Rwanqa north pass (Tata Ma Chance Pass)

I have now on a few occasions done a pass that is neither written up or may never have been done before.  On all of those occassions, it was a line I had seen previously, and had a good enough look at to know it has a chance of going.

This weekend, I was ambling along the cliff edge in the Rwanqa area when I came across a narrow chasm. I instinctively peered down and was amazed to see that it might just go. I moved a little further along the edge of it and peered down and decided to take a chance.  More specifically, when looking up Rwanqa, this is the obvious gully to the right of Rwanqa, topping out just south of Rwanqa Peak.

The top of the pass is fairly narrow and steep, but went easily. At one point about 100m down I had to traverse about 50m right into an adjoining gully to dodge an obstacle. This side gully had a 2m easy scramble in it and soon rejoined the main gully.






This carries on easily enough. A few obstacles can be easily bypassed and after a while the gully opens up.  Amazingly enough, even though there are several cliffs to the side of the gully, the gully itself goes smoothly. Or at least when it is dry.


Later still, I got to a point where I thought I had finally done it. And then suddenly, a waterfall popped out of nowhere.  I could have sneaked down on the right on very steep grass, but another waterfall was just below that. So, I did a rising traverse to my right onto broad grass ledges and followed some baboons down to the next grass ledge and after a while on that, made my way back into the main gully, a little way above a large rockfall on the opposite side of the gully.


The rock fall made it easier for a while as it had taken out all the vegetation, and once past that I had to take the best line through the usual fight at 2200m.
I joined the Rwanqa path a little below the point where it does the big zig-zag to get out of the valley.

At a few points, it looked like it may have seen traffic before. Sometimes by baboons but lower down it seemed like there were a few vague paths in the vegetation.

Because it is narrow, it has disappointing views (considering the 5 star views in nearby Fangs and Rwanqa), but it has its own appeal.

I seriously need to start trying out the gullies I have been eying out - before Andrew beats me to all of them

Incidentally it was only very recently that I realised that this gully wasn't actually Rwanqa Pass. Probably because Rwanqa is obscured by vegetation when seen from the approach to Mnweni (well, if you are looking at the wrong time). I had always thought that the writeups and photos on the site looked far more pedestrian than what I had observed!

Here's a photo of what I mean, with Andrew's pass marked as "North Rwanqa"

Hi Andrew
Is that not the pass known as Frenchman's Gully where a solo French hiker had to be helicoptered out by the MCSA rescue squad in 2015. See attached map. The coordinates of the rescue point are from Gavin Raubenheimer. If my memory is correct there was a picture in VE taken from the helicopter of his tent, just above the waterfall. He had to leave all his gear behind as he hadn't packed it when the helicopter arrived. Maybe there is a free tent and some other gear there for the taking (only three years old).

The pass shown in both Ghaz's photo and on Bobby's map is the one I did.

I do recall seeing the pic from the rescue but do not recall it well enough to confirm from that pic alone. 

The map suggests he was rescued by the waterfall whete I did a big traverse out right and followed baboons down. He probably got down the first waterfall then, which I stayed away from. And hence why I did not see any gear.

I believe the Frenchman a had cellphone signal, and when he realised that he would rather not reverse his route up the first waterfall,  he managed to call someone in France who called someone in South Africa who called someone in authority who activated the rescue squad. The helicopter traversed up and down that area for some time before they found him. He can thank his lucky stars there is a good market for the cellphone companies in the Mweni area.

Definitely the same gully I came down. 

I traversed out onto grass on true right above the mega chockstone you can see in the pic. 

From his position,you could move onto the mega grass ledge on true left. Walk maybe 500m until you clear the rockfall in the cliffs below you. And then go down very steep grass.

It's all here in glorious technicolour:

zoom.earth/#-28.870073,28.967106,17z,sat

In September 2022 I was at Mnweni doing a four day solo hike, and did the extreme unmarked passes Rwanqa North (Tata Ma Chance) Pass up and Mnweni Buttress Pass down. 

I drove down on Friday morning, and departed from the Cultural Centre at about 10h30, walking along the road and the path onto the ridge, and had lunch at the Nceda River crossing. After that I walked up the Middle Path on the Dassie, then further up along the Mnweni River to have a look at Shepherds Cave on my way past, and I overnighted in Shepherds Cave 3 in the Rwanqa valley. Somebody had been using Shepherds Cave 3 as there was reasonably new grass on the floor of the sleeping area, and a bucket to collect water placed under the waterfall over the cave. There was enough water dripping down the waterfall for me to wash and collect water without going down to the main stream for water. 

From just outside Shepherds Cave 3 I had a good view up the pass, as I had had before, and I had planned to go up the ridge on the left (true right) of the gully to miss the bush in the gully, and the dreaded waterfalls and chockstone higher up the gully, although these were not visible from the path up the Rwanqa valley or Shepherds Cave 3, as the ridge obscures them. This pass came to our attention a few years ago when a lone French hiker needed to be rescued by helicopter when he got stuck between the two waterfalls and couldn’t go further down, or back up (see the Dragon’s Wrath 2015 thread for more details). After this AndrewP came down the pass, bypassing the chockstone and waterfalls on steep grass slopes, and called it Tata Ma Chance Pass, as he had literally taken a chance on the spur of the moment to go down the pass. I have discussed this with Andrew, and he is quite happy for this pass to have a more permanent and appropriate name of Rwanqa North Pass, so this is how I refer to the pass. 

The best photos I have of Rwanqa North Pass were taken in 2019 from Ledges Pass, the angle and height from there is just right to capture the whole bottom section of the pass, and the photo below shows Rwanqa North Pass and the surrounding area.  

 

The photo below is zoomed in a bit more, and shows the waterfalls in the pass, where the French hiker had to be rescued, and I have drawn in the approximate route of my ascent with the red line.  

 

The rock bands in the photos on either side of the Rwanqa valley are home to Shepherds Cave 2 on the right (true left), and Shepherds Cave 3 on the left (true right), and in the long rock band of Shepherds Cave 3 there are at least five other useable shelters, and these are also often used by locals. 

On Saturday morning I continued up the path up the Rwanqa valley to the stream crossing, and managed to follow an animal track onto the grass ridge on the left (true right) of the gully, the track even went quite a long way up the ridge. The grass slope of the ridge was quite easy walking and I made good progress up the ridge. In the photo below, the recent rockfall described by Andrew P is visible.  

 

Higher up where the rock bands started blocking my way I traversed right towards the gully, and the photo below shows the view back down the grass ridge, and that I had already traversed a bit towards the gully. As with many of the northern Mnweni passes, great views to the Mnweni Needles and Ledges Cave and Mponjwane area are visible.  

 

Approaching the gully, running diagonally from top left to bottom right in the photo below (not very obvious, behind the foreground rock band and in front of the background rock outcrops), I was below the rock band in the foreground, and found quite high cliffs below me into the gully, and from the view into the gully, I could see that I was still below the chockstone, so I scrambled up the steep rock band and continued ascending grass slopes until I was above the chockstone.  

 

The grass slopes were quite steep and exposed in places, and my thoughts were that this was the same terrain which AndrewP used to bypass the waterfalls from above on his descent. Sadly I couldn’t really see the waterfalls at all from above, as they were obscured by the terrain, and from below the ridge I ascended had obscured them too.  

 

An exposed traverse got me into the gully at the point in the photo below.  

 

I continued up in the boulder bed of the gully, feeling the weight of my overnight pack.