Berg Alert 2014

At Viking: Totally agree

Re: the Rhino Peak incident;

As it turns out, I actually know these kids. I bumped into them over this past weekend and they started telling me their story, that's when I realised I'd already read about it here.

Apparently on their way up they saw one shepherd, but he didn't bother them. When they were making they way back down, suddenly there were 6 guys waiting for them. They tried to give them a wide berth, but these guys came after them. Once they started running away, only one of the guys was the main troublemaker - chasing, throwing stones etc, while the rest were pretty content to watch and laugh.

Before they had gone up, they spoke to the rangers about the current security situation and were given the all clear. As soon as they returned to camp, they went to report the incident and suddenly the rangers' story changed to "There have been incidents up there - you should have taken a guide with you."

elandman wrote: The biggest thing that bugs me is those kids/girls/young people will develop a bad impression of the berg. When really in my 20+ years of hiking in the berg I've never had a dangerous encounter. So sad!

I wouldn't worry about discouraging this particular group. This wasn't their first Berg hike and certainly won't be their last!

Hi Viking,

That sounds as if that could have been a different group from the English one. The English definitely camped by the Kubedu River, about 6km as the crow flies from the Tugela Falls. From what they told me they were never hit by the Basotho. The Basotho were long gone before they had time to confront them.

Kevin from Witsieshoek Mountain Resort is on leave at the moment but I'll get hold of him when he comes back. Hopefully I'll be able to get a contact number from the mountain register.

I spoke to Kevin at Witsieshoek Mountain Lodge again on the 26th April and the details he gave me seem to support the story from Viking. I'm sure he said it was the Tugela Basin. They even got KZN Wildlife to send someone to be present there over the long weekend of the 1st to 4th May. Apparently they tried to unzip the tents and when the torches were shone at them, they ripped the tents with sticks and grabbed some bags. Later they started throwing stones at the tents (possibly to scare them away from the tents), but fortunately none seem to have landed close enough.
It would be interesting to know if there has been some filtering of the information, or if more than 1 party was involved. Kevin didn't mention another incident.

When we passed the hut on the 18th, there were guards sitting there.

Hi All
What date were the girls attacked near Rhino? I was on top briefly just to the north at Verkyker Pass on easter Monday the 21st of April. We saw a few Basotho's with Dogs.
Regards
Selous

They were up near Rhino on Tuesday 29 April.

Just for clarity, it wasn't a group of girls as previously mentioned. There was one 24 year old female (leader) and 3 boys aged 16/17/17. There was another teenage girl and her mother in the party, but they hadn't ascended the pass and were waiting further down.