Injisuthi - Grays - Leslies Loop (my wife's perspective)

My experiences after the first hike December 2014
Friday 12th Dec 2014
It started on a Friday evening, I got to Tim’s house to find him in a panic because I had not helped him pack the food which forced him to take too much- I remember saying “babe when is too much food a problem?” Unknowing that we had to carry it all. (5 of us) got into the car and headed for the Drakensburg. We planned to sleep over at a place called Waaidam just outside of Harrismith which was a strange place with rusted old farming implements surrounding the yard, we arrived late at night, so could not find anyone. Our room smelled like damp and our bed felt like a water bed-this was to be luxury compared to our hiking experience. We set off early in the morning still not seeing anyone at the farm house of horrors (SAT 5:30am) to meet our fellow hikers (a further 4 people altogether) at the local Wimpy for a hearty brekkie. We were all in high spirit and ready to “take on the mountain.” Little did we know…

Saturday 13th Dec
We got to Injestuti at about 10am all ready and rearing to go with some light drizzle, signed the hikers register and memorising the helicopter mountain rescue number (hardly). Took a few group pics and started on our hike.



Half way up the hill I ran out of breath (and humour) and realised that I was really unfit. I did get onto the moan train and soon realised that the group started becoming aggravated with my modus operandi commentary and would soon be heading for a gentle nudge off the mountain by the bravest or most emotionally distressed hiker sooner or later if I did not decide to wo-man up.



Anyways 17km later through mist, a forest, grassland and wet conditions (my pants and socks were sopping wet, feeling cold and miserable) we found our “camp site” and our other hiking party of 5 people, just as it was getting dark. We managed to put up our tent before it started raining (again).



Throughout the night, I felt very exposed in the middle of nowhere sleeping under the stars (in my paper-thin tent) in a cramped camp site (which we had to make by flattening bushes). I tried to sleep through the flashes of the thunder and lightning, I woke up the next morning unrested and tense as I realised what I had got myself into! Turning back would mean social rejection from my accepted clan and a cognitive dissonance of 17km back through all of that long wet grass, potentially by myself. I decided safety in numbers was the new rule of thumb.

Sunday 14th Dec
I suppose with renewed vigour and some oats in my system, I felt I had survived the night and now with our cohort’s number increased, we had a good hiking party of 14 people. With good weather (which is critical going up a mountain) we set off over boulders (we did serious boulder hopping) through grasslands, up and to the base of a mountain range. We were to now attempt Greys pass.



It took the whole day to ascend Greys pass. In 12km from camp up onto the escarpment we gained 800m in altitude. Upon reaching the top we were at 3200 meters in altitude- this was the scariest thing. I was too scared to be at the back for fear of flash backs from those stupid scary movies I have allowed myself to watch, (where the last person gets left behind, especially with this troops pace!) and had no energy or fitness to be in front, so I tried to stay in the middle watching every step- it was like being on those step-up machines at gym the whole day. You had to take ten steps and then breathe (as the air got thinner and thinner), it got steeper and steeper- you really had to watch your steps as you had less oxygen pumping through your system and lethargy started to set in. The scramble up to the top got more and more precarious with sheer drops a misplaced foot away.

Half way up I noticed I had cell phone signal and decided to sit down and call my Mom for some comforting words. After my call and recommencement of my now safely installed hike for your life application, I continued my mechanical mountain walk. A few minutes later we bumped into three hikers. Our Posse had now swelled to 17 people.



With oxygen levels dramatically reducing with ever step and almost robotically putting one foot in front of the other with a suggested: three points of contact always strategy, we then reached a point where the path disappeared and a smooth vertical rock face lay before us, it was a natural made wall 800 meters up onto the side of the mountain. Now this is the part on the map that suggests ropes and harnesses, actually it is strongly advised, sort of marked in red which Tim didn’t think to mention or perhaps suffered a colour blind moment in the planning stages.
We all sort of looking around at each other trying to log into thinking mode and come up with some problem-solving solutions. Tim stepped up boldly and said “we have to climb over it” with a glint of adventure in his eye, I don’t think too many of us shared this level of adventure with him. As we now had to shimmy up and across a wall at a really peculiar angel.



Anyways we all just had to just bloody rock spider across it. I with my R200 Mr Price Sport takkies seemed to have enough grip and delivered me unharmed to the other side while a fellow hiker attempted it with his Hi-Tech hiking boots and slipped down and almost fell right off the edge of the Mountain. He tried to grip on his slide down and lost some finger tips and nails. With bloody hands he reached up and motioned for help, a valiant hiker from our original troop mountain-goat-ed down to help him. I think I was just in shock and was like what the hell now!?!? This hike just started to escalate and I am not talking about the altitude.



(Side note: I do believe this is the boot that was found in the injusuthi area on another thread in this forum)

We helped the unfortunate hi-tech hiking boots guy with some cable ties and got on with things.

Not sure (as if a bit of this was blocked out of my mind) if we formed a human chain ladder or how we all got across somehow. We got to near the top and then had to climb up a whole bunch of loose rocks packed onto each other through the gorge. At this stage I was exhausted, I was in a surreal painting, Salvador himself was calling me up the mountain, painting melting clocks on each rock that I reached for. I just kept hoping that any snakes or rats whose abode I was now potentially dismantling with my outstretched clenching hands, would just stay put and not rear its head, never mind the loose rocks that could fall and near miss those climbers below.

I reached the top and could not believe what I had accomplished. We were on top of the world! We slept on the escarpment, played cards ate chocolate had whiskey and went to bed.





Monday 15th Dec
The next morning I still couldn’t believe that my body was holding up so well with no prior endurance training, being in a constant state of alertness and having to trek through the country side, but there was more to come.

Today was a day of being hailed on, running from lightning, sitting huddled in the mud praying that we would not be electrocuted?

But before all the hail, we sat on a sunny ridge deciding on the best way forward as there are no “official paths through Lesotho, so we had to use GPS co-ordinates, a map and compass. Tim was our navigation specialist and not having been on this hike before looked a bit perturbed as to the way forward but eventually worked it out. In the Interim the hikers we met on the path along the way (Hi-tech boots guy and co) said that they had found a path and were going to follow it (this was a goat path and was headed west -deep into the Lesotho highlands, when we needed to head South back towards South Africa) so our party split up (8 people headed in the wrong direction. What a mess this turned out to be! We didn’t see these people again and had to inform Mountain Rescue that they had gone off into the wilderness, they all survived and got home on the last night at 3am. (Whereas we finished on Tues at 1pm)

We hiked off into a quagmire; flat open field with no trees just some rocks sticking out here and there, next to a river. When a lightning storm blew over us. The tips on surviving lighting are: <If you find yourself caught in the lightning storm, first of all, do not panic. Stay calm and take the proper immediate precautions. Quickly leave open fields, elevated mountain tops, and watery areas>
Hahaha, we were screwed! We were on top of a mountain we decreased our surface areas to that of tiny balls, I still remember looking at Rob my Father in law and asking what do we do, to which he replied “if its your time, it’s your time”

After the storm passed, we all became a bit hypothermic and with blue lips and chattering teeth we run down like Hobbits running away from Orcs to lower ground. Almost in celebration we realised we had survived and that it was all going to be ok, we gave each other smiles and encouraging looks, but just as we thought we were safe we saw a large ominous cloud blowing in.
Out of it-not lighting but wizards approached- these Besuto people and their half hybrid hyena potential rabies rabid carrying dogs encircled us and gave us glaring looks (well just the gang leader)



I immediately tried to befriend them began with the different greetings : Sawubona- no response, Molo kunjani? No response, Ndaa? It was getting a bit hairy now, Dumelang?
Dumelang! Dumelang, Dumelang… As we exchanged this word over and over again I realised I did not know anymore Sesotho… They then came a bit closer so we tried to suggest we had nothing. In a final attempt to try and appease our new obtruding friends I reached into my bag and felt that I had a mega bar one, loathed to give it away but weighed up the options. So we all gave them a bit of food which seemed to suffice. They then disappeared into the cloud they came in.


We counted 14 dogs that had surrounded us (probably waiting for the attack signal).
They followed their owners into the mist.



We eventually found Lieslies Pass after having to hit the floor next to a rock due to lighting again- which we now know that you can’t outrun or hide from and rocks turn out to be conductors! Lighting can strike anywhere. It is not the electricity or fire that kills you it’s the explosive power that rips off limbs and creates neurological and internal injuries- so the best thing to do is reduce your surface area by curling up into a low level ball. The mist was now in full force and we were attempting to descend a mountain unable to see the person in the very front. There was lots of soil erosion down the path, thus it was very unstable and everything was loose (anything you tried to get traction from just started a downward motion). You basically found yourself trying to grip onto anything and everything so as to avoid momentum. It took us the whole day to get down and Tim being very aware of nightfall creeping in, kept interrupting our needed breaks to usher us down to safety. We again got to a small opening where it started raining so we rushed to get our tents up before being soaked.

At least we were not as cold as up in Lesotho as after the hail we all were freezing and sopping wet and had to continue hiking until we reached camp and could change.

During the night I had something buzzing and hissing under my two centimetre mattress and tent ground cover- I could hear it through my clothes bag (that I used as a pillow) and through my sleeping bag combined with my worry for the lost hikers I didn’t sleep well that night.

Tuesday 16th Dec
I knew this was the final day of hiking so I was very keen to get home, it was the final stretch thinking please God we have made it thus far, please can no one break a leg, get bitten by a snake, get alienated from our remaining troop or anything else. My Father in law Rob was finished, he kept stopping and falling asleep and even slammed his head into a rock from a misguided footstep and pure exhaustion. We traipsed though overgrown paths with long Grass and plants as high as your head (sometimes towering over you.) Boulder bashing, crossing rivers that came up to your waist. We kept crossing the river to follow the marked (by cairns- rocks piled up to show a path ) and then realised that there were two paths along either side of the river.



We then stopped for some lunch.



And then took a “We can taste victory” group photo.

We got back to Injestuti and all basked in the oblation block facilities, feeling like a new people we emerged showered and victorious! What a hike!

Well told story, you have a great sense of humour...

I note that it's taken you a while to post this trip report, hopefully this has given you time for the memory of the sketchy bits to fade and has whetted your appetite for more Berg adventuring.

JonWells wrote:

timoross wrote: Injestuti

Now there's a spelling I haven't seen before, time to update This thread!

Injestuti - that sounds like a mixture of dog and motorbike in Zulu. Maybe the latter was what Timoross' missuss was hoping for!

Thanks Andrew R, well Tim is taking us on another hike and I was putting together an info pack for my friends (which are not as hardcore as Tim's) and came across my write up that I had sent out to my friends just after the last hike, I thought perhaps I should give them an honest picture of what a hike in the Drakensburg looks like before they all pitch up expecting hot showers and toilets! Hahaha or perhaps I shouldn't scare them all off and provide them the opportunity to build their character?

Love the photo of the Basotho shepherds!