The upcoming hikes thread

Hey Guys

I'm organising a New Year's hike:
Saturday 31st Dec from Bushman's Nek car park to Lammergeier cave. Have a fun evening there - with bubbly.
Sunday 1st Jan, hike to Tarn Cave. Enjoy the tarns and the flowers.
Monday 2nd Jan (public holiday - ohh yes!) - hike out and swim along the way (may even be compulsory).

It is an "official" MCSA hike, but I enjoy meeting new peeps, so anyone is welcome.
I still have two spaces available.
Cheerio,
Sonja

Hi all
I am 13ks short of my target for Berg hikes for the year, so would like to do a day hike next week.
Looking at Tuesday or Wednesday next week, and probably southern Berg..
Anyone from PMB/DBN area keen to jojn and share transport?

Possively bouncing off the ceiling in anticipation for our 5 days in Didma- starting Boxing Day - looking to cover tryme CP 9 - CP 1 though the orange peel gap and down baboon rock - wondering if we may spot any VE members enroute.

Hi All -- Fair warning, this is a post for an upcoming hike far in advance, and slightly repeats a post I put in the "Hiking Alone" forum.

I have had my heart set on a trip to the Berg for some time, especially after reading through this site. After a price dip in flights to SA from the US, it's finally a financial possibility for me, so I'm planning a trip to the Berg in May. I made a VE account a few weeks ago to solicit some advice for my trip. Unfortunately, my American friend with whom I was hoping to travel very likely has an unforeseen conflict, so I considered two possibilities : a traverse alone, or a cancelled trip. After some thought, I'm way too excited to cancel my trip. While I have learned that a hike alone might be a safe possibility, I was reminded by a thoughtful user that hiking with the local experts here on VE might be a great opportunity to learn even more about the region, as I have done on other backpacking trips elsewhere.

That leads me to this upcoming hikes page -- if anyone is thinking about a longer (7-9/10 day) trip into the Berg in May, I would love to join in and thus avoid a solo trek. I'm currently a PhD student studying Antarctic paleoclimate in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, but I am originally from the beautiful Rocky Mountains region of Montana, USA. I've got a decent amount of backcountry and backpacking experience, including a rainforest bush-whack through northern Patagonia, an icefield expedition, and numerous weekend trips in Montana and California under my belt; I'm a fine but not very experienced trad climber. In general I'm accustomed to keeping good spirits in physically and mentally challenging environments/situations, and I have a very self-deprecating sense of humor. I also plan to train pretty heavily in these coming months for the trek. I'm a self-professed glaciophile ("glacier-lover"), passionate about conservation and climate change, and fervently anti-Trump. I have all of my own gear (tent, stove, etc.) but I plan to pick up food/freeze-dri when I get there so as to avoid issues in customs.

I'm open to going anywhere in the Berg, but would prefer to depart from a location easily accessible from Cape Town or Johannesburg. I'm also limited to the month of May because of our school/research schedule, and will have about two weeks inclusive of travel time. Having scoured the hiking reports, I have a tentative solo itinerary, but if going with others I would generally just love to spend some time hiking through the passes with maybe two or three days along the escarpment--in general just enjoying the stunning scenery. I'm particularly interested in the Northern/Central Berg, but like I said, I happily defer these decisions to local experts! To conserve costs, I don't intend to hire a car (I'm also very poor at driving with a manual transmission!), so I was tentatively planning to leave from either the Amphitheatre Lodge (or alternatively the Sani Lodge) because of the ease-of-access using the Baz Bus, but if you know of an easier way, your insight is appreciated. I would particularly enjoy learning about the ecology/biology/geology/anthropology of the region, and plan to research these subjects beforehand. If anyone would like to share their knowledge, I would enjoy hearing from you.

Please feel free to PM me if this piques your interest or if you have any advice. -Donovan (Donny)

Hi Donny
Great idea to connect with VE hikers to avoid hiking alone, do you have arrival/departure dates yet?
'Best' times for Berg hiking (weather wise) are around April & October so May is good, but really if you are sufficiently well prepared there is never a 'bad' time.
I suspect that your 'fair warning' will result in others with an eye to hiking at that time adapting their schedules to accommodate a combined venture.
I'm not sure if you have already posted your tentative itinerary, but why not share it here for further detail & discussion?
Baz Bus is a good public transport option, just research where their pickup points are as some parts of Johannesburg and Cape Town (actually most cities) are not safe, especially if you look like you're from 'out of town'.

Andrew

Hi Andrew --

Thanks for the reply. I am pretty sure I will be flying in on the morning of May 15th and departing the May 27th, spending 2 days in Capetown before heading out to the Berg. As of now, I plan to either fly to JHB or DUR and then I'm thinking about taking the bus (either Baz or a combo of Greyhound/Intercape/potentially NUDexpress) to the trailhead from there. So as of now, I'm looking for people to hike with from the 17th/18th through the 22nd/23rd. Via pm and email it sounds like SingleSpeed and I will be able to work out a trek for the few days before I fly home on the 27th. I haven't booked the tickets, but I plan on doing so early next week!

As for regional coverage, it sounds like SingleSpeed and I might be hitting up the Cathedral Peak area, so maybe if others are interested in the Central/Southern Berg (from Sani Pass north?) during those days ( 17 May - 22/23 May) that might work well. I could head to Sani from Cape Town and then meet hikers there for a trip north to meet up with SingleSpeed. As I mentioned though, I'm definitely open to suggestions and am pretty flexible. I just hope to see and learn about as much of the landscape as I can. Also happy to meet up with Berg enthusiasts in Cape Town for a pint...

Introduction to the Berg / Gourmet Berg experience: 3 - 5 February 2017

Invitation to combine different worlds into one weekend Berg hiking experience:

Start the clash with a six course, many star dinner at Cleopatra's on Friday (yes! they also do vegetarian), followed by camping at Highmoor.

Wake up in the mountains!! Then, no rest for the wicked, hike out into the wilderness, looking for an awesome spot to swim, a rock to sun (burn) yourself and a cave for the night. The hike will be around 7 - 10km per day, fairly easy.
Added bonus: we should find some rock art hidden in the valley - adding some refinement (so you don't have to depend solely on yogurt for culture).

Should you scoff at tiny food portions with hipster ingredients, there is no need to resign yourself to a weekend of watching series at home: you can join on Saturday morning, or you can braai it up at the Highmoor campsite and make the tiny portion eaters jealous with your fragrant boerewors.

This hike will be ideal for beginners (incl non-MCSA members). And foodies. And Berg pool hoppers. And star gazers.

Costs:
Cleo dinner: R500
Highmoor camp (Friday night): R95
Cave (Saturday night): R70
Transport, rest of weekend food.

RSVP
See you there!
Sonja

Hi all!

My girlfriend and I arrived in SA last week from Canada hoping to do an unsupported GT N-S, but have taken a conservative stance on safety . We took a guide from Royal Natal park thru Sentinel finishing down at Cathedral. Now we find ourselves at Inkosana Lodge in Monks Cowl area hoping to find other like-minded hikers who want to continue hiking south. Any takers by chance? We only have until Feb 7 and want to see as much of the Drakensberg as we can.

Also, any subjective opinions on us attempting, for instance, Monks Cowl down to Sani Pass, just us two? We have the GPS waypoints loaded, maps and compass, great gear and extra food, and (we believe) saavy hiking intuition, but don't want to risk being naive about our safety up top , especially being one male one female...

Many thanks in advance. Feel free to SMS or WhatsApp messenger +16138598944

Cheers,
Graham (and Petra)

Busy planning a 10/12 day trip from 14 April to 23/25 April. Start at Sentinel for N to S DGT then re-fuel at Bushmans Nek for Small Berg Traverse

Upcoming Trip

Hi guys

Tentatively looking for hiking partner/s from 18-21 March.
21st is Tuesday, a holiday, so a day's leave on Monday gives a 4 day hike.

No firm routes yet, but would like 2 or 3 nights on the escarpment.

Give me a shout if you're keen.

Cheers