Southern Berg escarpment traverses

my mate and i want to hike up Rhino and traverse and come down Bushmans Nek Pass, has anyone done that? if so can someone share more info please, especially about water supply and safety.

thanks

I haven't done this particular route in this manner, but I did just do a South to North GT and I know Garden Castle really well...

I can give you a route that I would use, pics and fairly up to date details on water, just let me know what your plans are so far and I can advise you on your planned route.

My assumption is you are climbing Mashai Pass, going south in the valley in Lesotho down on the side of Matebeng, dropping into the Lequooa valley and climbing the infamous Lequooa ridge (lots of water in this river last month), taking the saddle between Mashai and Tsepeng and dropping down into the Mzimude valley (a fair amount of water here). You would then either descent the Lesotho side of Walker's Peak or Isicutula Pass (or for that matter, Walker's Pass on the SA side). And you have a fun lowish berg traverse from here to BN pass depending on the route.

Basothu's in this area are usually friendly, take some cigarettes and matches and give every Basothu a box of matches and a cigarette (and maybe some food) and they will leave you alone - usually. If you are worried about safety then consider the 3 million caves in the area, eg Mzimude Cave, but they didn't give us any trouble at all.

Let me know if you want pics/details of what the route will look/be like...

Thanks so much for the heads up, yes please send some pics and the route you did, I will take note of the matches and ciggies and will use them wisely for friendship. I'm planning on doing it the last weekend of June, dam sure there be plenty snow.

A very detailed write up on the hike is on this thread , it also has some pics, not much more to say on the route than that!

Sadly I don't have many photos from the first day of the GT when we did Thamathu Pass to Mzimude Valley.

This is Matebeng (centre) and Wilson (right) from the top of the saddle between Mashai and Tsepeng (both are peaks of height significant and are worth a climb if time allows) from the top of the Lequooa ridge


Mashai Peak (in the distance, not the close rocky outcrop) from the top of the Lequooa ridge.


The Mzimude valley from the summit of the Lequooa ridge (left peak is Mzimude, the peak in the distance is Thaba Ngwangwe, then Isicutula Peak, then Walkers Peak followed by Thamathu Peak which's summit is hidden by the mist):


Mlambonja Peak (left) and Matebeng (right) from the Mashai River.


Rhino Peak from near the top of Mashai Pass:


I have more reference photos (ie less "scenic" but more about the route etc) if you are looking for a particular part of the route.

Thanks for the pics, I can't wait to go, we going to climb weekend of June 22, do I contact Garden Castle to get the relevant permits?
The GT looks like a great hike as well.

Thats a pleasure. Good luck, enjoy and don't forget to give us a nice long write up about the hike

You can get the hiking permits at the Garden Castle offices, they open at 8:00AM - as you are starting on the shortest day of the year, that may be more or less sunrise I believe it is currently R45 per night for an overnight permit.

Don't forget to phone Garden Castle when you are done with the hike to confirm that you got to BN safely - otherwise the mountain register will indicate that you went missing...

The GT is an amazing hike, its really tough, but very worthwhile doing. Its best to do it with a hiking club, that way you have a large group...

Thanks for the heads up, do we need to take passports with us? where do i get the gps downloads for the traverse? my GPS is a handheld,
what do you reckon the chances of snow are? would be great hike if there is snow

where can i get topo maps for my hike up rhino traverse? for a Garmap62 from a mate to use, so ideally id like to plot waypoints.

Elinda's post on Bollard/Tsepeng has just reminded me of an important rule in the Garden Castle area that can be summarised by the following photo of Matebeng from the approach to Mashia Pass taken in mid October last year (after a few fairly hot day):



Snow/ice doesn't melt quickly in this area, the south facing sides of passes will often have left over snow for weeks if not months after it initially falls in winter. So your odds of having substantial snow are very low, but your odds of seeing a bit of snow in the corners and below some south facing rock faces is pretty good.

Prepare for lots of ice and remember that Mashai Pass in winter is really cold as the Rhino stops lots of it from getting proper sunlight - I had a failed attempt on it in June last year (the attempt failure was to do with my friend's hiking boots, not the weather), as we came into the shadow of Rhino on Mashai Pass we both put every item of clothing we had with us on, and we were still fairly cold.

Ps. please could you take a photo for me - the view of Andre's Knob from the top of Isicutula Pass with the land bridge from the escarpment to the peak. When I was there on GT I was really sick and didn't get a photo (when my camera gets put away its either because its raining or I am incredibly sick).