Epic Day Hikes

Technically this is a 2 day hike with a good nights rest in between. But 10 and a half hours of sweat and an honest feeling of having bitten more than I expected makes this a fair entry to an epic day.

The idea was to join Chris, Kelly and Tony in Twins cave. I of course planned to do it the hard way. To justify the trip though I needed to be at the cave before sunset. What is point of joining people in a cave if you get there when they are already asleep?

Work is definitely a 4 letter word at the moment, so I only managed to sneak out of Jhb by 7pm Friday night. I knew from Stijn's post that at some point this weekend, the Mnweni Visitor Center would be host to an adventure race, but had not paid enough attention to know when the competitors would pass though it. Shortly before turning off the tar road I saw the first pair of cyclists. Well, they were actually the last cyclists, and even then I could tell that they were struggling and unlikely to be in the front. I passed a few more cyclists along the way, so when I reach the visitor center shortly before midnight, I headed into the main building to speak to who ever was about. I offered a few words of encouragement to the stragglers about to set out into the dark for a long hike and did well to not become surprise addition to their team (they did actually ask)

I woke at about 6am and took a leisurely amount of time to have breakfast, pack my tent, fill out the mountain register and to chat to some of the organisers of the adventure race.

Shortly before 7am I left the Mnweni visitor center with a lightweight bag. It had a sleeping bag, bivvy bag, stove and some food and not much else. It was light enough that I could run on the road heading up the Mnweni valley but I started walking on the first hill. I made steady progress and was just shy of Shepards Cave after 2 hours.

Serious dorkage and a significant effort on my part to miss the path meant I lost 30 minutes for less than a km. Eventually I found a path and then made good progress up the Fangs valley. It was hard work and my sweat must have contributed significantly to the water levels in the valley below. I stopped for a swim in the pool at the split of river heading off to Mbundini pass as much for a break as well as to clean up a bit.

I followed a very vague path up the ridge for a while and then contoured into the jungles of the valley. A few minutes of scratches (I did actually have gaiters) got me into the safety of the river bed itself for an hour of boulder hopping.

Annoyingly mist came in just in time to hide the view and all the cool pinnacles. This is of course one of the major reasons to do Fangs Pass, so I guess I will just have to come back another day. I reached the top about 12:30.

I had planned to bag a few khulus along the way but mist made that a pointless exercise and more importantly some simple maths pointed out that I really needed to haul some serious arse to get to Twins Cave before dark.

I thus jumped onto the speed GT route. I am glad I know this really well because I was in mist the whole way and I had forgotten to download the correct maps or tracks or waypoints into my GPS. Both it and I could say exactly the same thing - I am exactly here, but where is here? And a paper based map safely tucked away in Jhb does not help either.

Despite the mist, I worked my up the correct valleys and over the correct ridges and got onto the paths heading along the Mnweni highway. In clear daylight they are easy enough to follow but in the mist I managed to accidentally head over an incorrect saddle for a not so scenic detour.

I lost count after a while, but I saw about 20 locals along the way. Amazingly enough, not one of them asked for sweats! I of course saw a full compliment of sheep, donkeys, horses and cows.

Shortly after crossing the Senqu I stopped for another short swim in one of many awesome pools inside the valley coming down from the Saddle. One of the benefits of a slower run is you can do this without feeling guilty, and one of the benefits to doing a 2 week GT in December is that it became obvious that the pools in this valley are a much better spot to stop than the Senqu itself. It was however late afternoon already and if I wanted to get to the cave in time to be social, I had to hurry.

I was lucky enough to dodge the thunderstorms and passed safely and swiftly over the high points of the Ntonjelane Ridge. I found my "usual" gap through the rock band, a down climb near the end of the ridge that is much easier if you know how to hand jam. I soon found the path heading up the next valley, knowing that at the point where it crossed the river, I should turn 90 degrees and go straight up the slope to hit the top of Mlambonja Pass.

Somewhere along the traverse from the true summit of the pass into the main gully I coughed. Chris was a short way below and heard this and we quickly worked out who was who.

The stats for the day say I did 46km in 10.5 hrs. For a train runner, this sounds feeble. So, I am going to give up on the stats and concentrate on the facts - this was a really hard day out!

When i saw you had planned to head to Twins cave I half expected you to head up Icidi Pass

Pretty epic indeed, I'm sure not many people can say they looped Fangs and Nguza with a stop in Twins along the way...

Nice one Andrew - what a day!

Well done, sounds amazing!

Just a few questions, what are: senqu, khulus and saddles? I know it might be hard to explain in words...

Gerrit

GerritHuman wrote: Just a few questions, what are: senqu, khulus and saddles? I know it might be hard to explain in words...

Senqu - Orange River when it is still in Lesotho
Khulus - SA peaks above 3000m. Name is Zulu for "big" and there are about 180 of them. There is a long thread about them on the site.
Saddles - something you place on a horse to ride it but seriously - a low point between 2 peaks usually used to access a valley on the opposite side of a ridge. Other names: col or nek.

That was easy...
Thanks!

2015 Mnweni Marathon summarised in a few pics. Over 160 entrants, and all but 1 finished (I want to see a Park Run pull out those stats!).

At the end of the road


Can you count all the people?


Rest break at the base of Mnweni Pass


Heading up Mnweni Pass


A rare moment of solitude


Still amongst crowds on the way down Rockeries

Dillon wrote: My mate, Kevin, and I just entered Mnweni Marathon Reckon it should classify as an "Epic Day Hike"!

So this last Saturday Thole and I did Mnweni Marathon. Was absolutely fantastic despite running out of steam with quite a few kilometers of dirt road still to go. I guess it helps if one actually does some sort of training for these events, rather than just talking about training. Anyway, we stumbled over the line in a time of 8hrs 11 min, clocking up 38.5km along the way. Next year WILL be very different...

Took a handful of pics along the way:



Seems this was the spot to fill up.



Fantastic views the whole way.



The first proper view up Mnweni Pass. We sat here for a couple of mins and had bit to eat and drink before heading up. Seeing the expressions on people's faces as they arrived at this point and looked up, was priceless!








The start of the descent down Rockeries. Thole turned up the pace properly here and I was hurting badly trying to hang on.

This was my first trip to Mnweni and certainly won't be my last. Mnweni Pass itself is a fantastic, scenic route with a solid path the whole way. Personally, I think it's one of the easier passes I've done. On the other hand, Rockeries (which I have only descended) felt like it would be a long, taxing ascent.

Well done to all who did the Mnweni Marathon, an epic achievement.

I believe there were several other VE members out there too, and special congratulations to first timers Christine and her husband Stephan.

Well done Dillon and anyone else who finished!