Epic Day Hikes

My plan on Saturday was to conquer Mlambonja and Random Peak at Garden Castle in the form of a day hike. After almost everyone pulling out of the hike and our group dropping down to 2 people, we were forced to drive to Underberg in my WW-II tank (a 2 litre Ford station waggon with the fuel consumption of a military jet and the top speed of an aged snail). Due to this it took us 3 hours to drive the 185km distance (the frost on the road near the hotel didn't help either)...

As we drove into the reserve we noticed that there is still snow on the summit of Walker's Peak, as expected all other snow had already melted.

We planned to reach Pillar Cave by 8:00, we had even aranged with the lady at the front desk for us to put the money for the hiking permits under the door and she was going to leave the hiking permits under the mountain register. Sadly we only left the carpark at 8:00, so we where behind schedule from the start.

The person I was hiking with was using new hiking boots and was only wearing 1 pair of socks, this caused further delays. On reaching pillar cave at 9:30, I knew that the odds of reaching the peaks where diminishing. As we approached Pillar Cave, an eland ran right past us, we saw an additional eland sitting in the cave, as we approached the cave it moved off (we took the turnoff to the cave by accident, but considering we got to see 2 eland there I am happy we made this mistake!)

I was very happy to take the path on the left hand side of the river on the route ascending the pass, the last time I was on this pass my brother was leading the hike and he took us up a horrible path on the other bank (probably an eland path), the path we previously used didn't have nearly as impressive views and was much more difficult.

Usually by the time I have been walking for 2 hours I am down to a single layer of clothes, but with the entire Mashai Pass being in the shade until 2PM, and most waterfalls being very iced up, we where both forced to put our jackets and gloves back on.

On the lower reaches of the pass we saw 7 more eland, all on the right hand bank of the river dirrectly under Rhino Peak.

Once we had reached the base of the cliff line we realised that we where going to run out of time and water (the route my brother took me on when I did this route with him crossed the river constantly, so I wasn't very worried about carrying more than 2 litres of water), the person I was hiking with was starting to complain about the difficulty (clearly my assumption that a person who bowls around 4 overs of medium pace weekly for a PMB cricket club would be fit enough to hike 20km in a day was wrong, probably due to it being the off season). At this point we had to turn back.

On the way down we passed a Polish man who was hiking on his own, he told us he had left the hotel at 11:45 and was climbing Rhino (he was about 1km past Pillar Cave and it was 1:15), insane what some people will try! (Admittedly we where slightly worried by the fact that we did not see him again on the hike and we only reached the car park at 5:00PM, hopefully he got back safely as he was only carrying a day pack)...

At 3:30 the sun set behind the Rhino, at this point we had only just passed Pillar Cave Annex (where we stopped for 10 minutes to put our feet in the water, after 5 seconds my feet where numb, and we descided that that was a rather stupid idea).

At 4PM there was still ice on the ground (even though this had been a fairly warm day and the path had predominantly been in the sun for some of the day). I have to admit that I really enjoyed walking on frozen sand in the morning, something I had previously never done before, I found it to be very "crunchy" to walk on!

Some people would say that this day hike was unsuccessful, but both of us really enjoyed the hike, I got some awesome photos and my previous analysis of Mashai Pass as "poorly designed when compared to passes like Langalibalele and Bannerman" has been changed to "its a fairly long pass, but very scenic and consistently uphill" (I consider a pass being consistently uphill to be a good thing, I hate climbing 50m and then descending 30m whe I could have contoured and gradually gained 20m), so I would say it was a successful hike...

I like the title of this thread "Epic day hikes". If you are wondering if you've ever done an "epic" day hike, trust me...those of you who have done so - you know it! Add your stories here. It's a great read. One of my epic day hikes was with Intrepid. The hike was Albert Edward, on Vancouver Island, in Canada. The highlights of this hike included trudging thru thick snow for the entire day, beaufiful scenery of frozen lakes and pine trees dressed in snow cover, lovely mountain views, bear prints, saving some time and having some fun by racing back down some of the mountain slopes on our packs (feet first, packs under back, and lots of speed!!!) We made it to the top, and to the bottom again all in one day. But it was epic....18 hours, 37 snow covered kilometers, and 1 tired-out little Canadian in tow. What a fantastic memory! Long-lasting fond memories of this, one of many hikes, with Intrepid. Thanks for the epic hikes Chris, it's one of the many joys of being married to my mountain man! The adventures are never few or far between.

PS - did I forget to mention the part where we realized we'd been tracked by a wolf for much of the day. Chris prints, Kelly prints, and Mr. wolf prints.

One advantage of really long days in Canada I guess...

Being followed by a wolf, thats pretty cool! Sitting in front of my computer I think to myself about how I would love to see a leopard in the Berg, I wonder if that would be my view on the day I bump into one in reality!

Thanks for the views on Epic Dy Hikes. I must see these are some of the most talked about and enjoyed days in the mountains. My first hike in the berg (and the one that got me hooked) was the up Cathedral, Bell traverse, down Mlambonja that Stijn mentioned. You've also hit the nail on the head Stijn..that was a great day hike! About 37km in 13 hours. We actually intended to climb Cathedral, but after we failed to find the traverse from the rocky gully on the left, we decided to see what lay on the faint path around the back of the chessmen.

It certainly didn't take great fitness, but being just my dad and I, and one day-pack, we could move efficiently. It also helped leaving at 5am! Being December, we had to sit in Bell cave for over an hour waiting for the rain to stop, and we wasted about an hour exploring the Cathedral lower cliffs. Otherwise we walked steadily.

A great day out in the berg...well recommended...if you have a head for heights!

Would it be feasible to do a solo hike up and down Langalibalele pass from the Giant Castle rest camp in a day?