Sevilla Rock Art Trail

The Sevilla trail runs about four kilometres along the Brandewyn River on a Cederberg farm, passing nine rock shelters with San paintings - elephants, eland, human figures, handprints and therianthropes, figures that combine human and animal features and are usually read in connection with trance experience. Ages are hard to fix precisely; the paintings here are generally placed within the last few thousand years, with the tradition itself far older. What makes this trail unusual is access: you buy a permit at the farm shop, take a numbered booklet, and walk it yourself, with the sites signposted - no guide, no group, no schedule. The paintings are in the open under overhangs, unfenced, and they survive only because visitors do not touch them; wetting them to bring out colour, once common, destroys the pigment permanently.

What you actually see

• Nine shelters - painted sites strung along a four-kilometre riverside walk.
• The therianthropes - part-human figures linked to trance experience.
• The self-guided access - a permit, a booklet and no guide required.
• The open sites - paintings under overhangs, unfenced and dependent on visitors behaving.

When to go

March to May and September to November. Three hours. Summer heat here is severe.

Honest expectations

Do not touch or wet the paintings - it destroys them. There is no shade and no water on the trail. Summer temperatures make it dangerous in the middle of the day. The path crosses the river and can be wet in winter.

Nearby

Clanwilliam is south; the Cederberg and Wupperthal are over the Pakhuis Pass.