Twins Pass

I did a weekend trip up Rockeries down Twins Pass a few weeks ago. Considering how great the views are in the general area around the pass, I was actually a bit underwhelmed with this pass. It was also harder than I expected, although I was largely expecting a largely trivial difficulty pass due to the low average gradient compared to most Drakensberg passes. Navigation was straightforward, but I was surprised how low one leaves the riverbed to bypass the waterfall. The sequence of 4 mini-falls that one bypasses is the highlight of the pass in my opinion.

The Berg is lovely and green right now, plenty of flowers and good water on the waterfalls. I often think we don't appreciate how truly special these mountains are, especially in spring and summer. Even the escarpment rivers are strong, we were even able to fill our bottles near the top of Nguza Pass Peak.

On a side note - Utshani Cave seems to be a surprisingly good alternative to Easter Cave for the end of a long when one doesn't want to slog up that slope, e.g. at the end of day one on a 5 day DGT. It was my first time visiting that cave.

My teammate for the hike was Anita, aka African Hiker. Here's her video about the hike:


Ps. a note on the escarpment river name when she says Nguza River in Lesotho - I have always referred to the river behind the Saddle as the Nguza River, as well as the one down from Nguza Pass, which lead to the confusion on her side. Looking at the maps, I see it's actually called the Koakoatsi, not to be confused with the Kwakwatsi in the next valley. She notes the correction in the comments.