Who is doing or has done the Grand Traverse

Not to long,
Melted pretty quickly, by the time we had gotten back to the car park the snow on top of the ridge opposite had melted.
Was a great hike though, always nice just to be out there.

My friend Brendon Ferrar asked me to post on his behalf his successful DGT. We started Wednesday 20th April 01h50 in the morning from Sentinel Car Park. I was only with Brendon on first day and I descended Rockeries in the afternoon of Day 1.

Brendon carried on and finished at Bushmans Neck in 92 hours and 15 minutes. I could not get much out of him except it was tough and the last section seemed to go on for ever.

Thanks for the update and well done to him! I've updated the FKT list: www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/14-drakensberg-general/55826-drakensberg-fkts-record-of-times.html?start=20#65856

Hi guys

Myself and friend are/were planning on doing the GT over ten days between 27 Aug and 10 Sept. We recently read that a large chunk of the route had been closed due to safety/security concerns. Can anyone confirm whether this is in fact the case?

If it is, we are looking around for alternative locations where a 10 day trip would be feasible. If anyone has any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Paul

No parts of the Drakensberg have been closed

Hi Paul,

Ah, another person from Cape Town

Follow this thread, that area is not closed yet. But could be:

www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/2-drakensberg-security/55995-berg-alert-2016.html?start=80

Following the posts regarding being asked for unusual things by locals.

While I was returning to the Red Wall Ridge where I had left my pack with Harry and Ruan after summiting Lithobolong last Saturday, two Basotho wearing normal clothes (not blankets) started following me. I was moving pretty fast and holding my gps in my hand, occasionally raising and looking at it. I got back to the other guys and my pack, and the two guys soon joined us and an interesting conversation ensued. They opened the conversation by requesting that we give them a diamond detector! The one guy motioned like you would use a metal detector, but the other one motioned like I had been walking with my gps! Clearly they thought we are finding diamonds in the berg and wanted in on the action. After some animated cordial discussion on being unemployed and poor and how having diamonds would change their lives, that we are just walking in the mountains and not looking for diamonds, and that they found it very strange that we came to the cold, rugged mountains to relax, they greeted and left.

Not sure this request trumps being asked for a car, but it is right up there with being asked for a diamond, and we found it very unusual.

tonymarshall wrote: They opened the conversation by requesting that we give them a diamond detector!

Thanks for sharing - classic!

It would seem the Mosotho who asked me for a condom has moved far down the list of funny requests.

In the interest of completeness - myself and Hobbit are off to Bushman's Nek tomorrow to start a 6 day GT on Wednesday. We will then try to walk back to Bushman's Nek in 4 days. We won't have a tracker, or internet access till we get back - so don't expect updates till next year. We will record a GPS track and get photos on the required khulus.

The major goal on the 4 day is to beat Stijn's time - which is a very tough goal. I will be happy with anything under 96 hours, though. The 6 day is too easy to stress about a target time. And yes - I know I will look back on that "too easy" remark and will laugh that I said that.

If successful, Hobbit will become the second person to complete 2 GTs before turning 18, and will become the first to complete 3 before turning 18 (or 16 for that matter). I believe he would also be the youngest person to post a speed GT time. He will comply with the youth rules - carrying his own weight, doing 50% of communal work etc, thus avoiding the woman's record vs mixed team record style debate. I doubt an under-18 speed record will ever become a thing, though. I would actually discourage such an official record due to the nature of the route - but Hobbit has over 2000km of Berg experience, over 100 khulus and over 40 passes, so he is an exception to the rule (probably more experienced than many well established hikers).

Ghaz and Hobbit finished the first part of their back-to-back GT yesterday, in 127 hr 06 minutes. Ghaz presumably zig-zags a lot more up hills than me because they knocked off 228km and 10346m ascent for the south-north GT.

They are planning to set off on the return leg on 31st Dec. I will be joining them for that one