Late departure time from Giants Castle Reserve

We re flying up from Cape Town for a trip in the berg and want to maximise our time. What is the latest we would be allowed to set off for Bannermans hut? We left Cathkin for Greys in December  at around 5pm and nobody seemed particularly interested. I think it might be different at Giants Castle Has anyone had any experience

They don't mind if you set off in the dark. Did a couple of night hikes last year, still remember the guy in the guard hut at Moncs Cowls face when I signed in at 6pm Friday night. He asked me when we were planning to start hiking, and I told him now His jaw nearly dropped to the floor. As above, just make sure you sign the register and pay the fee, and don't get lost.

Enjoy!!!

We are going to arrive at Giants camp quite late and I don’t enjoy night hiking. I want to see everything around me   Anyway, has anyone done the ‘illegal’ camping at the picnic terrain recently? Do they still not chase you away? Much appreciated!

Hi Petroengel,

Not sure in which direction you are going, but if you can't camp in the camp itself why not try Meander hut? Haven't used it myself but it looks really nice and is close to camp.

Alternatively, out on the Bannermans hut route you can hike up to the contour path and where it meets the contour path T-Junction as you turn right (West) towards Bannerman's hut, just to your right is a tarn. This is 6km's from Giants Castle Camp. About 150m below the tarn is a nice flat spot where we camped recently. It's a tarn in the making, but without edges so wouldn't fill up with water. Very easy to get to. Let me try and explain where this spot is.

As you walk away from the contour path there is a tarn tarn (i.e. walking away from the escarpment side), which is directly in front of you, or slightly to the left of you (depending from exactly where you start to walk towards it) next to the path (you should be able to easily see it at night with a headlamp, it's less than 50m away). The map show shows the position of the tarn quite nicely. Pass it on the left and keep walking forward. The tarn is sort of on a terrace and soon after passing it you will drop down a bit to a lower, broader area. This is where the camping spot is located. There is a stream towards the left of both the tarn and this camping spot, but it starts lower than the tarn. Again, you can see it marked on the map. The camping spot is one of 2 open areas not covered by grass. It's very spacious, probably around 25m long and 20m wide. It's max 80m from the stream so nice for getting water and washing up.

The entire area is covered by fairly tall grass except for these 2 spots so they should be easy to spot, even at nght. Alternatively, if you find the stream to the left of the tarn, just follow it to where it drops off steeply, then turn right (i.e. back to the path you came up with from Giants camp) and walk 80m forward and you'll be in the clearing.

I've always wondered why tarns keep water so well, and after camping in this spot I now know why. Same reason why grass don't grow in them. They have a rock floor. I bent 2 tent pegs and broke a rock trying to get the pegs into the "ground". It was quite a mission to get the pegs anything deeper than 5cm into this substrate. We eventually used large rocks to weigh down the guy ropes. As always, the berg has no shortage of rocks Freestanding tents will have no problem here, but I had to get creative with my trekking pole XMid.

Super views from this spot. Photos still on my phone, I'll see if I can upload them later today when I have time.

Thanks Riaang. We are going to Giants Pass. Those camping spots of yours are quite nice and near indeed!