The mountain range reaches the opposite extremity[2] in the Matikwa Nature Reserve, some 107 kilometres (66 mi) due east.

[5] The mountain is intersected by two defiles, the Waterpoort in the west, containing the Sand River (Polokwane) and a railway line, and Wyllie's Poort, which allows the N1 road traffic to pass from Louis Trichardt to Musina.

[6] The first white person to reach, and name, the mountain was Coenraad de Buys, a colonist who fled from Graaff Reinet after a failed rebellion in 1795.

In 1855 the town's de facto leader was Stephanus Schoeman[8] who named the growing, though disorderly reed-hut settlement Schoemansdal, after himself.

Relations between the Voortrekkers and Venda soured due to taxation, cattle rustling and lax control over the supply of fire arms.

The farms Rietvlei and Bergvliet were set aside in 1898 for a new town, and Trichardtsdorp was proclaimed the next year, named in honour of Louis Tregardt.

[14] The floral endemics include Encephalartos hirsutus, Duvalia procumbens, Euphorbia rowlandii, E. aeruginosa, E. zoutpansbergensis, Ceratotheca saxicola, Stapelia clavicorona, Tylophora coddii, Huernia nouhuysii, Aloe angelica, A. petrophila, A. soutpansbergensis, A. vossii, Combretum vendae, Blepharis spinipes, Mystacidium braybonae, Justicia montis-salinarum, Khadia borealis, Orbeanthus conjunctus, Streptocarpus parviflorus subsp.

The tropical floristic element, which reaches its southern distribution within the Soutpansberg, accounts for the species Brackenridgea zanguebarica, Millettia stuhlmannii, Oxytenanthera abyssinica, Trilepisium madagascariense, Brachystegia utilis-torrei (assimilated into a dominant B. spiciformis genome) and Syzygium masukuense.

This biodiversity is remarkably high for such a small area and makes up 36% of the total number of reptile species that have been recorded in South Africa.

Exploitation of natural resources, human encroachment due to expanding developments, poaching and general pollution – these all affect the Soutpansberg in some way.

[19] At the moment the mountains are a World Heritage Site and they form part of the newly proclaimed Vhembe Biosphere reserve.