Sondonzima Ridge - Garden Castle

I have for some time wanted to explore the ridge that runs from the bottom of Bollard Pass back towards Garden Castle between Sleeping Beauty and Hidden Valley. It is unnamed on the maps but the Ezemvelo staff at Garden Castle told us that this ridge is known as “Sondonzima”. The meaning according to the Zulu dictionary is Elephant /Mammoth or “fabulous large monster” – all fit the bill quite well as this ridge has many massive towering rock formations on the ridgeline.
Our route took us through the hidden and magical Cods Eye Valley, and involved quite a bit of bundu bashing as we entered from the Southern end, just before the beginning of climb up to Sleeping Beauty. Our efforts were observed by the Monk that keeps watch over the entrance to the valley. We followed the river through the valley and negotiated our way through the river bed with the rock walls of the gully narrowing down on either side of us as we approached the exit. We then climbed over and down the ridge that separates Wilsons Pass and Bollard Pass and eventually set up our tent near the bottom of the Sondonzima Ridge.
The next morning we ascended the ridge and walked along its length. There are many weird and wonderful rock formations up here and good views are enjoyed looking into Bollard and Tsepeng Passes as well as into Hidden Valley below. We kept to the South facing (Hidden Valley) side as it seemed less steep than the side overlooking Sleeping Beauty.
The highlight of the trip for me was the discovery of two remarkable caves. Both are wormholes, with the one much deeper than the other. I have never seen this type of formation in the Berg before, almost like they have been bored out by a machine. No evidence of them being used – they have a flat floor and would imagine that they would be very wet in Summer as the caves were damp with a lot of ferns growing on the floor and also this very strange stemless leaf growing directly out the cave walls. We have since discovered from Elsa Pooley that this is a member of the Streptocarpus Pusillus family.
I am sure the Ezemvelo staff know of the caves as there are firebreaks all along the top of this ridge but it would be interesting to know whether anyone else on the forum is aware of them?

Do you have more photos/info? Sounds like quite a fun trip, I might take a look around there sometime as well - would be nice to know about some of these gems.

I rate that the Hidden Valley probably has its fair share of unknown treasures as well. I have always rushed through it, but it is probably worth spending a few days simply exploring around there.

Hi Ghaz, I will post some more photos a little later.

I totally agree that exploring the little Berg is under rated - there are many delights to be discovered!

As promised, here are a few photos...

The Beautiful Cods Eye Valley

At the start of the ridge looking back towards Garden Castle

Looking into Bollard Pass

Looking over into Hidden Valley - Robs Cave is visible on the other side

The Bollard is visible between these two massive outcrops

Tsepeng Pass

Towards the end of the ridge and Garden Castle campsite in view

One of the steep descents to get around the outcrops

Looking back from where we have come. Cods Eye Valley is on the right hand side

The ridge between Sleeping Beauty Cave and the Hidden Valley has been on my radar for years, and seeing as everyone is beating me to it, I had a go at it this last weekend.

Actually the ridge wasn't our first goal. Nor our second...

Reading all the snow reports, myself and Hobbit set off to Swiman Hut. On driving into Garden Castle, we very quickly realised that the snow had already melted. So we revised our plan to a nice long day hike.

Many years ago I had tried to get from the base of Wilson's Pass to the Monk junction without using the Sleeping Beauty Valley, we got stuck and had to backtack back up to Sleeping Beauty Cave, so we decided to try and find a route through from the bottom. So at 5:30, under moon light we set off from Swiman Hut. By 6 it was getting light and we took the zig-zag trail opposite the Monk. Very soon thereafter we found ourselves in the land of no trails in thick overgrowth. After about an hour of slogging through horrible overgrown terrain, we both agreed that there was no fun in this, so we turned back and hit the Sleeping Beauty trail.

Upon reaching the cave, we both seemed to have a chronic case of apathy, so we decided to ditch escarpment plans in favour of traversing the ridge between Sleeping Beauty and the Hidden Valley.

We started by checking out Waterfall Cave, then we hopped up a crack in the rock to hit the top of the ridge.

Along the way we found Elinda's 2 tunnel caves and some awesome view points. We dropped down in the low saddle near the car park. Total distance of 15km with 857m in altitude gain and loss. A fun day in the mountains, highly recommended!

Some photos:

If even Ghaz could turn back from the "land of no trails," I feel this little note on the Cod's Eye Cave valley has some justification and may be useful to anyone interested in hiking this quite beautiful valley. A friend and I went up two weeks ago with the intention of looping back down the Sleeping Beauty valley, but we didn't get that far, mainly because of a late start that restricted the amount of exploring we could do. (The pictures are in reverse, as I only realized they might be of use as we retraced our route.)

The path into the valley off the main Sleeping Beauty trail is not that obvious, but it was clearly well used once. It branches off here:


The path zigzags up the slope to the right (out of frame) passed the uprooted pine sapling. Another zigzag up the ridge further on - a result of the overgrowth on the old path - links up with this.


The path then continues on the right side of the valley, as in Ghaz's pic above. (There are two juvenile pines on this slope.)


It's after the big rock (Swayiman's Rock?) that the path enters the riverbed and gets vague. After assessing our options at this point, we decided to ascend the slope on the left and traverse into the valley above the river-bush.


As with the Sleeping Beauty path, I suspect there was once a path through the river-bush (or even up the riverbed itself, then branching up a later slope, which looked like the most plausible route as we surveyed from above); but there was no discernible trace of a route down in the bush. Here's the view back down to the rock; the incline is fairly steep:


The angle of the traverse:


After contouring around two or three shoulders, the valley starts flattening out, and you join up with the old path (unfortunately no pics of this section, but it's pretty obvious). There is a single mature pine just below this stretch, if anyone going this way feels like doing some ring-barking (I didn't think to take my tools). This is the view from Cod's Eye Cave up the rest of the valley (the cave's usable sleeping area is minimal: 4, as per map, would be crowded):


At this point, we weren't sure what difficulties lay further along the ravine (though I gather from Elinda's photos that that would be the way to go), so I decided to try the slope to the left of the cave, which led up to a V that looked like it might afford a way up over the cliffs. There was a trace of an old path, though I'm sure we can all attest to those bundu moments when frustrated hope spawns traces of old paths in whichever thicket we happen to be thrashing through.


I managed to get through this fairly easily, and was rewarded with a pleasant view:


But after this it got properly thick. Here, strangely, I found a green Basotho balaklava in good condition, so I was clearly not the first to try this route recently.


As the afternoon was getting on, we went back down the way we came.

The short version is: After the big rock, don't bundu through the riverbed; ascend the left (true right) slope, and traverse towards the cave.

Cods Eye Valley is a gem and most people unknowingly pass by it on their way to Sleeping beauty Cave.  Dave is correct in saying that the best way to navigate to the cave is by ascending the steep slope to the left of the big rock and traversing across.  Expect quite a bit of bundu bashing but its worth it as its a beautiful hidden valley with massive rock walls on either side. I have also accessed the valley from both ends, as you can go past Sleeping Beauty cave and then climb directly up the steep slope past Engagement Cave to the the top of the ridge ( fantastic views) and then descend into the Cods Eye Valley, walking through a narrow gully and river bed.  The sleeping area in the cave is small, but four of us have managed to find a comfortable spot in the past.  A magical place!



View looking down into Cods Eye Valley



The stream running through the northern end of Cods Eye Valley

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The massive rock walls opposite the cave in the valley