Bannerman Pass

So after about 2 years of being on the forum and reading a wealth of information on here from all the friendly contributors, we finally planned and did our first overnight hike in the berg.
The group consisted of my girlfriend and I and two great mates from Durban. None of us had done an overnight hike in the berg before but we were all ecstatic with the idea. After some debate it was decided Giants Castle is best suited for our trip as we were travelling from Richards Bay and will meet up with the boys in Durban on Sunday and drive through early Monday the 27th of April.
Once we took the off-ramp off the N3 there were a few potholes but the stunning beauty of the Bushman’s River and hills soon had us mesmerised. We arrived at Giants Castle at about 08h00. We signed the register and were off on Bannerman’s path at about 09h00 to the Contour Path. We were met by baboons, klipspringer and Eland before the contour path and it was truly amazing to be in nature on the berg.

We met up with the contour path and the trails were well marked. We saw an Osprey circling high above us (it might have been a bearded vulture – I am no bird expert). We had plenty of breaks during the walk partly because we drove from Durban that same morning and partly because, although we had relative fitness, it was the first time we hiked with weight on our backs and fine tuning the fit of packs was a skill we were still learning.

We arrived at Bannerman’s hut around lunch time and had some coffee and lunch. Unfortunately there were 2 black bags of rubbish in the hut but it was otherwise clean inside. We also picked up a spar packet with rubbish on a river bank close to the hut along with some chip packets in the river. I can only hope someone tied the packet to their pack and it must have fallen off without them noticing. One really considers how little effort it takes to carry your own rubbish and how difficult it would be for good hearted, considerate hikers that will probably take someone else’s garbage back down to the resort with them.
After lunch we all felt well and we decided to continue to Spare rib cave. The steepness of the pass was soon felt and breaks were often every 15 minutes or so. With a bit of clouds over the pass we carried on until we reached the cave just to the right of spare rib cave. I realized that the overhang wasn't the cave and we had to walk around a bit of a ledge to reach the real big cosy cave. After being on all fours around the ledge, the group set up camp and we enjoyed the awesome evening in the cave.

I was happy to see very little evidence of fires in the cave and there was no rubbish in the cave. There was a slight breeze but we all slept as well as we could on our first night. The sunrise was stunning but I couldn't get myself to get up to get the camera and take some pics. As soon as the sun rays hit the inside of the cave we were up and considering whether we head to the top of the pass for the day before heading back to the hut for the second night. After a beautiful morning we reluctantly decided that we would just head back to the hut for the day and prepare for the walk back on the last day as we had to get an early start and be back as we had to travel back to Richards Bay and one guy in the group had to prepare to for a wedding he was photographing in Johannesburg.
We went for a swim in the river by the hut and washed up, then soaked up sun rays and beautiful peace and quiet. After a lovely afternoon lazing the sun we made supper and enjoyed the evening.
What struck me was the solitude and amazing alone time one still has even when walking in a group. There are moments where every person is lost in their own train of thoughts. We enjoyed a beautiful evening stargazing and enjoying the peace and quiet among good company. We enjoyed sleeping in the hut and woke up several times with the wind howling. At times I was thinking there was knocking on the door as the wind pumped through the pass and into and over the hut. I would imagine the winds must have reached speeds in excess of 60km/h (but that is just a guess).

We woke up before sunrise and were on our way fairly early. The highlight on the hike back was seeing an Osprey roughly 100m from us on the ground looking for breakfast along the contour path. I wish I had taken a photo at least to confirm if it was an Osprey and not a vulture.
We got back to the Bushman’s River by Giants Castle and had a fun icy swim to end of the trip.
Thanks again to everyone that contributes to the forum and helps making it a comfortable environment to learn and educate oneself in order to experience the wonder that is Drakensberg.

As the old saying goes - on a mountain you don't always do what you set out to do, but you always learn something. As long as you enjoyed your trip, getting to the top is not that important

Funny enough I have done Bannerman Pass 4 times, and have been in the false cave 3 times, yet never in the true cave.

ghaznavid wrote: As the old saying goes - on a mountain you don't always do what you set out to do, but you always learn something. As long as you enjoyed your trip, getting to the top is not that important

Funny enough I have done Bannerman Pass 4 times, and have been in the false cave 3 times, yet never in the true cave.

It was a great trip.

On the second to last photo (Bannerman-0219) you can see the cave on the left of the false cave just above the centre of the photo.

Fantastic photos! Very inspiring. I've got to make the trip up there sometime!

Dillon wrote: Fantastic photos! Very inspiring. I've got to make the trip up there sometime!

Thanks Dillon,

I am looking forward to the next hike already.

All credit goes to my mate Louis (www.vertical-endeavour.com/profile/userprofile/louisjeezy.html). I got him to join the forum and will soon introduce himself.

He photographed the majority of the pics and also stitched up the pics to make the panoramas (I only took one lens- 35mm). Some of the panos are 6 vertical pics or so stitched together.

I'll gladly be a camera mule again if he takes such awesome pics.

vanhimself wrote:

Is Spare Rib Cave really as big as this pic makes it look? Pictures can be deceiving sometimes, but it looks amazing in this pic!

I believe it is rated to sleep 12. I don't have experience with a number of caves but I was pleasantly surprised at the size of the cave.

I hope this helps.

Spare Rib Cave is a big cave, but much of the floor is not level and quite rough, as can be seen in the photo. The level area that can be used for sleeping might be able to sleep 12, but I think that would be pushing it. The level sleeping area is further reduced by the severe drips from the roof of the cave for much of the year, and in summer it's difficult to find dry sleeping space for four people.