The Drakenstein Mountains are part of the Cape Fold Belt

Cape Fold Belt

The Cape Fold Belt is the folded sedimentary sequence of rocks in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It is related to the Ventana Mountains near Bahía Blanca in Argentina...

 and are in the Western Cape

Western Cape

The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...

 province of South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

; they were named in honour of H.A. van Reede tot Drakenstein who visited the Cape as Commissioner-General in 1685; Drakenstein (modern spelling usually Drakestein) was the name of his estate in the Netherlands. They actually comprise two separate ranges, the Klein Drakenstein and Groot Drakenstein Mountains. The former located just to the east of Paarl

Paarl

Paarl is a town with 191,013 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its the third oldest European settlement in the Republic of South Africa and the largest town in the Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni township, it is now a de facto urban unit with Wellington...

 being punctuated by the Huguenot Tunnel

Huguenot Tunnel

The Huguenot Tunnel is a toll tunnel near Cape Town, South Africa. It extends the N1 national road through the Du Toitskloof mountains that separate Paarl from Worcester, providing a route that is safer, faster and shorter than the old Du Toitskloof Pass travelling over the mountain.Geological...

 on the N1

N1 (South Africa)

The N1 is a South African National Route, running from Cape Town to Beit Bridge on the border with Zimbabwe. It is also the main road link between Johannesburg and Cape Town, and forms the first section of the famed Cape to Cairo Road....

 highway and Du Toitskloof Pass (820m) as the R101 route. The latter is much taller and is located south of Franschhoek and Stellenbosch, with Victoria Peak (1590m) as its highest point. It is traversed by no mountain passes, but contains the Hottentots-Holland Nature Reserve and also holds title of the wettest place in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 in the upper reaches of the Jonkershoek Valley, with over 2000mm of precipitation per annum (precise measurement unverified).

Most vegetation is of the Cape Floristic Kingdom biome, and the primary rocks are of the Table Mountain Sandstone

Table Mountain sandstone

The Table Mountain Sandstone is a group of rock formations within the Cape Supergroup sequence of rocks. Although still widely used in common parlance, the term TMS is no longer formally recognized; the correct name is the "Table Mountain Group" . The sequence is dominated by quartzites of very...

 group of the Cape Supergroup. The region falls within the Mediterranean climatic

Mediterranean climate

A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...

zone, with cool, wet winters, with snow on the higher elevations and warm, dry summers.