Sentinel Car Park to Cathedral Peak - Northern Berg Escarpment Traverse

Hi Reksia,

Welcome on VE!!

Smurfatefrog had some good answers to your questions. I'dd add to this the following:
Raingear. Being from Poland I'm sure you guys are used to rain/snow/cold weather, but there is a good chance you might experience some rainy weather so be prepared for this. Also, I'd suggest taking some sort of water filtrasion system or sanitation drops along. Your chances of picking up a stomack bug is definitely vastly reduced if you drink from running water, but there is still a chance of bacteria in the rivers and believe me, they can ruin your berg trip! You will typically find horses, donkeys, sheep, goats, dogs and very limited numbers of wildlife on your route, and these all use the rivers where you will be drinking from.

I'd also suggest finding out where alternative caves on your route is located, should your preferred caves be occupied or if you can't locate it. As Smuratefrog said, do take a tent along, this will cover you in the above circumstance.

Enjoy the Berg!!!

Smurfatefrog wrote:

• Sentinel entry fees do not go to the main Drakensberg management company (Ezemvelo), which is where 99% of your hike will be.

interested to know where 99% comes from. 
I would estimate 15% - namely Twins cave to Cathedral Peak road. Most of the hike isn’t in South Africa and the northern Berg from top of Amphitheatre to Cathedral lies outside the Ezemvelo conservation area. 

Hello all, 

thank you so much for all the info! I knew this forum wouldn't let me down  
Will think about the reservations then and prepare alternatives We will take GPS, tent, raingear, water filter and hopefully do the Bell Traverse!

Maybe 2 more questions that emerged
-> Where can I buy canister fuel - I guess back in Johannesburg best? Same for last food supplies? 
-> How long you would estimate the last day (from Twins via Bell Traverse to Hotel) - asking in order to understand when we will need to march out and for what time roughly arrange the transport. 

Best, 
Kat 

 

I think there's a Cape Union Mart in OR Tambo airport (Duty Free Mall). They might have gas canisters.

Otherwise Google Maps search...

Outdoor Warehouse
Sportsmans Warehouse
Cape Union Mart

...and you will find a few options close to OR Tambo

Reksia,

His is your head for heighs?

The Bell Traverse has 5 possibly dodgy sections. I wrote a trip report about this last year (posted on VE) if you want to have a look. The first one is near Twins cave, where you descend dwn a rocky ledge with a dropoff to your right. Fairly easy to naviate, just watch out as the rock on your left can bump you towards the right, where the dropoff is. Could be an issue if you have stuff sticking out on the side of your pack like say a sleeping mat. I haven't heard many complaints about this section and didn't find it dodgy myself, but it has exposure risk. The next obstacle is the one most people seem to have an issue with. Note that if this obstacle is too risky for you, simply retrace your steps by about 40m or so, and then drop down the side slope and walk underneath the dodgy bit. By the time you arrive there should be lots of grass in this area so it should be relatively easy to byass the rocky obstacle. My wife had to use this bypass route last winter when everything was dry and crumbly, as she was definitely not in the right mindset to attempt this obstacle.

The rest of the obstacles are basically just a series of rockplates that you need to climb up, but the rocks have natural "steps" which makes it easy. I've done them up and down in all types of weather and never found them hard to do. As is typical in the Drakensberg, these carry quite a bt of exposure risk. So, if you don't slip and fall, they are relativey easy to navigate.

Once past this obstacle the walking is generally easy and fast as the footpath is fine.

It's about 15km's from here to the hotel. It's basically all downhill from here and a relatively average pace, including lunch stops etc. would be around 3km/h, so 5-6 hours to the hotel. For us, if we take our time on the descent it's typically between 5 and 8 hours to get down (depending on who we take along), going fast would be 5 hours and 4 hours is flying down.

Cool! Thank you! Very helpful again.
We are good with heights, so should be okay on that front, but in any case we keep Mlambonja pass as an alternative in case the weather gets worse / we wouldn't feel up for the challenge. 
I will go through the Bell traverse thread as well to get some more insight. Navigation-wise it managable, correct? I would combine the Northern Berg track with the Bell Twins from the forum. 

Thanks, 
Kat
 

It's fairly straight forward. You can download the tracks for the Bell Traverse from the VE download section.

In short, for the descent it's fairly straight forward, mostly on a path. From Twins cave, just walk through the cave (i.e. away from the escarpment) for a few hundred meters till you get to the first obstacle. From here just drop down abut 100m or so onto the footpath. There is only one in this area, so no confusion here. For myself the trickiest path finding section is when you get to the inner horn section. You can see the path about 50m or so below you, but the path on the upper section basically dissapears as it turn towards the right and away from the footpath below you. This is fine, keep going to the right, you should see some cairns where you then have to turn left and down again. It's maybe a 50m section where you walk away from the downwards direction of travel. If you walked 100m you would have gone too far. Backtract and you should see the cairns. If I remember correctly they are a little bit lower down from the footpath. Just remember where you last saw the footpath and navigate lower and back to this point. The gps tracks should assist here.

For the rest you stick to the footpath basically all the way. Depending on how overgrown it is, it could also be slightly difficult to follow once you go over Buggers Gulch (the section immediately pnext to Cathedral Peak). The correct path is basically straigt down, but keeping slightly to the left of the dropoff. About 400m or so further down you will see a clear path again. You basically stay on the ridge all the way down from here (walking immediately to the left of the dropoff).

Org=ange Peel gap is where you need to get off the ridge. The path carries on past it, so remember to turn right down here. I did it during the spring last year and it was super loose. I suspect it hasn't improved, please report back on what the current condition is like. In the wet the loose rocks tends to be a bit firmer so you will probably not slide down here like we did

Lastly, once you get to the bottom there are many possibilities on where to cross the river. I don't think I've ever used the same exit point twice, so I can't help you here. I basically try to look for the easiest crossing point as water levels are constantly changing exposing or submerging rocks I use to hop over the river.

Enjoy!!!

Super! Thank you for the detailed description, I will print it out and take wit me  
Thank you again for all the advice, I will report once we're back! 

All the best! 
Kat