Giant's Castle incidents 2004-2008

This thread is a collection of security related incident reports that have happened in the Giant's Castle area.

The aim in listing these incidents is for informational purposes to monitor the severity of the problem. It is hoped that a healthy awareness of the problem can be created. It is also somewhat of a memorial to remember what has happened, to extend our sympathies to those it happened to, and to learn from it.

This is by no means intended to keep people away from the area. We encourage people to still go, but to do so informed and prepared. If this problem is ignored it will ultimately have a negative effect on tourism in the area.

I encourage all of you to update the list and get all the facts out. There are several incidents that I have heard of but do not have sufficient facts to make a meaningful mention of it.

One of the most disturbing reports in recent times:

24 March 2005 - 6 experienced hikers (5 men and 1 woman) were ambushed during the night at their campsite between Langalibalele Pass and Giants Pass. Rocks were hurled through their tents to force them to retreat and most of their possessions were stolen. Some members of the group were violently assaulted. Full report here .

20 September 2004: 13 schoolgirls from Treverton College and their school teacher, Marilyn Perfect, were attacked at night by Basothos wielding knobkerries and stones, while camping somewhere on the Giant's Castle escarpment.

One of the girls sustained a badly bruised cheek, another an injury to the wrist and the teacher had a light head injury and a bruised leg.

They managed to alert the authorities via cell phone and a helicopter rescue was initiated at first light.

Some additional things which I heard at the time but which I cannot verify as fact was that they were ambushed much in the same way as in the Easter 2005 incident - rocks came crashing through the tents, forcing them to retreat. Apparently one or more of the girls were dragged off and they tried to rape her. Thankfully this was somehow this was averted.

03 November 2005: a British tourist, aged 33, apparently from London, set out for a hike, apparently to the escarpment. She did not sign the mountain register and hiked alone.

She apparently got lost and came across a Basotho shepherd. He pretended to lead her along the way she should go, but when it became apparent he was going the wrong way she tried to get away. He then assaulted her with a rock and raped her.

When it became apparent the woman was missing, three search parties spent the night searching for her, but since she did not fill in the register they did not know where to look for her exactly.

It turns out afterwards that the woman heard one of the teams looking for her, but they did not hear her shouts. When she got back to her car she did not bother reporting to the office.

KZN Wildlife were only informed of what had happened after the rape was reported to the police.

News article here .

Shocking story...

Winter months 2007 - ice climbers climbing on the south face of Giant's Castle completed a climb only to discover that their backpacks had been stolen. They had been left at the top of the climb and contained all of their equipment (including car keys). They had to walk back down immediately.

02 May 2008 - rocks are hurled down at two hikers descending Bannerman Pass. Full details in this report .

This is the second report of it's kind that I have heard, though I do not have more detais on the first incident.

There have been several cases of hikers being assaulted and robbed while overnighting in Bannerman Cave, Giant's Castle Cave and Bannerman Hut. If anyone has more details on this please feel free to share them.