The KwaZulu-Natal Midlands

The Midlands are the green, rolling hills between Durban and the Drakensberg: dairy farms, dams, plantations and misty valleys, with studios, cheese-makers and kitchens scattered along the back roads in what has come to be called the Midlands Meander. This is a private day along it, with a driver-guide who knows which farm gate to turn in at.

It begins near Howick, at the place where Nelson Mandela was arrested in August 1962, stopped on the road while posing as a chauffeur after more than a year in hiding. The sculpture there is a field of tall steel columns. Walk down the path towards them and, at one spot, they shuffle into his face. There is a small exhibition beside it that tells the story of that day.

Then the makers. In a workshop off the road, Zulu women from the surrounding valleys stitch leather shoes and bags by hand, and you can watch the pieces come together. The leather is soft, the colours are bright, and the stitching happens in front of you. At a goat farm further on, lunch is a picnic of the farm’s own cheese, with bread and tea, and the goats in the paddock beyond the table.

Ardmore is the stop to give time to. It began in the 1980s with one potter working alongside a young local artist, and it grew into a studio whose ceramics, crowded with painted animals and plants, are collected far beyond South Africa. Everything is sculpted and painted by hand, and no two pieces are alike.

The day ends at a tea garden on the high ground, with a long view across the valleys to the wall of the Drakensberg, which on a clear afternoon looks close enough to walk to. It is the right way to finish a slow day.

For the mountains themselves, pair it with the rock art at Giant’s Castle or the drive up Sani Pass.

Good to know

• Private, and it runs most days. The cheese farm keeps its own days, and when it is shut we swap in another stop.
• Entrance fees and meals are extras. We confirm what your day includes in writing.
• Bring a bag with room in it. Very few people leave the Midlands empty-handed.
• Summer brings afternoon mist and storms; winter mornings can be frosty. Layers either way.
• It pauses over the Christmas and New Year holidays. We confirm your date.