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Anybody done it and can comment on:
- difficulty compared to Organ Pipes and Mlambonja,
- levels of Basotho activity
- good overnight spots?

Also the Parks Board map shows that the path heading up the valley to the base of Tlanyaku, branches off to the left and heads up Eastman's Peak - would welcome info on that as well.

I'd rate it about the same as Mlambonja, perhaps a little steeper in places. More difficult than Organ Pipes. Ratings are pretty subjective but I did find it surprisingly steep and sustained (perhaps my initial expectations where that it was easier), though there is nothing technical about it. The path is generally good, though it does have some eroded bits. It does not have the nasty bushy bits that Mlambonja has - once you leave the river on the approach the climb starts swiftly onto a grassy ridge.

It is a major smuggling route. The well defined trail continues on at the top, eventually meeting up with the trail coming down from "Smugglers Pass" (at Ndumeni), at the entrance to Yodlers Cascades. In my view it belongs to the Tlanyaku smuggling corridor - one of the most notorious in the Berg, to which Organ Pipes also belongs. You may want to avoid doing this during the peak smuggling season. Anytime now up until about January should be relatively quiet still.

Schoongezicht Cave is an excellent place to start from, as well as the campsite a bit further up the valley (the trail splits just before this - the right split bypassing the campsite). For camping on top, explore the areas north of the pass on the slopes coming down from Little Saddle (some co-ordinates listed in the article Troubled Times at Cathedral Peak) - this will get you away from stomping gum boots.

Have not ventured over Eastman's Ridge from there yet, though that trail is visible. It is quite a climb, a mini-pass in itself. My impression is that the trail along the river approaching this climb may be a little vague.

Will post GPS data for Tlanyaku when I get a gap.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info Intrepid!

Been toying with the idea of heading up Tlanyaku to Lesotho and exploring Yodlers and some of the other streams for wild trout. Apparently there are some good ones lurking around in many of the upper reaches of the rivers. Other option would be to head up Organs, and cross Ndumeni Dome, but a change of scenery would be good.

Working at KZN Wildlife makes it difficult to accept that there may be "wild" trout in Lesotho. While I may be a trout fisherman (in the lower reaches of the midlands), I cannot understand how trout may have reched those areas unless introduced from the Lesotho area. I would certainly be interested if you come across any! I will arrange a site visit with our aquatic scientists immediately, as this would most certainly affect the World Heritage Site. Part of the "buffer" on the lower reaches is to delineate how far up the newly appointed management authority (EKZNW) is prepared to allow artificial and naturalised trout to occur in rivers, without it having an undue effect on current fish species who would naturally have occurred in these river systems, like "Tugela Labeos" and "Tugela Yellow fish". Please let me know if you come across any trout "up top". Apart from making an interesting field visit, it would give me another brilliant opportunity to visit "my office outside of my current office" .

Look forward to hearing back from you.

If you have further inquiries about EKZNW and the Berg and cannot find answers here or at the KZNWildlife website, please contact me with a pm (you will need to be a user in order to do so), and I will do my best to respond.

Trout was introduced into Berg rivers in the 1920's and 1930's already, and I guess the idea spread to the rivers of the escarpment around the same time. I have heard of people carrying "buckets" of trout out of Yodlers Cascades years back. I think there may be a few left here and there. Malcolm Pearse relates how the rivers of the Mweni used to be filled with trout and that is was easy to catch them. They were eventually fished out when word about it spread.

Do let us know if you catch any ...I've had thoughts of throwing in a fly there myself to see if anything stirs. Didn't see any sign of them on previous occasions.

Intrepid is spot on, trout were apparently carried in as fingerlings in containers on horseback and released in the upper reaches of the Lesotho rivers 60 or 70 years back, if not more. Not sure whether the stockers came up from the Natal side or not, but they must have been a zealous (and very antisocial) bunch either way .

An old bullet at a fishing tackle shop I used to visit told me that he used to hike up Ntonjelane pass and spend a few days flyfishing the streams on the Lesotho side. There were trout...and not just the dozen-to-a-shoebox size of small fish, but the odd hook-straightener . Not lots of trout, the summit is a bit thin on insects and so on to support many fish, but the main thing is...they're supposed to be up there, and it'll be a lot of fun finding out if it's true.

Anyone who has done any traverses and been any distance inside Lesotho will know this is not as far-fetched an idea as it sounds - the rivers on the Lesotho side pick up volume quite quickly, and there are enough large pools to sustain fish in drought or through winters. These pools are the key, apparently the fish keep to them and fishing the rapids is a waste of time.

Only concern I've got is the security.