Water Watch 2016

It has rained in Lesotho for a lot of the last 2 weeks, so everything north of Tseke is probably no longer applicable, but here is what I found on my GT:

Tugela dry
Bilanjil dry
Ifidi dry
Icidi stagnant pools near the confluence with the Kubedu
Stimela dry
Mbundini dry till just before the confluence with the river coming down from Rwanqa where it is flowing nicely
Senqu dry higher up, some small flows downstream
River behind Nguza is flowing downstream, but mostly dry higher up
Kwakwatsi is a series of dirty stagnant pools lower down, but is flowing much higher up
Tseke flowing nicely
Organ Pipes valley flowing
River behind Windsor Castle flowing higher up, but dry further down
Thlanyako River dry where we crossed it
Nkosasana small flows in places, mostly dry
Major river south of Champagne ridge is flowing well
Water source for Upper Injisuthi Cave is flowing slowly, but adequately
River flowing south of Mafadi is flowing well
Sanqebethu river is flowing higher up, slow flow though
River behind Thumb Spur is flowing well higher up
River behind the Carbineers is flowing higher up
River behind Long Wall (Jarateng) is flowing well
River behind the Tent and the Hawk is flowing higher up
River flowing north of Redi towards KaMas Pass is flowing near the escarpment edge
The river behind Hlathimba Pass is dry, but the river on the south side of the valley is flowing well
The Mohlesi River is dry lower down, but is flowing near Nhlangeni
The river behind Sehonghong is dry
The main river behind Mangaung Pass is flowing, but the side streams are dry
The Pitsaneng is flowing well
The river down Sandleni Pass is flowing nicely, Sandleni Cave has a solid flow from the back of the cave
All the main rivers south of here are flowing well

Does anyone know if the Tugela is still dry?

Cathedral Peak Hotel just posted this photo on Facebook:


We have had a lot of rain in PMB this month, so hopefully the top is starting to come back to life.

Beautiful!!!

Hi All & Ghaz, two small questions about this topic :
- how many time (hours or days) is it possible to hike the GT without water refueling
on a regular saison basis ?
on a drough basis ?
- which part of the Traverse where this problem will be the most feared ?
( we are planning the GT either mid-april or mid-october )
Thanks, good news that rains return.

mayake wrote: - which part of the Traverse where this problem will be the most feared ?

There are 3 long ridges that you walk along on a GT - even in the wettest years, these will be dry. They are:
- Black and Tan Wall through to the Mnweni Cutback (aka the Cutback Highway)
- Yodeler's to Champagne Castle (the Didima Highway)
- Tent/Hawk to Hlathimba (Redi Ridge)

There are bits where water is often scarce - e.g. the Sehonghong valley if you take the escarpment edge (more scenic) line through there, but otherwise it is hard to predict where water will be.

Behind Organ Pipes Pass it is usually dry, even on my 2 GTs where there was no drought, it was dry there. Yet on my recent GT in the drought, we found good flowing water there - so it really depends on where it has been raining recently.

Personally I would carry 2 litres worth of bottles, and just carry the extra weight. We ran out of water 2 or 3 times on my most recent GT, and it wasn't great. Especially seeing as we left the Tent/Hawk valley around 5:30PM, camped just below Redi Peak, and then found no water for most of the Hlathimba Valley the next day - but fortunately the big river on the south side of the valley was flowing. We filled up our bottles in that river, and then had no water again till we were almost at our camp for the night - but that was mostly because we took a high line through the valley, rather than the river trails.

That is to say that it is possible to not be out of water more than a whole hiking day ? (in these areas)

Unless you really can't find water in one of the valleys, you should never have to go more than a few hours without water.

Right,
my ask was to know if that has to carry the provision of more than one day of water, that is to say more than 2L
For example during my Santo-Antao traverse (Cabo Verde) I had once to carry 5L of water