Mkhomazi Pass

On Saturday, Michael R, Johan and myself went up Mkomazi Pass. I have no clue why the map and all GPS tracks seem to go up from Birds Nest Cave (which is what we also did) - the river valley looks far easier and seems to have a trail.

Anyway - we slogged up the hill and then traversed into the Mkomazi River Valley and camped at 2300m next to the river. There was a good trail from when we hit the river to the top (well, it occasionally died, but not for long).

There were some horses grazing at the bottom of the pass, at the guy at the Vergelegen offices warned us that the pass is being used a lot by locals at the moment - although there wasn't much litter, so I don't think it is getting as much use as, say, Camel Pass.

The approach is fairly steep up the river bed, but once the zig-zags up the pass start, it is fairly gentle and you can actually get up pretty quickly.

The pass is right below Nhlangeni Peak, and the valley on the approach is really spectacular - although the pass itself isn't particularly interesting. It tops out right near Thabana Ntlenyana, although you would still have to slog 6km up about 600m of vertical to get there.

Full story at this link .

 
 

 

Last week I did a three day solo hike at Vergelegen, ascending Mkhomazi Pass on the first day.

I was quite intrigued to read in the previous posts that the route now goes past Birds Nest Cave. In the 1990’s I did two weekend hikes to the top of Thabana Ntlenyana, both via Mkhomazi Pass up and down, as training/qualifying hikes for the annual Mountain Backpackers Club Grand Traverse, and we used a different approach onto the ridge that didn’t go past Birds Nest Cave. I can clearly remember looking down at Birds Nest Cave as we passed on the ridge high above, and also have photos of this in my photo albums from then, and I have never been to Birds Nest Cave. I could vaguely recall going up some zig zags onto the crest of the ridge downstream of Birds Nest Cave, and planned to find those zig zags and go up them again (if they still exist) on this hike, having noted the comments in ghaznavid’s post about the steepness of the route from Birds Nest Cave onto the ridge, and seeing the very steep side slope of this section in his photos.

I left from Vergelegen office back along the road, and went off the road onto the bypass path after about 600 m, which soon joined an old jeep track that comes from the road and used to be drivable quite far up the Mkhomazi valley, but has been damaged by washaways and is no longer usable for vehicles. The photo below shows a view up the Mkhomazi valley from the path, with the escarpment in the background. The escarpment peaks visible at the right are King Kong (the pointy thing) and to the right of it, the flatter topped Nhlangeni Peak, and Mkhomazi Pass passes behind these peaks to the right of them.



The path follows the right (true left) of the river going upstream until just upstream of the confluence of the Mkhomazi and kaNtuba Rivers, and then crosses the Mkhomazi River, and splits at junction C 13 with paths continuing up the kaNtuba River and up the left (true right) of the Mkhomazi River. I had my morning break at the river crossing, and afterwards continued upstream on the left of the river. After path junction C 13 the trail was a bit fainter but I could still follow it without difficulty.

At the confluence of the Mkhomazi and Nhlangeni Rivers, the trail does not cross the Nhlangeni River and continue upstream along the Mkhomazi River, it continues upstream on the left (true right) of the Nhlangeni River. The photo below shows the ridge between the two rivers at the centre of the photo, with the Mkhomazi River going behind the ridge and the Nhlangeni River going in front of it.



Continuing along the trail up the Nhlangeni River, about 350 m from the confluence with the Mkhomazi River there is a cairn marking path junction C 14, the split of the Mkhomazi Pass and Nhlangeni Pass routes. There is no trail going along the Mkhomazi Pass route, but I headed gradually right towards the Nhlangeni River looking for a suitable crossing point, and for signs of the zig zags going up the ridge between the Nhlangeni and Mkhomazi Rivers. At the trees in the photo below, next to the river and up the ridge, I found the river crossing, and the zig zags going up the ridge were just behind the trees. Along the way I passed remnants of a trail here and there. In the background of the photo, the pointed peak King Kong is visible, with the flatter Nhlangeni Peak immediately behind and to the right of King Kong.



I crossed the river, and once across I could see the trail going through the trees to the base of the zig zags. The river crossing is at S29° 31.006' E29° 22.587' at 1767 m, my gps coordinates. The photo below shows a view back across the Nhlangeni River after I had crossed over.



A view of the clearing through the trees to the base of the zig zags.



Knowing I would be on the ridge for a while without water, I had lunch at the river crossing, before heading on up the zig zags, which although a bit overgrown were still clearly visible and showed signs of use with a trail most of the way.



Once on the crest of the ridge, you just follow the ridge crest all the way along the ridge until the ridge runs out and you contour in the Mkhomazi valley and are at the base of Mkhomazi Pass. In the photo below the background peaks at the left are again King Kong with Nhlangeni Peak behind and to the right, and at the right Ngaqamadolo.



The view from the ridge to the Nhlangeni River, with Birds Nest cave on the other side of the river. I still have not been to Birds Nest Cave, but no doubt will get there when I do Nhlangeni and Mohlesi Passes.

A view back along the ridge with the Mkomazi River on the left. There was a faint trail most of the way along the ridge, although it disappeared in places.



At the end of the ridge there are several trails contouring around the base of King Kong and Nhlangeni Peak to the right towards the Mkhomazi River and the top section of Mkhomazi Pass. In places, as in the photo below, the trail is a clear path, while in other places there is nothing. The top of Mkhomazi Pass is the low point on the left in the photo below, where the cloud is, with the slopes of Nhlangeni Peak to the left. The gully to the low point on the right also looks quite doable, but it doesn’t have a path and tops out at a less accessible spot than Mkhomazi Pass.



The trail follows the top of the river terrace on the left (true right) up to the zig zags at the top of Mkhomazi Pass.



At the base of the zig zags a long section goes quite far away from the river at a gentle gradient up the slope on the left (true right) of the river. The photo below shows the view back down the trail to the river.



A view ahead of the long zig zag returning to the river at a gentle up gradient.



Above the long zig zag there are a series of short zig zags going up to the top of Mkhomazi Pass.



The top section of the pass is flatter to not require zig zags.



My summit photo at the cairn at the top of Mkhomazi Pass, with the pass behind me.



I tented next to the stream near the top of Mkhomazi Pass, doing a summit exploration and all the khulus to the top of Mlahlangubo Pass the next day, and descending Mlahlangubo Pass on the following day.