La Niña for the next 3 or 4 months

@Sterkhorn.  Interesting, and well done to the little ones, especailly with an arm in a sling!  Does the last image show the main crossing on the iNinjusti?  

I recall a trip that ST2 and I did in Feb 2004.  The plan had been to try and get up Hilton Pass, plus have a good stream of water in the Red Wall waterfall for photography, obviously these two objectives should have been for two different seasons!  We crossed at the main crossing and walked diagonally against the flow, by mid stream, I was almost loosing the battle of foward momentum with the river level just below waist high, 84cm in my case.  Fortunately and with the assistance of calm thinking and trekking poles we made it across.  But it was really touch and go and very tiring.  In the Jan and Feb 2004, there had been 484mm of rain, though Nov and Dec had been low.  

So this season could well be a record one for rainfall.  On the 24 Dec 2025 they measured 67mm of rain at RNNP that I think would really have made river crossing quite epic!

I will post again the final figures for December, but so far, the amount is 158mm and 16% over average, but when you already had 175% above average for November, it all just adds up.  So not surprised the rivers are pumping.  The Tugela Falls must be looking quite good.

@Serious Tribe.   The last picture is at the main crossing, but some 20-30 meters higher up than the standard crossing area. The standard crossing area looked treacherous when we arrived on day 3, hence the searching for a safer crossing.

I think there has been so much rain in the Berg at present, that there is possibly no more seepage into the water table, so any more rain just becomes runoff.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out into January/February. 

@supertramp did you guys by any chance see a group of 3 hikers near Bannerman on Friday? Nix, her mom and cousin did a DGT over that period (North to South). She and her mom ended up finishing in 8 days (her cousin had to bail at Giant's).

Needless to say, apparently the conditions was pretty rough up there - though not a ridiculous amount of rain, just super wet underfoot.

I was on seconding duties haha

PJordaan wrote:

@supertramp did you guys by any chance see a group of 3 hikers near Bannerman on Friday? Nix, her mom and cousin did a DGT over that period (North to South). She and her mom ended up finishing in 8 days (her cousin had to bail at Giant's).

Needless to say, apparently the conditions was pretty rough up there - though not a ridiculous amount of rain, just super wet underfoot.

I was on seconding duties haha

Hi @PJordaan,
 
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that our paths crossed with theirs briefly at the top of Bannerman's pass. We had just met up with our team that ascended Bannerman's and was about to scout for a campsite before the weather came in 

Glad to hear of their successful attempt, 8 days is quite an achievement. They were privileged to have you on seconding duties, haha We took a more 'leisurely' 12 days to do ours (South to North) . The conditions, especially in the Southern Berg was quite wet underfoot but it definitely seemed to ease up significantly as we moved to the north. Overall, we were once again blessed with excellent weather and only walked a sum total of 3 hours in the rain throughout the entire trip (our 5am starts and 2pm finishes tends to work like a charm). December GT's for the win!!!!

 

Dec rainfall figures update:  
RNNP 174mm + 27%
Shaleburn 317mm +131%

Great thread to read, thanks all.
Attaching pics from Gorge Pools in Injisuthi, Sept 2025 VS Jan 2026.

Seriously different.  You would have got quite drenched or worse had you been in the same spot!

Jan rainfall figures update:  
RNNP Data is suspect as in no data
Mike's Pass weather station is 148mm
Shaleburn 104mm -41%

So a drop in rainfall.  I have found it interesting that while the berg is getting good rain, down here at the coast, it is just hot as hades, but no rain.  Usually we should be getting some good rain!

I see the downward trend is continueing quite a bit now... I'm keen to plan a hike that isn't also a swim soon!  

So far, this coming Sunday is cooler with no rain. 

Mike Pass so far 138mm for Feb.  So perhaps still take your flippers.  We were up in Underberh last week and they had 78mm in six days.  Not flood rain, but big thunderstorms from about 2 until 6 in the evening.  Big lighting strikes killed about 15 cattle in two incidents on the farms around where we were staying and split two massive oak trees near by.