[1] The ecoregion occupies the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains, covering an area of 19,500 square kilometers (7,500 sq mi) in South Africa's Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

To the south, it transitions to the drier Albany thickets, which are characterized by more succulent and spiny plants.

The majority of rainfall, approximately three-quarters, occurs during the warm summer months between October and March.

[citation needed] The typical vegetation is sclerophyll evergreen shrubs, which form dense, closed canopy thickets up to six meters in height.

The ecoregion, which is in a transition between moist and dry, montane and lowland, and temperate and tropical, has a rich diversity of species, although with few endemics.