Injisuthi loop: Wet hiker, hidden dragon

I am progressively running out of references to mist to use in hike report names. I’ll soon just have “hikers in the mist” left…

So the goal was rather simple, head up to Centenary Hut for Friday night, push for Upper Injisuthi Cave on Saturday via Corner Pass and on Sunday we would go for the 20km push back to the carpark.

Seeing as this is a very conventional route, and I don’t like doing anything normal, I thought an approach via the Poachers Stream ridge could be interesting. We also would not opt for the high access approach to Corner Pass.

So the team – made up of Simon (Fitness), Bugs, Ian (ASL), Riaan and myself – after aiming to start by 8, left the carpark just after 10. Always fun to start a hike by walking down the road, but seeing as it’s a change of scenery for all of us, I wasn’t particularly worried.

The mist was hovering around 2000m, and seeing as it’s my first time at Injisuthi, it took a while – and some map reading – to figure out where all the surrounding escarpment peaks were.

Upon reaching the road bridge I heard a chorus of “the sign says centenary hut is this way”. Upon them discovering that this route was 2km shorter, I was outnumbered in the vote of which route to use!





Before long we were walking up the wide valley between the massive rock cliffs. There was a cave right near the start, about a 4 sleeper just above the river, the path goes right past it. At first I thought it was Grindstone cave, but on inspecting on the way back I realised it wasn’t Grindstone Cave. On inspecting the map a few minutes ago I realise that Grindstone Cave is actually in a different valley. Anyone know the name of this cave?

We slowly headed up the trail, through a boulder field with massive featured rocks, abnormally large boulders and even a cave dubbed “Beach Cave” by Fitness. The cave is right on the river and would probably only be useful in the drier months, it also has a high roof and is well off the path. Always good to know of such spots in an emergency!





Just before the split in the path we bumped into a familiar face – Stijn was on his way back from the start of Leslies Pass. Unfortunately his attempt had not gone according to plan, tough to break a sub 10 hour speed record in low mist. It was nice to meet another VE member.

After a brief chat we continued on and soon found a nice lunch spot on a big flat rock just before the river crossing. We knew we had very little ground to cover and really didn’t need to rush. But in a few hours time we would be wondering if this attitude was not a huge mistake.

After lunch we crossed the river. I knew the path should fork somewhere around here, but I didn’t see a split. I had thought we had reached the split earlier, but was wrong – maybe I was wrong again?

After a few minutes the large fences that surround Battle Cave came into view – unfortunately I wasn’t wrong this time. We backtracked a bit and after a brief detour through the long grass we found the path we were looking for.

We followed the path up the river as it gently gained altitude. The surrounding views were very pleasant. Despite the fact that the Dragon remained hidden, it was still a spectacular area.

After some time walking up this valley I knew we had to take a path that ascended the ridge and turned up a river. This was based off looking at the map intently during this stretch up the river – unfortunately I had planned for the Poachers Ridge route, not this one. So here we were – 5 people, none of whom had ever been to Centenary Hut, walking just below the mist and trying to follow a route based on a map and not much else.

We soon found a turnoff, which may or may not have had anything to do with the path we were looking for. Looking back now I am pretty sure we took the wrong path here, but in retrospect I don’t think it really mattered.





Before the hike I had tried to find a GPS co-ordinate of the hut, but couldn’t find one. I found the hut on GE and used that co-ordinate – a fact I only remembered a few hours later.

Eventually we found ourselves quite high above the river and at a corner of a ridge where 2 rivers meet. I looked at the map and saw we had to head up a side river, so we continued up the route. Dropping a bit of altitude along the way, but not much. I actually can’t tell you why I chose this route, but a good thing I did!

We followed this river, and soon had no path. My GPS was telling me that we were only 2km from the hut, but it was as if we were almost walking around the hut, not toward it. We debated heading up a nearby ridge, but soon saw a faint path up the side of the next ridge and opted for that instead. The path matched the map, it followed the nose of the ridge, and shortly thereafter went past the hut – or so the map said.

We began to walk up the ridge. It was marginally steep, not bad at all. My feet were wet and my toes were completely numb, nothing that any of us are unfamiliar with. Soon we had lost the path, but not to worry – my GPS said we were close and we easily found a break in the rock band. It turns out that we took the wrong side of the ridge!

Soon we were on top of the ridge. The wind was strong – well, strong for the small Berg anyway. I would only realise during the follow day that while walking up this hill I had passed my 1000km of hiking in the Berg mark – something I had known would be coming during this trip.

We crossed a dried up river, but I could see small amounts of water nearby. I knew there was no water near the hut, and Bugs suggested that we fill our bottles here, so we did. Oh the joys of going from 300ml of water to 3.6 litres!

We quickly approached the spot where my GPS said the hut was, Bugs and I left our packs with the group and decided to look ahead before taking the group through – just in case it was wrong.

My GPS was about to become the enemy of the team! We walked to the exact spot only to find some burnt grass. We went a bit further and found a path. We followed it to the base of a hill, but decided not to go up the hill. We went back to tell the team we had a path, but no hut.

We walked to the path, and told the team that we had tried the right hand side with no luck, so we went left. We were walking gently uphill, so we assumed the escarpment must be in that direction. But after what felt like 1km, but was actually closer to 200m, I said that if the hut was in this direction, we would have walked past it by now.

So out came the GPS, I asked for my current coordinate and looked on the map. We were walking away from the hut.

The team was starting to get annoyed at me – after all, I was the one who said we must leave our tents in the car. The logic – in a situation like this we would have simply taken the tents out and stopped looking for the hut. I have no doubt that if we carried tents we would have slept in them this night, I don’t think that would have been a good thing.

We turned around and followed the path back, and started to climb the ridge – at the top was Centenary Hut! The time was around 5PM, so we still had an hour of sunlight left.

I have since studied the route via maps, photos etc. The route I took the team on was actually almost perfectly direct. If Bugs and I had merely walked up the hill to begin with we would have reached the hut an hour earlier. It goes to prove a point – while a GPS usually will tell you the truth, the truth without context may be misleading. My GPS was off by around 100m as the crow flies – not bad for a co-ordinate taken off GE, which isn’t even on the same datum as my GPS.

The hut is surprisingly large, as Diverian suggested, the kitchen is the best spot to sleep. The floor of the hut is covered in broken class and litter. The door is the only thing in good condition. If you take a foam mattress you can still use the bunk beds (which Bugs did do), but I don’t know that I would try this. The windows in the Kitchen have been covered with the frame of an old metal door.

Having reached the hut we all started sorting out our foods, beds etc and by 8PM we were all in bed.

As far as my impressions of the hut go – it’s by no means the worst hut I have ever seen, its actually in pretty good shape for something that has basically been abandoned. That being said – I see little purpose in its existence, and see no reason why it should not be torn down if they are looking to reduce the amount of buildings in the WHS.

During the night we heard lots of rain, and at times the rain fell softer. I thought to myself – there will be deep snow up top!

During discussions over supper it had become clear that most of the group wasn’t keen for a 20km final day. I had also learned that, when wet, my Hi-Tec Sierra Nevada boots had not grip. This combined with the probable snow had taken Corner Pass out as an option.

So the revised goal for Saturday: head for Judge Pass and if there isn’t snow, go for UI Cave. If there is, play in it and return to Centenary Hut for the night.



The goal was to be walking by 6:30 – giving us enough time to hit the escarpment and get back safely. When my alarm clock went off it became clear that the group had really lost interest in hitting the top. Normal convention of eating breakfast and getting dressed before leaving your sleeping bag seemed to have gone out of the window, and by 8:30 we were finally out of the hut.

There was a thin patchy snow covering around the hut, and thick mist at a low level. We followed the path that should lead up to the contour path. It felt steep and long, although on looking at it later in the day we would find that we gained 20m in altitude and only covered 100m of walking!

It was bitterly cold, I had not felt my toes since putting my wet shoes back on, but at least after starting to walk the rest of me was warming up nicely!

Every few minutes the mud and ice on Ian’s shoes would fall off leaving a frozen footprint. Animal droppings were freezing and attaching themselves to the straps of my gaiters. It took a lot of force to get these loose. This was definitely not hiking as usual – well, not for me anyway.



We very slowly walked around the ridges below the Great Corner. The rivers were dry, and there was a general light dusting of snow.





After a while we reached the base of Corner Pass. We filled our bottles in the river and had a short break. By now the agreement was this, we would reach the base of Judge Pass, myself and Bugs would go up without packs and then we would hike to Lower Injisuthi Cave for the night. Unfortunately it was already past 10 and still misty, if we wanted to do this, we needed to hurry.



The team was tired and wet, there was no apparent urgency. By the time we hit Judge Pass it was clear that we were not hitting the escarpment today. We stopped for another break near the base of Judge Pass, I walked ahead to the start of the pass. I had now covered close to the entire contour path within the bounds of Giant’s Castle Nature Reserve, merely needing to add the small stretch between Middle Ridge and Langalibalele Pass.

After a while we began to head back. We stopped for yet another break at the base of Corner Pass. Ian boiled up some water and we all enjoyed something hot to drink. That gas stove of his is ridiculous, it does 1 litre of water in 40 seconds!



The clouds cleared for a few moments, just enough time to show us the pass that lurked above us.

We began the walk toward the cave, now with the mist up to about 2400m, the weather being much warmer and a much easier goal in mind, we were covering our ground at good pace. The team was looking more happy, had become rather chatty and we were even stopping for group photos along the contour path.

From Centenary Hut we went through a massive valley – this would have been below the walls of the Great Corner – but sadly we couldn’t see it towering above us.



Once we had circled the entire valley, the path began to flip back around into the next valley. After 100m we stopped and I pulled the map out – this isn’t right, we are supposed to be going down that ridge, not traversing to the river?

I looked in front of me and could see where Hilton Pass would be, this definitely wasn’t right.

After a long debate we agreed to go off path and try to find the “ill-defined way to go” the map had described. The GPS was about to become even more hated than it was the day before!



We began to walk off the path, apparent paths appeared in the distance, but turned out to be different coloured grass, or small eroded patches. There was talk of a path lower down, but we didn’t end up using it. In retrospect I imagine this path lead somewhere else as it was on the wrong side of the slope.

We bundu bashed down this ridge for well over an hour, I was pretty sure I knew where the cave was, but could sense that team morale was down with this awkward terrain.



On hitting the river lower down we found a decent path. As usual, this path ended about 200m later!

The team was about ready to give up and just push for the carpark – we would reach there by 8PM if we did well for time. I was convinced that we were close to the cave and had spotted a possible shelter across the river near where the cave would most likely be.

Bugs and I pushed ahead again and on looking back, there was a large rock overhang with trees in front of it at the exact spot where Lower Injisuthi Cave should be. I tell the team that I am 80% sure that is the cave. After some indecisive replies we decide to push for it. Soon we are on a well worn path with erosion barriers, crossing a river and, what do you know – there’s the cave!





A Pietermaritzburg based family was spending the night there, but didn’t mind us joining them.

It turns out that there is a small panel of rock art at Lower Injisuthi Cave. This is odd seeing as it’s a cave marked on the map and which you are allowed to sleep in. Not much on the panel, but it is still something.



Sunday was largely uneventful. The weather had cleared, so we had spectacular views of the escarpment, I woke up to the view of sunrise over the Greater Injisuthi Buttress – that was pretty cool!



It took us 3 hours to reach the car park. Lower Injisuthi Cave was much better than what I expected. From reviews and photos I was expecting something a bit more like [no so] Fun Cave. But it turns out to be a great shelter, high above the river, but close enough that it’s easy to get water. Both Simon and Ian were planning to bring their children to the cave for a weekend outing – and with the nearby rock pools, easy access and great setting – I’m not surprised!

Smurfatefrog wrote: This cave? About 1km from the road with the river on your left as you hiking in?

Thats the one

diverian wrote: Mmm sounds like I should have come along to navigate

I was thinking the same thing at the time!

diverian wrote: Where in the cave are those paintings, I have spent a few nights there and visited it on a number of day hikes and not seen them, but then again I wasn't aware there were any to look for.

In the photo where I am looking down the cave I am standing right next to the paintings.

My 1500^th post

Great write up Ghaz once again, was a good weekend, although the snow never played ball like in the southern berg it was awesome to go hike and see a different part of the berg.