Cathedral Peak hikes - 4 days or longer

Sorry , failed to mention that we would like to do a one way hike south. We do not intend to finish at Cathedral Peak.

Max 8 people.

Hi Andre, where do you intend to finish? Presumably Monks Cowl office?

Hi Guys,

Our group is planning a 4 day hike in the Cathedral Peak area in April.

We have previously done the Mafadi hike (Judge's Pass Ascend - Leslie's Pass Descend) as well as the Mnweni - Rockeries Loop. We are looking to do a hike that would be a little bit more difficult than the Mnweni Loop.

Currently we are considering doing a hike-
Day1: Cathedral Peak Hotel, via the waterfall route, over the camel, reaching the escarpment via Organ Pipes Pass. Then we will camp somewhere on top of the escarpment.
Day2: Explore and visit Rholand's Cave, attempt to summit Cleft peak. Then hike on top of the escarpment towards Twins Cave. Sleep in Twins Cave or somewhere on top of the escarpment.
Day3: OptionA- Either hike down Mlambonja Pass and camp half way down the pass, perhaps near Neptune's Pools and camp there OR
  OptionB- Hike from Twins Cave towards Bell Cave or further towards Orange Peel Gap and camp there.
Day4: Hike from Day 3's Campsite toward Cathedral Peak Hotel.

I would really appreciate the veterans' advice/suggestions.
1) Would it be manageable to hike to the top of the escarpment on Day 1? On both of our previous hikes we only reached the escarpment on day 2, due to the long walk in at both passes. I am not familiar with the Cathedral Peak area. 
2) I am not sure of descending via the Bell Cave route, I am concerned that it might be too sternuous? Everyone in the group are fit but for a few of the people it would be there first time in the mountain. After paying school fees on our Mafadi hike (which were our first hike in the Berg) we do not want to scare the newbies away from the mountain, but we also want to good stories to tell after the hike.. Picky I know hehe.

If anyone have any other 4day route suggestions, the input would also be appreciated.

Thanks!

Organ pipes is shorter than Mnweni pass so you can move Rolands cave from day 2 to day 1.
Day 2 seems reasonable
Day 3 -  down the pass to the hotel in a morning so perhaps go down to the contour path and along the path to camp at the base of Tsetseke pass.
Day 4 back down via Xeni cave

Another option would be coming back down organ pipes or one of the other nearby passes and going south and through Ndedema

Hi MarleyB,

Your route is definitely feasible over four days.

1. A group with newbies could probably manage a one-day ascent via The Camel, but even a fit group would have to push to do Organ Pipes in a day. I wouldn't recommend camping near the top of Organ Pipes - lots of traffic. Rather head to the Lower or Upper Ndumeni Caves or to Roland's Cave if you know where you're going and you're fine with the exposure.

2. If you descend Mlambonja, your Day 3 will be very short: it will take you a matter of hours to get from Twins to the Campsite/Neptune Pools - though the group might like a relaxing day by that point. If you split the Bell Traverse over Days 3 and 4, it should be manageable. This would be a fairly major hike for first-timers, but if everyone's fit, cool. (Re DesPorter's Day 3 suggestion, be aware that the contour path has some vague overgrown bits between Cockade and Tseketseke. Walking out via Xeni Cave on Day 4 would mean back-tracking through all this.)

Other options would be ascending farther south via Tlanyaku Pass, but, again, starting that wide will increase distance significantly and make Day 2 (Schoongezicht to Roland's, probably) a long slog.

I recently came down the Bell Traverse from Twins in a day with a number of inexperienced hikers. Its quite a long day, but ok with an early start. We took it really easy and still get back to the hotel around 18h00.

Its a stunning route, just be aware that there are two or three quite scary places for people that are not comfortable with a bit of exposure!

Hello, everyone! 

We (5 of us) are planning a 4 day/3 night trip first weekend of August.  I would love to hear from you experience  if my plan is reasonable - we have mixed experienced hikers and medium fitness levels to account for.  Here is my plan - let me know your thoughts! |

- Day 01: cathedral peak parking to Tsekseke hut (Hut or tent) +- 9.5km
- Day 02: Up Tsekseke pass around  to Easter cave (cave or tent) +- 9.5km
- Day 03: Down Mlambonja Pass and start Bell traverse path (ring the bell there) Tent a little after the bell (tent) +- 8.5km
- Day 04: Through Orange peel gap to car +- 8.5km aiming to be back in Durban around 15h00.

Looking forward to feedback and also any advice - whats water supply like on the Bell travrese in August? Im assuming pretty dry.

Thank you! 

Hi Lukester, 

Welcome on VE!

4 days for this loop is a very generous amount of time, even for relatively unfit people. Day 2 will obviously be the big day for unfit hikers.
August is typically a dry month and it hasn't snowed much so far this winter, so finding water could be an issue. I would recommend topping up wherever you find some. The pass itself will probably be dry higher up, and if your group is slow this would mean spending more time in the sun on the pass, which could cause a bit of dehydration. There is usually water to be found at the point where you climb out of the rocky riverbed on your ascent of Tseke pass, I would consider filling up here, depending upon if you could see water higher up. You climb out of the riverbed at this spot and start walking on the side bank to the righ (true left) of the riverbed, but a bit further you get back into the riverbed and hop on over to the left side bank (true right) and from here there is normally no water till you top out. Once you top out there is a stream 100m or so forward and slightly to your right, or if not then you will have to walk down the valley to the streams lower down.

Regarding the Bell Traverse, this is basically ridge walking and there is normally no water to be found here till much lower down, assuming no rain or snowmelt provided water. There are a few dodgy sections on the Bell raverse, just check if there are any hikers suffering from a fear of heights as the section below the chessmen can be a bit hairy at times, depending on conditions. Last time we did this route (and we've done it multiple times before), 2 people in my group felt too uncomfortable to cross this section via the path and had to downclimb a section to go around below it. I wrote a trip report about it, search for it on VE. Was also around Aug or perhaps a bit later and from the images you should be able to see what the terrain looks like, as well as the optional detour.route.
We had hoped to find water after Buggers Gulch but everything was bone dry, and we only found water just above Shermans cave at around 1900m asl, so for day 3 you might have to take enough water to last you the entire day before you start down Mlambonja pass. If it's dry you might have to consider going a bit further than planned on day 3, i.e.  drop down to Sherman cave. There are a number of flat spots just above the cave (before the waterfall) where you can tent.

Enjoy your hike!

Thanks for the feedback Riaang. Super excited for the adventure and hopefully not going to be too cold.

We'll keep an eye on conditions and pivot or adjust as needed, if needed .

I love this forum, it's such a wealth of helpful info.