Cockade Pass

I don't have any info and this is in fact off-topic , but I plan to do Cockade sometime, and I'm curious about campsites.

Apparently there's a nice campsite not far above the contour path, but there's talk of another one deeper into the pass, and I'm curious about the latter. Does anyone have info on it?

To keep on-topic - how were the campsites affected by the flood?

yes about 200m from the contour path there is a site for 2 maybe 3 small tents..very hard ground! and its away from flood line.I heard that hikers came upon Basuthus that were busy erecting a shelter...with hiking equipment that was stolen, they tried to attack the hikers,but the hikers had 'shamboks and basutus hit the road.this apperently happend 3 years ago in the upper Xeni where the cocakde pass begins.

We really had a slog down from Cockade, left the top at 11 am and reached harry's bar 7pm!!! 3 of our party were lagging behind because of an injury...they got to the hikers parking 5 am the next day!!!!

Hi I did Cockade Pass and Tseketseke Pass as a day loop hike on the 04/09/2009.

Just above the Xeni River as the contour path winds down towards the river the path was washed away - probably about a 3 metre section. It was easily negotiated. Once in the Xeni River you could see that a flash flood had been through there.

The biggest danger we found was that the boulders and rocks are not secure and settled as would be the case with and an old established river bed. The person behind must always watch out for this. Also, be very careful when walking over these unsetteled boulders as many moved and made walking within the river bed a bit tricky.The path has been washed away in many places and the river bed has been widend but we found the path and cairnes in sections. many of the trees in the river bed had been shredded.

As we got higher up the Xeni River, there was more evidence of land slides coming into the river from both the left and the right hand sides. None of these slides really blocked our way up.

Close to the Junction of Cockade Pass and the Xeni River, stay in the river bed. Do not head left.

Once in the actual Cockade Pass it is fairly staight forward with a fairly ovious path heading up. We added to the cairnes in the Xeni River and Cockade Pass.

It seems that the Xeni River was most affected by the flood, and also the lower section of Cockade Pass.

On the way up the Xeni River, have a look at Xeni Pass. It looks daunting and intimidating but one to look forward too

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Hi All,

First off, lots of thanks for this site and the forums. It's fantastic reading about other people's adventures and I'm sure this site will prove to be an invaluable resource for any future hiking trips.

A bunch of friends and I are planning on visiting the Drakensberge early next month. We're thinking of doing a 3 day/2 night trip, leaving the cars at Cathedral Peak Hotel and spending the first night at the Cockade camping site. The next day we'd like to take Cockade pass to the top of the escarpment and Tseketseke pass down in order to spend the night at the Tseketseke camping site. The final day is reserved for the hike back to the hotel.

We've done Cockade pass before, in 2008 before the rock slide, and were wondering how feasible doing both it and Tseketseke in one day is? I believe there's a river on the top of the escarpment, will it be flowing this time of year? Finally, is there anything else we should take into consideration when doing this route (excluding "Fake Tseketseke" which we are aware of)?

Thank you!

Thanks for the response Intrepid.

Sounds good, the availibility of water was going to determine our lunch, but looks like it will be biscuits and crackers