Trip report - a beginner's Berg perspective

Hi all. See below my trip report. Its a bit long, but I didn't know what to include or exclude. Read at your own peril. Thanks everyone for giving me inputs through the course of this year to help plan a first-time Drakensberg experience. Key words in bold.

Introduction

The idea was born as a green-horned attempt at a Drakensberg Grand Traverse. A team of 5 was identified in March 2016, but with mates eventually pulling out due to a multitude of reasons our final team was a crew of 3. We had 8 days to our disposal for the traverse. With this goal in mind, we set out to prepare and train for the behemoth of a task over a few months.

On our one big training hike where we simulated the figures in distance and altitude gain on Table Mountain, two of the three got serious blisters and we soon realised a DGT might be a bridge too far. To the dismay of some, we managed to tone down the plan to a 5-6 day hike in the Cathedral Peak area.

The team

Cameron Inngs - long-time Berg hiker, durbanite, go-getter and leader. GPS master. Soon to be dubbed "trail boss". Consistent pace and resilience to cold temperatures.
Paddy Chapple - Comrades athlete, Cape to Rio sailor and overall tough-guy doctor. Manages an easy pace of 5-7kph with a 30kg backpack.
Gerhard Nel - First time berg hiker. Researcher and the brakes to the team's petrol. Fast on the ups, slow on the downs.

The final itinerary

The plan was simple. Or so it seemed. Very approximate, in fact.

Day 0 - drive from Cape Town to Cathedral Peak in one go. Camp.
Day 1 - Hike to Tseketseke hut
Day 2 - Up Organ Pipes via the Camel and along the escarpment to Yodelers Cascades
Day 3 - Along escarpment, down Grays Pass, overnight at Keith Bush camp
Day 4, 5, 6 - Make it back to Cathedral Peak in one piece

Packing strategies / weights

The plan was to simulate a Grand Traverse in terms of gear and food rations as best we could. Myself and Cam came in at about 1kg/day with luxuries, and about 3500kcal/day. Our packs were 20kg each, but we did include luxury items (I carried an extra pair of shoes, 500ml of whiskey, a 500g medikit, and more gas and batteries than I needed). Paddy had a different strategy of bringing along the whole pantry and to then "eat himself light". His pack came in at a cool 29kg and included apples, oranges, leftover braai meat and a bunch of other items.

How it went down...

Day 0 we left Cape Town at 2h45 and cruised controlled our way to Cathedral Peak. We arrived at 16h00, quickly signed the mountain register and due to pure excitement made our way up to Sherman's cave rather than to camp on ground level.

The morning of Day 1 we quickly scooted down the way we came, and then started the official hike. We proceeded to rock-hop up the Tseketseke river to Tseketseke hut and arrived there early. I was already impressed by the technical nature of the trails and how easily one could lose track of where you are. The rest of the afternoon was spent oogling at the magnificent cliffs surrounding Tseketseke Hut - it was here that we realised how big these mountains really are, and how unbelievably fortunate we were to be in such an epic location.

Day 2 we woke up before the sun, and followed the contour path to the Camel Route. This pass was, hands down, my single best hiking experience to date. I had to perform a multitude of tactical cries behind my sunglasses, as the emotions were just too much in the face of such sheer beauty (yes, real tears). One moment you come around a bend just to see the massive mountains and their sharp, bony profile. Just to round the bend and see an even more impressive vista to the other side. It was mind-boggling. It was surreal. And it was just the right balance between technical, demanding and pleasurable (although I would NOT attempt this pass in bad weather). On the way up we met a well-dressed Basotho man also making the trek up the pass, and had an interesting conversation with no real communication taking place. There was also a Basotho boy with a cellphone sitting halfway up the pass and we could hear him communicating with others higher up the valley. I suspected it might have been a smuggling operation but the others weren't convinced. We arrived on the escarpment late morning and found a stray patch of ice at Windy Gap where we took a well-deserved break.

From Windy Gap we realised that no clear and obvious path would lead us to our planned destination for the night, Yodelers Cascades. We had ample time (it was around 12h00), but the GPS showed another 8km as the crow flies. Here we made a fatal error - rather than heading higher up towards Ndumeni dome and then contouring around the dome and towards the upper tributaries of the Tlanyaku river, we headed a few clicks down the valley of the Kaokostan river before we started contouring to the left. We then encountered the "never-ending ridges" effect of these mountains. We had to contour and climb around about 4 ridges until we eventually topped out on a neck, where we believed the correct valley to be. But still, there was another ridge in our way. We kept on going and eventually reached the upper reaches of the Tlanyaku river at about 2pm (the path leading to Yodelers on the map).

We then made the decision to look for a spot to camp, rather than keep on heading in the direction of Yodelers. The thunder clouds were accumulating and we did not feel certain about the weather and our navigation abilities. We set up camp at 2800m altitude - the highest that I have slept ever in my life. Our campsite was on a floodplain next to a beautiful river - it wouldn’t have been ideal with heavy rains but we decided it would work for the night. That night we spent most of our time standing outside, in the cold, in silent contemplation. It was a spiritual experience and the child-like vigour and excitement of the first two days was traded in for cherished stillness. When the stars came out, we lay flat on our backs to get a good view. Washed it all down with a nice cup of " whiskey en bergwater". All in all day 2 was the most demanding, and taught us the most - we had to use the GPS to determine our location on the map more than once. Because of our navigational mistakes we decided to err on the side of safety and scoot down Tlanyaku Pass the next morning.

Day 3 saw us waking up before the sun - we walked about an hour to the escarpment edge (close to "little saddle" on the map), where we watched the sunrise and Paddy made flapjacks. He was still carrying a kilogram of flour and a whole tub of Nutella all this way! We were greeted by a blood-red sunrise and saw a beautiful Lammergeyer (Bearded Vulture) circling not far from us. This morning it was cold and windy - not icy but definitely colder than I am used to. The walk down from the escarpment edge towards Tlanyaku Pass was very memorable - eerie, perfect morning light, but with a bite in the air. I felt like a spoilt kid wearing my thick fleece gloves. It was with the utmost melancholy that we started down Tlanyaku Pass, as we knew we only spent one night on the escarpment. But I was also relieved deep inside, as I knew this mountain was bigger than us and I would not like to be up top in miserable weather.

Tlanyaku Pass was very memorable - steep, eroded slopes of sand and stone with absolutely hypnotising views. The texture and colour really was too much to handle! The pass was quick however, and by 11am we were at Schoongezicht cave for an afternoon siesta. A thunderstorm rolled past, and I took a nap while listening to the rain fall. There was a troop of baboons above the cave, and they threw rocks down at us from the top. It was a funny (dangerous?) experience. By 3pm the storm had passed, and we made the amateur decision to head back up to the Old Fire Lookout to sleep there. We filled our bottles, and headed up towards the lookout at a brisk pace. We got to the lookout at 5h40, only to find the wind gusts approaching gale force and the lookout being absolutely inhospitable. The corrugated iron roof was flapping in the wind, and the gusts would blow us off our feet. We shouted to make conversation. The decision was then made to get down to a lower elevation with the last bit of sunlight we had - we walked back to The Nek, where we found a nice donga to set up camp. We barely got our tents up in time for the rain to start. This was a wet, nervous evening. I shudder to think what would have happened if we did not find the donga on the Nek… The wind gusts approached 50 knots according to Paddy (he is a sailor afterall), but our Kway tents held their own. I was sleeping on the exposed edge of the tent and it only lifted up once during the night.

The morning of Day 4 we were greeted by a spectacular sunrise on the exposed neck where we set up camp. The wind and rain of the previous night was gone, and we were fairly relieved to know that our tents made it and we didn’t have to attempt an emergency evacuation the night before. By now we were close to the endpoint and still had another 3 days of walking to do, so we decided to follow the contour path all the way to Xeni cave. Our packs were getting lighter and we got into the swing of things - we managed to keep a stiff 4-5kph pace for most of the day and covered quite some distance. We decided to take the difficult route from the contour path to Xeni cave (indicated in red on the map). It was a steep and slippery descent, but nice and technical and well worth it. We arrived at Xeni cave mid-afternoon, amazed by the size and aura of this spectacular place. If this cave could speak, it would tell you stories thousands of years old.

Day 5 we headed down the Xeni river, and back up to the contour path. Our plan was to follow the contour path to Barker's chalet for a final night before heading down to the car. We walked with a brisk march along the contour path, and when we looked back across the valley we could see the rangers were burning fire-breaks where we walked just 40 minutes before! This could have caused problems. We followed the contour path for kilometres and kilometres - in and out of ridges. The part of the contour path below Cathedral Peak gets quite high and the vegetation in the valleys is spectacular! We read on the map there was such a thing as "alpine fynbos" - we saw this and some prehistoric cycads! We now got to the end of our walk for the day, we decided that the call of beer and burgers was too loud to ignore. We decided to cut the trip short and made our way back to the car. After a burger and beer at the Cathedral Peak hotel, we headed to the Amphitheater backpackers lodge. This place is highly recommended to any travellers looking for a comfortable overnight spot before or after heading into the Berg.

Lessons learnt

As a first timer, I learnt a number of valuable lessons on this trip. I will try to repeat them here for any other first-timers that might be doing research for future Berg trips, including the DGT. They are the following:

1 - It is very easy to get lost, and it is hard to determine your position on the map. Without the GPS we would have been blind. 1cm on the map can easily take half a day if you don't know where you are going.
2 - The weather is drastic. We had "clear" weather reports, but the local weather conditions still allowed for gale force winds, rain and bitter cold at times. The weather changes in the blink of an eye.
3 - You can only go "fast & light" if you know the mountains. We ended up each carrying full kit (enough layers, rain pants, etc) and each and every item came in handy. I would not attempt these mountains with a reduced kit list unless I completely understand the weather patterns and know where I am going. This would impact on any beginner's traverse attempts as well.
4 - Trekking poles are indispensable to carry a heavy pack over the rough terrain
5 - The terrain is technical. For reference, the passes we followed could very well be compared to the lesser-used B grade routes on Table Mountain (think Left Face B, Yellowstone Gully and Dark Gorge, Grotto Ravine, etc.)
6 - Unless you are an ultra-trail runner with the proprioception of a blind person, boots are necessary. I walked in my old Hi-Tec boots and rolled my ankles at least once a day. Luckily the boots helped me from stretching a ligament.
7 - If you are not used to hiking with a tent and mattress - its quite a task to get your pack weight bearable and non-essential items should stay at home.
8 - Lastly - just because the regulars on this forum speak about the routes fairly matter-of-factly, does not mean that any route in the Berg should be taken lightly. The people on this forum are experienced mountaineers and deserve all the respect in the world.

Random selection of 10 photos below (I took 180!)

Thanks for the writeup, I enjoyed that

And well done to you and the team, sounds like you guys had a great time! Also good call on identifying that you weren't ready for a GT, it can be a tough call to make, but a GT is a big undertaking and shouldn't be taken lightly. I was not ready for my first GT, and struggled massively - luckily the team had a lot of experienced members who helped me to get through it.

Thlanyako Pass is a special route - I assume Didima Falls was dry, but if you do this pass in summer, it looks straight at the 600m high waterfall. I was lucky enough to do that pass in perfect weather with the waterfall in full flow. It is a really special route. Camel Pass will be on my to-do list for 2017, but Organ Pipes is one of my favourites.

Re navigation: my first GT was lead by an individual on his 7^th GT, and he made a hash-up of the Yodeler's Ridge - so don't worry, it is not the easiest Berg section to negotiate.

Thanks for an entertaining write up. It is always awesome to hear Berg first timers speak with such awe and wonder of this amazing mountain range. My day has been made by reading that!

Super write up Gerhard, your enthusiasm and emotion is tangible. I guess you and your mates are now members of the 'berg addict club.

Hope you have many more wonderful 'berg hikes.

Thanks everyone, glad you enjoyed the story. We will definitely be back for more, next up is Injasuthi area or perhaps a guided Northern Berg Traverse with my other half A self-supported GT still remains the end goal...

Thank you for that great write-up! Its super to read about the Berg from the eyes of a newbie, who hasn't seen the grandeur of these mountains. The Berg is a special place with so much to explore.

Hope you come back soon.

Great write up. Reminds me of my first adventure up there in 91. It is a long time since i looked at the berg with the awe of a newbie, thanx for the reminder!

Really enjoyed your write-up Gerhard. The Berg surely is a special place, glad you enjoyed it!