Cathedral Peak hikes - 4 days or longer

Two things
1) We will be in the area over that weekend! So hope spot you.
2) I would make day two a lttle longer by going past the hut drop down onto the contour path and camp on the top of Tryme Ridge, that assumes the parties legs are still up for it. The the last day would just be a matter of Tryme and home.

My two cents worth - which is rounded down these days....

@Redshift3

We went up and down the Camel this weekend, and just to give you some feedback.

If I had a choice going up the Camel would be my preference, heading down it yesterday was really hard on the legs and knees.

On Friday night on the way up we did pass 9 Basotho's heading down the Camel, all heavily loaded - I did report that to the reception on our way out.

When we did the camel, up and down, earlier this year it was very wet, making certain sections that are "exposed" a bit unpleasant to have to navigate though. This time round the route was dry and very different to earlier this year, so where the sections are a bit sketchy it was really ok. Below is the section that is about the worst on the route up the camel (my opinion), but with it being dry it was fairly easy to get across, you need to get across a section of rock where there is no path and if you stick higher on the rock face and take it slow it is manageable. There is a climb just after the camel, this section is between that and the small stream before windy Gap. There were some day hikers from the US heading up windy gap when we were heading down, and one of the gents was fairly old, and they have already pass through this section.



As a FYI, we barely got any water of of that stream below windy gap, we actually had to scramble down it about 3m to fill our bottles with a tiny drip, so just manage your water knowing that. if you are heading up from ribbon falls and the hikers parking, fill up at the top of ribbon falls, it is unlikely that you will get water until the escarpment, unless there is some rain before you go.

Hi there. I am planning a hike in the Cathedral Peak area. Is there a path which goes from Cathedral Peak Hotel to the fire hut? If possible I want to use this route to go up the escarpment using the Windy Gap

Hi Redshift. Can you please give some feedback about your hike during May 2017. I want to follow a similar route. Did you manage to get back to the hotel before 15h00? I see you started your hike at Cathedral Peak Hotel. Did you park your car there or at Didima Camp? How difficult is it to get a lift between Cathedral Peak Hotel and Didima?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Morning,

You can get there via Mike's Pass. There is a short cut that you can use to cut out quite a bit of the road section but this means going over some grass (no path). Note that this is also done from Didima and not from Cathedral.

The route from Cathedral will miss the old fire lookout.

I can send you GPX files for both routes if you like?

Thank you David.Please send me the GPX file. I will PM you my email address.

@ HikerParsons

Yip we managed to get back to Didima early afternoon. We were in two vehicles so we left one at Didima and one from our departure point at the hotel. Not sure about the lifts, I would imagine it depends on the traffic, I’m sure someone will give you a lift to the hotel from the Didima turnoff.

PM me if you require our tracks, as mentioned we came down past the old fire lookout and camped near the old staff accommodation, early down Mikes pass the following day.

Kind Regards,
Redshift3

Hi there

I see from a map that there is a path that leads from Cathedral Peak Hotel along the Tseketseke river to the blue pools. Does anyone know if there is a path from the blue pools to the Tseketseke hut?

Hi All,

Suggestion needed, 

The idea is to hike from Cathedral peak go up either Mlambonja or Organ Pipes Pass then head south 15 -20 km max per day.

Any suggestion of lekker overnight stops an pass to come down again.

Cheers

Hi Andre,

In 5 days with the daily distances you have in mind you can do a full Didima traverse, ascending Mlambonja Pass, traversing the summit to Tlanyaku Pass, descending Tlanyaku Pass and returning to Didima/Cathedral Peak Hotel via Upper Didima, the old forest track and Mikes Pass.

Day 1 Overnight Twins Cave, or tent near Kwakwatsi River
Day 2 Overnight Rolands Cave (how big is your group), or tent in valley before or after Rolands Cave
Day 3 Overnight Didima Cave, or tent near top of Tlanyaku Pass
Day 4 Descend Tlanyaku Pass, overnight Schoongezicht Cave (how big is your group), or tent at Upper Didima campsite
Day 5 Walk out.

For a slightly more relaxed route, you could do the same using Organ Pipes Pass and adjusting the days accordingly.