Up Ifidi down Mnweni: Heavy and slow

Day 3 images:

The start of Mnweni pass. The top part is quite steep



First break going down




View out Westwards about halfway down Mnweni pass




Near the bottom of Mnweni pass




Pretty view once down in the valley




Nearing the end of the hike, close to the dirt road to the MCC

Just a note on the last two pics - they are looking towards Fangs pass, which is actually still a few kilometers from the dirt road. It just felt quite close after doing so many kilometers over the course of the weekend

Thanks so much for a wonderful write up and photos Riaang! I take my hat off to you and Sanet in doing Ifidi in one day with heavy packs - I did it a few years back but we stayed over in Grasscutters Cave the first night, and then went up Ifidi the following morning. It is an interesting pass - we stayed in the boulder bed all the way and did a fair bit of rock scrambling with assistance from the guys to get up those monster house sized boulders. I will be interested to hear your comments on Icidi when/if you do it....to my mind the meanest pass I have done in terms of bundu bashing.

Your Everest base camp trip sounds exciting - all the best and enjoy!

Apologies for some misinformation, the cave close to Ifidi is actually Cycad cave and not Grascurters cave (Icidi) as mentioned in the Day 1 section

Elinda, when I stood on top of the cliffs above Icidi and lookeed down into it, it certainly looked very imposing. On my list to do next year - need to explore some other areas of the Berg again, seems I battle to stay away from Mnweni

Toughest bundu bashing I've ever done in the Berg was at the bottom of Ships prow. If it is anything like that I'm in for an interesting hike - after Ships I had to visit the chiro as I put my back out with all the funny manouvers I had to do to get over/under/through/around all the undergrowth

Aaah...actually I was not sure whether it was Cycad or Grasscutters ( having stayed in both) and then after reading your report, thought it must be the latter. Thanks for clarifying!

I love the Mnweni area - we are planning to hike there end of Sept - Manxsome and Rwanqua Passes. Ready or not here we come.....

Nice! Manxcome burned down over the weekend so it should be green by then.

Here you can see the top section a bit better

Thanks for the photos Riaang - the first one in particular gives a good idea of the route we need to follow to by pass the waterfalls at the bottom - sorry we are going off topic here!