tradition also has it, that the pinnacle was first climbed by a British officer while encamped there during the Anglo Zulu War (1878 - 1879). He is reported to have left his shirt hanging on a tree as ‘proof of his achievement’.
The war saw a British defensive column, consisting of the Natal Native Contingent, placed at Middle Drift under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony Durnford. Warned of a possible incursion from Zululand by Schreuder, Durnford was poised to set out across the river until his commanding officer, Lord Chelmsford, ordered otherwise. Shortly afterwards, Durnford was ordered to move up to Rorke’s Drift. A few days later his body lay on the field of Isandlwana following the famous Zulu victory.
Durnford must often have looked out over Zululand from the commanding heights near the mission station. Today, the best vantage point is on the crest of the hill next to the monumental sandstone butte named Kranskop — “cliff head” — by the first Afrikaner settlers. From there, the panoramic view is simply breathtaking. Spread out before and beneath you is the Thukela valley — homesteads dot the hill sides, corrugated iron roofs sparkle in the sun while the glittering Thukela River loops through the valley floor. To the north, green velvet mountains, among them Qudeni, the highest point in Zululand.
“There is a legend about Ntunjambili,” says Bird. “When the mist comes down, a spirit is heard calling and children are drawn to it, but if they go they are never seen again.”
“Sounds like it’s just a story, but when the mist comes down and the wind comes up the valley, you get this amazing moaning sound as it blows through the hole. Maybe children did come and investigate and fell off the cliff, and this story was built up around it.”
The huge outcrop is inaccessible by foot, and local lore once had it that even a baboon could not reach the summit. Back in 1879, Captain Alexander Montgomery decided to put paid to such beliefs and climbed it. Before descending, he set fire to the vegetation on the summit. A huge pillar of smoke arose from the blaze, clearly visible to the Zulus across the border, who were shocked at the sight of the “unconquerable” kop in flames.
Even without a smoky pillar, Ntunjambili is an ever-present sentinel above the Thukela valley, clearly visible from wherever we stopped.
Capt Montgomery of the 2nd Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers - who was commanding the Natal Native contingent at nearby Fort Cherry when he climbed the Kop for the first time. A sad note is that Capt Montgomery was then transferred to Fort Tenedos (on the north bank of the Tugela near where the N2 highway crossed the Tugela River)when he was bitten by a snake and died there.
Historical account of Montgomery's climb