Who is doing or has done the Grand Traverse

Stijn wrote: Oh and btw, it's 42km to Rat Hole and back via the inland "record route".

Pack light, keep moving and go for it!

That's excellent news! 42km has me far more confident! Now I just have to pray for good weather!

Barefoot Dave wrote: That's excellent news! 42km has me far more confident! Now I just have to pray for good weather!

Good luck

Ps. remember VE forum etiquette, if you mention a hike on the forum, we expect a writeup afterwards photos are also awesome

ghaznavid wrote:

Barefoot Dave wrote: That's excellent news! 42km has me far more confident! Now I just have to pray for good weather!

Good luck

Ps. remember VE forum etiquette, if you mention a hike on the forum, we expect a writeup afterwards photos are also awesome

Fair enough, I'll be back at my desk on the 17th, will give some feedback then.

Right, here's my report from the weekend...

I arrived at Witsieshoek Mountain Lodge on Saturday, too early to book in but was given my key anyway. My room was still a mess from the previous guests so decided to take a drive to the Sentinel parking lot to ask the guards what time I can start my hike the day. The visibility was very poor, maybe 10 metres, the drive was slow... Having spoken to the guards I was told I could start at anytime, they are always there. Looking at the Sentinel was too much of a temptation and I ended up doing a 12km hike there and then! Round the contour, up the ladders, along the stream, over the falls, up to the gully, down the gully and back along the contour (I hate those zig zags!). It made me feel alive again and reminded me how much I love that mountain!

Woke up Sunday to rain and gale force winds, stayed in bed and read Game of Thrones the whole day...

Monday was a clear (or near enough to it) day, so I left Witsies around half five. I was fortunate to have come across 2 brothers who were (and still are) doing the Traverse. I had company!

Following the track that Sandes and Griesel used cuts out a bit of the zig zags but requires a little bit of rock climbing (nothing serious though).
The contour path is as rocky as ever and most of the walking is laboured because of this. Once up the ladders we followed the stream for a short while before turning right towards Mont Aux Sources. The climb up to Monty isn't too bad, but is long. Peaking at 3404 metres above sea level, this was the highest I had ever been in my life (bar aeroplane trips).
A very long descent from the top and nothing major to report on, the rest of my journey to Fangs River was fairly uneventful, a few river crossings, lots of climbing...
I can tell you that there is a lot of water at the top at the moment. There is very little track, and where there is it is thin.

At Fangs River I said goodbye to the brothers as they continued to their first goal, Cleft Peak.

I had lunch at a small waterfall and turned back. Now, this is where life became interesting... The weather turned... At first it was just a light rain, then, I realised that it doesn't rain on the mountain, you get pelted with small hail stones!

The climb out of Fangs valley is long, but you are rewarded with a longer down hill towards Ox Bow. Unfortunately the wind was blowing full into my face and the rain was intermittent. I heard some shouts from about, probably local herdsmen, but being alone had me a little fearful, so I upped my pace.

Once you reach to bottom of the Ox Bow it's pretty flat, but I kept veering off the GPS trail, I was tired and annoyed with the weather. I also knew that I had one more saddle to go over before the mammoth climb back up to Mont Aux Sources. Fortunately the bad weather was staying away for now.

The climb up Mont Aux Sources from this side is steeper, and longer than the route out. I suffered, and had to dig deep. At one stage I contemplated a nap but knew that would have been a terrible idea, so kept going, resting a lot. Summiting Monty again was not as rewarding as the first time, cloud cover game me nothing to look at, and the rain was back...

It seemed a very long trip back to the chain ladders and descending them was hairy, certainly one of the most frightening things I have ever done! They were wet, it was windy and they shift...

Once back on the contour path I marched myself back to the parking lot and the comfort of my Jeep's seat!

All in all, 44kms, 11 hours (broken down into 9h45m of moving and 1h15m rest/finding the right path).

Coming to VE this summer, from the author of "the Upsidedown Dragon" and "Hikers in the Mist", a hike report by Ghaznavid Productions, in association with Porter Running.

Presenting "Don't Follow the Lights"

Here's a sneak preview:

There will be khulus:


And khulus:


And more khulus:


And for good measure, some Home Improvement - Caveman edition


And some photos that could be fun on the Berg Photo Quiz...

I'm going with Sandleni Cave for the home improvement photo. Looks like it fits and we had to do exactly the same thing on our GT many years ago...

Looking forward to the report!

Hi Guys

Myself and two fellow hikers are going to attempt the Grand Traverse starting on the 27th of March, attempting to complete it in 10 days unassisted. This would be our first time doing the Grand Traverse. I have inquired with Karma backpackers how much it would cost for a drop of and pickup. They are asking R200 per person from Karma to Sentinel car park and R800 per person from Bushmans Nek back to the backpackers. Would you guys say this is a fair price could I find something a bit cheaper?

Thank you

Hi,

In April last year 6 of us used a taxi to drop us off and collect us again before and after our GT, and it worked out to R 6000.00 or R 1000.00 per person. So your price seems reasonable, although it can't harm to look around for something cheaper. We did initially have a cheaper price, but became concerned at the reliability of that particular operator and went with the next cheapest which worked out fine.

Previously when doing the Giants Cup trail I used the Underberg Metered Taxi service, I'm going to try see whether they would be able to do it cheaper. Their taxi was really shoddy though, it was a old bruised and battered Golf

ah thats great will you be doing a resupply or unassisted ?