Dragons Wrath 2010

Hi Intrepid. Yes, the backpack with the camera is missing completely. My backpack was completely burnt but we were unable to find any trace of my wife backpack (with the camera). It is possible that it was completely destroyed in the fire, we just find it hard to believe that not even a trace of it remained.

The backpack was carried up by my wife and left in the tent along with my pack. When we heard the shout and noticed a blazing fire coming towards us we left the packs and took our sleeping bags only. I was not interested in running with as much as we could carry. We were in a life threatening situation.
We were most certainly at the viewpoint overlooking the hotel. I am not 100% sure that these coordinates are correct but they are as close to dammit - 28 degrees 55'32.88"S & 29degrees 08'11.77"E

The fire was moving quickly towards us (and was most definitely started on the ridge we were camped), we ran down back towards Bugger gully and stopped enough of a distance away to still see our tents. Although just the tops of our tents as we were some distance below the ridge.

My tent was the first to burn, surprisingly the tent next to ours remained safe, although their backpacks were not in the tent and they had actually ran with them away from the fire.

Once we had returned back to the site we noticed that Simon's backpack was still safe on the ridge where we were camped. As it was cold and windy, the five of us climbed into a 2 man tent and waited it out until the helicopter arrived at daybreak. Jessica spotted Simon's backpack some way down towards Bugger Gully... how did his bag just roll from the ridge down? The wind could not have lifted it off the ridge and blown it away. It is possible that it was removed from the ridge while we were in the 2 man tent.

Hi Intrepid. I am not sure exactly where the fire started, when we were alerted to the fire it had spread all along the back of the ridge.
I would say that the fire started approx. 30 meters towards the back of the ridge. (I have attached a pic of where we were (taken off Google Earth) - the red indicates where we noticed the flames and the blue is the location of our tents (4 of them).

Hello Everybody,

I know this 4 September matter has been discussed in length, however please bear with me.

Firstly, my thoughts goes out to the friends and family of Simon.

Looking at what one can see on the photograph of the campsite, this incident also reminds us not to camp near dangerous spots if it can at all be avoided. I myself have had to sleep at seriously dodgy spots in the past, but the consideration should be whether it is really the last resort or not. One just eliminates risks when camping further away from drops, not to mention the much greater wind exposure experienced right at such an edge (Wind can pick up at any time...). And when wandering at night do so in a direction away from the dangers.

Intreped mention in one post "[edit: the missing pack was recovered - this it seems to rule out the intention of theft]." Mark later states it has never been retrieved. The temperature of a berg fire is not very high (relative to your braai fire for instance.) and it last only for a short while at one specific spot. When a truck burns out (I used to be a long dsitance truck driver and have seen this many times) you still find the unmistakable remnants of a camera, there is no way a veldfire can completely combust a camera, even a rucksack will leave clearly identifiable traces. The possibility that the missing bag when down with the victim may also exist. If that can be ruled out it becomes very difficult to disregard the missing rucksack and it will become hard to rule out foul play.

Had it not been for Simon being out at that time and alerting the others, I would dread to think what the outcome could have been would the others have been caught in their tents by the fire.

This unfortunate and very tragic event leaves very little concrete facts from which to draw a conclusion. The possibility of arson is unfortunately as much speculation as is the possibilty that the fire was started by burning toilet paper. It serves as a very clear reminder that one needs to be aware in the Berg.

I would also like to add, having myself lost an close friend in misterious circumstances that was never solved or clearly understood, which makes it emotionally very hard to accept the passing of that person - don't toil over the lack of justice or the uncertainties of the event as it doesn't help or change anything and one end up sinking deeper and deerper into a dark whirlpool. Remember what value and contribution this person added to your life and strive to take something from that and keep passing it on to others.

Hi Klipspringer

I do believe that if Simon had chosen a safer place to set up camp he would not have fallen. His tent was close to the edge and in the panic (due to the fire or accosted by vandals) this could have been a contributing factor.
Strong winds did not affect us but I can believe that if one were camped too close to the edge it is possible to be blown over.

We have managed to accept what has happened but the fear of camping out in the Berg will always be there and I am not sure any of us will ever be able to enjoy the berg in that way again.

We have tried to submit our story to Getaway magazine but have had no response. Our guess is that this could affect the livelihood of hotels, B&B's and restaurants. I guess this is the last thing Getaway wants to do.
We just need to keep our ears to the ground to see if this kind of thing happens again, if it is an on-going problem then something will have to be done to ensure the safety of hikers and climbers.

The mystery is frustrating as clear evidence to arson could lead to action. Hopefully this could all blow over and in time we could learn to let go.