Giant's Castle security

Voitec, in addition to the already mentioned links, you can compliment the data with the waypoints from the caves, passes and top Khulus downloads.

I have not heard of any recent security incidents involving hikers, in this area and across the uKhahlamba Drakensberg. But you can bet your bottom dollar that lots of hiking equipment has been stolen since 2007 at the Tugela Falls - this problem continues unchecked and the news of fresh incidents rarely makes it to the broader public. Every time I'm up there I approach people that have been camping and ask them if they've had visitors at night. More often than not, they say YES. It so happened that when I was last there in January this year, I did not pick up on any incidents around that time.

Now that I think of it, I don’t think I ever reported that in September 2008 I was part of a group that witnessed hearing gunshots (and later lots of shouting) by, presumably, smugglers heading up Ships Prow South Fork, as we were heading up the North Fork. It was not clear what was going on exactly, and whether the shots were aimed at us or not. We didn't feel threatened, continued on, and had no further issues.

It is extremely difficult to get information about these incidents. Not every incident is reported to the authorities, and even when it does get reported, it does not always get mentioned to the broader public. The high level bureaucracy surrounding this is very unhelpful and frustrating to those who are trying to deal with the problems first hand, and for us hikers who are out there and have to constantly be on our guard.

The conflicts relating to cattle rustling and smuggling continue. Shoot-outs occur regularly between different smuggling parties, local contacts at the bottom and the authorities. Some smugglers were shot dead this year.

I appeal to everyone reading this to post information on any incident they know of, and to encourage others also to do so. Keeping the lid on what is going on out there is to no-one’s benefit.

@Gazastone out of interest the hiking distance between the 2 passes is approximately 4km

We were there a few weeks ago, only saw 2 shepherds in the region and had no problems with them.