Mnweni area - central index post

The idea of this thread is to provide a summary of what is on offer in the Mnweni portion of the Drakensberg. Links can direct everyone to specific details of passes etc. The idea is to include what is typically accessed from here rather than a strict boundary as per maps. Ntonjelane Pass is thus listed here even though it is technically in the Didema area.

Please comment as to whether you like the idea or not, and offer improvements or extra info. If it takes off, we can do the same for other areas.

PS - if anyone can think of a better topic title, please shout

Any extra and relevant info or corrections, please share

General
The Mnweni area is one of the few areas of the Drakensberg that is not part of the World Heritage Site. There is however a strong sense within the locals of wanting to look after the area and an attempt to get it included. I first visited the area in the early 90’s. Now days, the area has significantly less settlement than back then and it seems to be operating on a sustainable basis.

The lower portions of hikes tend to be within rural settlements. This means dull and long roads, the occasional dogs and a few children begging for sweets (fewer than you would expect). If you tackle this section of the hike early enough, before it gets too warm, it is still pleasant enough and is certainly not a reason to avoid the area. Alternatively, you can get a someone to drop you off / pick you up close to the end of the road.

Once you get beyond the roads, the area changes character quickly. Most passes have good paths on the approach and there is a reasonable chance of seeing cows and herdsman along the way. I have only ever had pleasant experiences with them. At night you may see smugglers – if you give them a wide berth, they normally leave you alone.

By the time you reach the pass itself, you feel remote and untouched.

The passes tend to have long approaches (most passes top out over 20km from car) and relatively few people will try get up a pass in a single day. It is generally not a good place to try get an easy one day ascent of a peak.

The brave will attempt the annual Mnweni Marathon. This 38km trail run goes up Mnweni Pass and down Rockeries Pass in a single day (normally the 2nd Saturday of May). Each year a field of close to 200 runners will start out, and typically only 1 or 2 runners fail to finish. Which is a rather impressive stat, especially as this is the first time for most people that they will do 2 Drakensberg passes in a day. The course record for this is 4:19, yet the 5 hour barrier has proven over the years to be surprisingly hard to break. The majority of people finish within 8 - 11 hours.
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/drakensberg-trail-running-adventure-racing/56083-mnweni-marathon.html


Accommodation
The Mnweni Visitor Center is the logical start / end point for most hikes. This is the location of the mountain register and is the best place to park your car. You can camp here or stay in basic bungalows. You need to bring your own food, but can use a kitchen in a communal hall for you cooking. Moliva’s Store, a few km back on the road, will sell a few basic commodities. If you want a cold beer, that is easy enough to find. Not being one of the KZN parks, the rules are more relaxed with no gate closure times to worry about.


Day hikes
The little berg in the area sees very little hiking action. For a few ideas, look at the maps displayed in the visitor center of hikes nearby. They are worth it. Day hikes are limited though by the need to pass through 4-5km of dirt road (one way) through the rural areas.
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/8-drakensberg-hiking/55709-mind-on-manzana.html
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/8-drakensberg-hiking/55588-outer-mnweni-needle-traverse.html


Passes
Ntonjelane, Rockeries and Mnweni are the major passes in the area. Each of these has a very distinct path running the whole way from the road to the summit. Other passes tend to be overgrown, and passes such as Pins or Icidi frequently pop up in topics of toughest berg passes. Many a hiker has a secret ambition one day to complete the 10 named passes of the area. Several people have done this, but nobody has done all of the passes listed below:
Ifidi www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/4161-ifidi-pass.html
Icidi www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/934-icidi-pass.html?limit=6&start=18
Mbundini www.vertical-endeavour.com/blog/38-drakensberg/passes/129-mbundini-pass.html
Madonna www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/55457-madonna-pass.html#58781
Fangs www.vertical-endeavour.com/blog/38-drakensberg/passes/132-fangs-pass.html
Tata ma Chance  www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/56494-tata-ma-chance,-a-new-pass-near-rwanqa.html#73765
Rwanqa www.vertical-endeavour.com/blog/38-drakensberg/passes/135-rwanqa-pass.html
Pins www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/55455-pins-pass.html
Manxome www.vertical-endeavour.com/blog/38-drakensberg/passes/136-manxome-pass.html
Hanging Valleys www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/55958-new-pass-up-the-hanging-valleys.html
Mnweni Buttress www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/56151-mnweni-buttress-pass.html#69582
Mnweni www.vertical-endeavour.com/blog/38-drakensberg/passes/138-mnweni-pass.html
Ledgers  www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/56507-ledgers-pass,-a-new-pass-in-the-mweni.html#73880
Mponjwane www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/56169-mponjwane-pass.html
Mnweni Needles www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/56328-mnweni-needles-pass.html#72002
Rockeries www.vertical-endeavour.com/blog/38-drakensberg/passes/140-rockeries-pass.html
Nguza www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/53697-nguza-pass.html
South Saddle www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/drakensberg-trips/55423-nguza-pass-trip-report.html#55361
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/drakensberg-trips/56037-pins-pass-south-saddle-pass-tis-but-a-scratch.html#69569
Ntonjelane North www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/56201-ntonjelane-north-pass.html
Ntonjelane www.vertical-endeavour.com/blog/38-drakensberg/passes/146-ntonjelana-pass.html
Christmas www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/55384-christmas-pass.html
Twins ???
Scramble Kop ridge www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/56416-the-ridge-linking-mnweni-visitor-center-to-cathedral-peak.html

Peaks
The Mnweni area probably has the highest concentration of pinnacles anywhere in the ‘berg. Some of these such as the Ifidi Pinnacles are easiest approached from the Sentinel Car Park. At the other end of the spectrum, the Mnweni Pinnacles are very remote, offer long climbs and might be the least climbed major summits in the Drakensberg. Numerous pinnacles can be found in the Fangs Pass area, the back of the Mnweni Cutback and of course the Mponjwane / Rockeries cluster.

A few links to specific climbs in the area follow:
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/9-drakensberg-climbing/55680-south-ifidi-pinnacle-gendarme.html
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/9-drakensberg-climbing/55663-outer-mnweni-pinnacle.html
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/9-drakensberg-climbing/56004-mponjwane.html
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/9-drakensberg-climbing/55784-first-ascent-of-pinnacle-on-ncedamabutho-ridge.html
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/9-drakensberg-climbing/55240-the-saddle-north-peak.html
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/9-drakensberg-climbing/56202-south-saddle-peak.html

Details of the abseil route on Inner Mnweni Pinnacle:
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/9-drakensberg-climbing/56458-inner-mnweni-pinnacle-abseil-route.html

For those who are adventurous, it is possible to abseil down the back of the Mnweni Cutback.  Not for anyone without solid experience at setting up abseils in the Drakensberg:
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/8-drakensberg-hiking/56440-mnweni-cutback-abseil.html

Escarpment hikes
The vast majority of the Northern Traverse follows the escarpment of the Mnweni Area.
The valley behind the North Saddle leading down to the Senqu has lots of very good pools to swim in.
The Cathedral Ridge is part of the Didema area, but of course dominates views to the south. The bell traverse can be done from the Mnweni side – the hike along the ridge behind Scramble Kop follows a good path as far as the base of the puddings.

Lower Berg Caves
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/55484-which-cave-is-five-star-cave.html
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/4-waterfall-cave.html


Escarpment Caves
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/1904-the-caves-of-ifidi.html
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/1325-fangs-cave.html
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/44-skylight-cave.html
Rat Hole www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/41-rathole-cave.html
Pins Cave www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/56451-pins-cave.html#73272
Ledgers www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/56040-how-to-find-ledgers-cave-from-mnweni-pass.html
Mponjwane
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/53591-caves-around-ntonjelana-pass.html


Caves on the Bell Traverse
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/55737-twins-cave.html
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/1539-outer-horn-cave.html
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/56221-bell-cave.html
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/55146-drip-cave,-bell-traverse.html
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/12-drakensberg-caves/577-trencher-s-cave.html


Attractions
Source of Orange/Senqu
The area has several really good swimming spots
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/drakensberg-trips/55587-mnweni-pools.html
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/14-drakensberg-general/55702-pools-along-the-mnweni-valley.html


Map
The link to the interactive map below shows OSM data combined with contours for the Mnweni area. Zoom in to see passes, caves and path details. (Map generated by OpenTopoMap, and well done to them for such a simple and slick idea. Very useful for the Drakensberg as OSM holds a lot more information about paths, passes and peaks than Google)
opentopomap.org/#marker=12/-28.8561/29.0482

Very good idea. Maybe we should have a summary like this for each area. The problem will be to keep them updated as new information pops in. Maybe a better thread title would be “detailed summary” instead of “central index post”

Nice idea AndrewP.

To keep this thread tidy, I would suggest that people post additions in the normal way and those that are worthwhile could be added to the index at the start of the thread by AndrewP editing his own post.The thread will then maintain its promised status as an index or sorts.

This is a brief comment on a variation to Mnweni Pass.
The first time we went down the pass, we picked the wrong starting point on the escarpment and descended one of the gullies to the west of the actual pass. The distance between the start of this descent and the real Mnweni Pass is less than 100m. Whereas Mnweni Pass has a very well (badly?) worn path and the path breaks out to the east onto the grassy slope about 1/3 of the way down, the alternative gully we followed has no such exit. The gully persists most of the way down to the valley bottom. It's loose, steep and slow - add about 2 hours or more to the normal time But it does go.

AndrewP wrote: 

Passes
Ntonjelane, Rockeries and Mnweni are the major passes in the area. Each of these has a very distinct path running the whole way from the road to the summit. Other passes tend to be overgrown, and passes such as Pins or Icidi frequently pop up in topics of toughest berg passes. Many a hiker has a secret ambition one day to complete the 10 named passes of the area. Several people have done this, but nobody has done all of the passes listed below:
 

Having done Hanging Valleys Pass in June, I have now done all of the passes in Andrew’s list, as well as the Black and Tan Wall Passes which are not in the list, and I have done all of the known passes at Mnweni. 

Many of the Mnweni Passes have variations, and for clarity, I have not done all the variations available (although I have done quite a few), but I have done all the main passes.

I am curious whether anyone else has also done this.