Itineraries for doing the Bell Traverse

Ok, so not a good idea to tackle it from the hut to top of Cockade in a day?

I would do one of the following:

1) camp at Tseke Hut and go up Tseke pass the next day
2) campt at the base of Cockade pass and go up Cockade the next day.

Night two in Twins Cave would be a good option.

mnt-tiska: twins on night two is our aim. just keen to explore a bit more of the Didima area on contour level.
We have four nights. Our plan is to sleep in Tseke valley on first night, ascend Cockade and sleep just above pass, third night at Twins (short day, but keen to explore escarpment a bit), fourth night at Bell cave or on level camping area next to CP, climb CP, and then walk out the last day.

@Plouw.

The trip from the hotel to base of Tseke past Ribbon Falls is about 7km (making an assumption that this is your intended route). That is easily completed in a day.

The trip from Tseke to where the contour path climbs into the Xeni Valley is 8km and is a long bush whacking haul (2.5-3 hours). You then have another 3km until the start of Cockade proper (2 hours) and then about 2.5km up Cockade (2-3hours). So depending on fitness of your team about 6.5-8hours without breaks. Going to be a long day.

@plouw you mention twins on night two, but then mention sleeping there on night three? I assume the latter is the correct night.

I wld do the following.

Hike to tseke hut or campsite area sleep over - night 1 (Photography - Sunrise on Columns and Pyramid)
Hike to base of Cockade Pass - night 2 (P - Sunrise on Xeni Buttress)
Hike up pass to sleep Twins - night 3
Hike to Bell Cave - night 4 (there is a small flat section not far from Bell Cave were we where able to pitch a tent, I think it might fit two at a push but has steep ground on either side) See attached image, you can just see the tent and my friend lit by the sun.

Enjoy. What a way to spend 5 days

@Serious tribe: Thanks that seems all do-able. The group has two first time hikers in it, so your route suggestion makes more sense, if we arrive at Cockade early, we could always try push up the pass. I meant twins on night 3! Jip, looking forward to those 5 days!
cool photo.

If you pack early, start eating b/f while shooting sunrise, you can be on the way by about 6:45. Depends if you can kick your team out of bed at 5:30. If so, you could get to the base of the pass by about 10. Which will mean that you cld shoot the sunrise from the top the next day which sounds good.

@Serious tribe: jip, i will kick them out of bed early. Very keen to get the sunrise shot from top of Cockade, and then i saw on old photos, that the sun rises through bugger gully if you stand at Bell cave...might get some nice lens flare shots there.

On descending from Orange Peel Gap, if we turn right at U23-2100 and go down to hotel via the contour path, coming down past One Tree hill, what is that section of the path like? Water situation?

We want to camp close to the hotel on the last night, as we'll have to get to the car park by mid morning. It might be too much of a push all the way from Bell cave.

plouw wrote: @Serious tribe: jip, i will kick them out of bed early. Very keen to get the sunrise shot from top of Cockade, and then i saw on old photos, that the sun rises through bugger gully if you stand at Bell cave...might get some nice lens flare shots there.

To give you an idea of what it will look like from the top of Cockade for the sunrise (and please excuse quality - these are straight out of camera and no editing):









But rather pray for some interesting weather to get shots like this:

Hi. How feasible is it to hike the Bell Traverse in Cathedral Peak and down another pass in 3 days? (This weekend, thus winter) And which pass do you recommend coming down? I see Xeni pass and Tseketseke pass is nearby on the 50 000 topo map. Is Xeni pass also Mlambonja pass?