Mlambonja Pass - Organ Pipes Pass link-up & escarpment traverse

Just been down cockade and found it quite tough. A lot of the route is just piles of rocks i.e. straight down the river bed. Took us about 5 hours to get down to the 'campsite'. No tricky bits, but trail finding wastes a lot of time, especially lower down where we fought through a lot of bushes...

I would say Tseketseke is a bit better at the moment (based on the views of two guys we met at the end).

Enjoy.

Sounds to me like you might have missed the path/trail at the bottom. I recall staying left (when going up) and it wasn't too bad. Certainly less than 5 hrs and going up is normally 1.5 times as long. Its generally easier finding the path on the way up than on the way down as you approach on the path on the way up but have to connect with the thing (having been off path) on the way down.

Mnt Tiska, I'm not sure if you were up this year? Another party we met mentioned the heavy rains of late last year washed the path away...hence a route down the river itself for most of the way. We followed a zig-zag route, crossing the river (trickle) many times. There certainly wasn't a noticeable path on the right (going down)...A party in front of us had as much trouble and it got worse lower down. The slope was easier, but the path-finding was tough, with the few cairns quite difficult to follow.

I hope this helps someone.

We also lost the route on the way down soon after joining the Xeni river (Easter 2010), and traversed left out of the gully to join the contour path. Unfortunately my govt map printed the contour path too high, so when we reached the crest of the ridge where I thought we'd get the contour path, we had to descend some 100m. Still, I was getting really irritated with bundu-bashing in the river bed, and will do the traverse again.

The pass is quite easy, but I think it needs to be remapped after last year's flash flood!

Hi All
What a wealth of info you guys got together. Can't stop reading.
We are planning a trip from Organs pass to Mlambonya/Twins at the end of September. I just want to know what the water situation might be like in the area at that time.
Thanks

Organ Pipes Pass is an awesome pass, really worth doing.

Ok, Organ Pipes Pass is almost entirely on a ridge, so there is practically no water on the entire pass. The only spot is a little trickle that requires a 20m steep downhill detour and is hard to spot if you don't know what you are looking for.

There are a few rivers you will cross on the escarpment. The first one just past Castle Buttress was almost entirely empty in April this year, it also didn't look overly clean.

After crossing the Cleft Peak ridge you will come across another river which is full of algae and when I was there in April it was very close to being dry.

After the Elephant/Mahout ridge you follow a river for a while. In April it had a descent flow and looked clean. This is what it looked like in April:



I haven't done Mlambonja Pass before, so I can't comment on the hike thereafter, but bear in mind that it has been a dry year so far.

Hi,

I can comment on Mlambonja pass as I've done it 4 times. The map says 12km but it's a hard route and can easily take 7 hours or more depending on fitness of the group. I have also been up Organ Pipes and its a lot more work to get up Mlambonja. Water is good right up to the last 2km but unfortunately you have to carry water up the main pass because there is none at Twins Cave.

If you leave early and make good time you can keep to the left of the pass and go over the top top Echo Cave which some prefer to Twins. I can't comment on the water up there though.

Cheers
Ian

Hi ASL,
Are you sure about Echo Cave? Did you perhaps mean Easter Cave?

er.. yes, not so good remembering the 2nd hand part of my comment. Have you been up to it and do you know what the water situation is like?