Great Eastern Traverse

Stijn wrote: Based on a rough Google Earth track measurement, looks like he covered close to 40km on his first day, over 14 hours from 4:30am to 18:30pm. Good going with a 17kg pack and all those Khulus!

It was a rather epic start! My guess is that he'll reach Ifidi Cave today.

ghaznavid wrote: Andrew is closing in on his 4th khulu for the day already! He is on his way up The Palisades right now. It looks like he already has:
Metjhantijane
Kgotjwane Spons
Kgotjwane Peak

From there I assume he'll tag Kgotjwane East before dropping down to the south and camping for the night. Not sure why he left the Spons ridge to bag Kgotjwane Peak, and then returned to it - I'm sure we'll hear why later!

[update] looks like he stopped below Palisades. He has covered a lot of ground on day 1, tomorrow the khulu-bagging should properly begin!

I don't have his itinerary, but my guess is that he will hit Giants by Sunday next week, and Knuckles by the following Saturday (13 days).

My 3000th post - so my profile now has khulu status

I was waiting for that one to come around for you, Ghaz. Glad you commented and didn't let us all down!

Day 2 continued

I would normally just modify the previous entry with updates - but seeing as it is on the previous page...

Andrew has bagged Tongue and is now backtracking to Namahadi. I suspect we will see some detouring into Lesotho here - there are some 3300+m Lesotho peaks in the area. Namahadi will be his 16^th.

4PM update: After Namahadi - Andrew has begun to head inland towards Afriski. This will be part of his goal of tagging 3300m Lesotho peaks. It will be interesting to see if he goes east to Ifidi area, south to Ntonjelana or north back to finish up the Free State khulus.

6PM update: Looks like he is overnighting at Afriski. Interesting move - at least we know he isn't bailing, he would have gone to the chain ladders.

Hi guys, maybe I missed the post, but where will he finish and what will the approximate distance be? 20 days of food!!

Murray wrote: Hi guys, maybe I missed the post, but where will he finish and what will the approximate distance be? 20 days of food!!

I believe he will be finishing somewhere near Rhodes/Tiffindell in the Eastern Cape. I am rating he will be around 1000km - the distance normally wouldn't be much more than 600km, but you add 1km for the average khulu, but khulus like Ngaqamadolo, Knuckles etc require big detours - and double ridges add tons of extra distance (e.g. Nkososana and Cowl View, Tongue and Namahadi, Giants and Lotheni etc).

I believe his goal is to end with the SkyRun route in reverse to finish in Lady Grey!

Thanks, will be following him closely!

We are planning a fast DGT (6 days) in a month's time but will try to miss all the khulus

All our best wishes on your great adventure in our beautiful Berg. Be swift and be safe..

We will be watching as close as the satellite cover allows!

Was Afriski a resupply detour? Or part of the plan?

I know he planned on getting some peaks near there, and that he wasn't going to get a resupply. Plans could have changed though.

Personally - my money is a warm breakfast at Afriski!