Sentinel Car Park to Cathedral Peak - Northern Berg Escarpment Traverse

The campsite at Didima has been shutdown, does anyone have any alternative places for staying if you've finished a long hike in the Cathedral area?

timoross wrote: The campsite at Didima has been shutdown

They have been having issues with the ablutions for ages - do you know when this decision was actually made? Did they give you an idea of the timeframe for re-opening?

ghaznavid wrote:

timoross wrote: The campsite at Didima has been shutdown

They have been having issues with the ablutions for ages - do you know when this decision was actually made? Did they give you an idea of the timeframe for re-opening?

The lady on the phone said that they shut it down in January. She said they do not know when it will open again.

Interesting - I see the camp is no longer on the list of places that can be booked online.

The ablution issue dates back years - I hope they come right soon, this has always been one of my favourite camps to stay at. Didima has so many options for big day hikes.

I spoke to them last week, they said it should open again around June this year

Hi all,

Somewhere on this forum I read about a lady transporting people around the Berg area, back to starting points but cannot find it

I am planning a mini Traverse from the Chain ladder to Cathedral Peak and would like to know who could transport us back to the starting point from Cathedral Peak or at least to Harrismith. I have a contact there, who could take us to Witsieshoek but he is very expensive to fetch from Cathedral Peak.

Sabine wrote: Hi all,

Somewhere on this forum I read about a lady transporting people around the Berg area, back to starting points but cannot find it

Sabine, the lady is Lily and the details you are looking for are here .

As an aside (nothing to do with transit/transport), I have stayed in Lily's cottage for a night and while it was clean & neat & convenient I was a bit disappointed; as an alternative for anyone looking for accommodation in the area I can recommend Drakensview Self-Catering Chalets 3km outside Winterton (admittedly quite a long way from EKZN Monks Cowl & Champagne Valley).

Andrew

Hi all,

Also as a side note, with no affiliation with, is this self catering cottage in Monks Cowl on the R600. Stayed there 3 years back. Fantastic views, huge cottage and really decent price.

pumulacentraldrakensberg.blogspot.co.za/2015/05/pumula-central-drakensberge.html

Cheers

If someone goes ahead with a Sentinel - Cathedral Peak traverse (in either direction) over Easter, please could you make a note of the number of groups of shepherds from Fangs through to the chain ladders close to the escarpment? And the number of sheep - roughly. I'm interested to know what the seasonality of their presence is like. Perhaps someone knows the answer already? We came across about 8 groups between Mbundini and Sentinel in Jan 2017 on the 'escarpment-route'. Over 1000 sheep.

We hiked up Rwanqa last weekend and went down Ntonjelana and there were so many sheep, it was incredible. I didn't take note of the number of groups though, or the number of sheep for that matter.

We are doing Sentinel to Cathedral Peak over Easter. Will count the number of groups and guess the number of sheep.