Sentinel Car Park to Cathedral Peak - Northern Berg Escarpment Traverse

Hi Dave

All of the caves you mention are quite secluded from Lesotho (especially Fangs Cave) and none has had any evidence of Basotho use except for Mponjwane Cave perhaps.

I will echo Ghaznavid's recommendation to take tents anyway, especially in winter - I have often had to set up a tent inside a cave in winter due to the icy winds being funnelled by the cave...

That schedule looks perfect - you'll have enough time to explore a bit and won't have to start your days too early on those icy winter mornings!

Enjoy!

Hi Dave,
I've done that route in summer and winter 5 or more times and never with a tent. The route is one of the best served by caves in the High Berg. If you know the location of other caves you have more flexibility and can choose between caves if the weather is cold and windy e.g. ledgers Vs Mponjwane or Mbundini Vs Fangs, Easter Vs Twins. They are often within an hour or so of each other but have different degrees of exposure to the winds.

Thanks for the Advice guys.

Much appreciated.

Dave.

Thanks yes we will take a 2 man tent between the three of us.

Dave.

Does any one know what the cost per person is to hike from Sentinal car park?

Is it even possible.
Me and my girlfriend would like to do a 4 day Hike in the Northern Drakensberg.
I do not know the berg that well but thaught about starting at Sentinal car park and finishing at Cathedral Peak Hotel. First of all is this Hike even possible in 4 days and how hectic is it? is there opertunities to get a lift back to my car and how far is it?Here is the catch, I would like to propose to my girlfriend, the plan is for a Helicopter to pick us up during our Hike,the helicopter guys says it is possible to pick us up in the "orange peel gap" and drop us there again after the Helicopter trip of about 30min. My other option is Mnweni pass down Rockeries pass starting at the Mnweni cultural centre, this is a circular route so I have no problem getting back to my car but I have heard that this is a difficult route. The other problem is the Helicopters do not fly in this area on a regular basis and do not know where they can land and if they can.
Any ideas and thaughts would be much appreciated.

Hmmm - is it possible to hike from Sentinel car park to Cathedral Peak Hotel in 4 days? Yes - Sentinel Car park to Bushman's Nek has been done in under 62 hours, so definitely possible. Its actually not such a bad walk. I haven't done it that way round, or in exactly that configuration, but I have walked from near the top of Mlambonja Pass to Sentinel Car Park (part of my Grand Traverse last year). At the end of the day it comes down to how fit you are, how well you navigate (you could easily get lost around the Ifidi and North Saddle Peak ridges) and how the weather goes.

You could easily get from the car park to Icidi on day 1 - thats about 15km. Day 2 you could hit Senqu Valley. And day 3 you would be at the Cathedral Peak - I assume via the Bell Traverse if you aim to reach Orange Peel Gap.

I wouldn't suggest trying to do a pass at Mnweni - the cultural centre is a long way from the ends of passes and the passes are really tough. Any way, Rockeries Pass is in the Senqu Valley area, so from there to the top of Mlambonja Pass (the head of the Bell Traverse) isn't far and just has 1 ridge in the way. Be careful coming down that ridge though - there is a rock band where you have to walk about 1km into Lesotho to find the small break in it.



The guy who runs Witsieshoek Resort does do transport, so he can probably pick you up at Cathedral Peak Hotel and take you back to where you started - but he charges a lot. There are some threads on this forum about this topic. Can't remember the thread names off the top of my head.

Just a heads up - please make sure you have a GPS and a good route loaded as well as a map in case the GPS misleads you or fails, I think there is a GPS track for a Grand Traverse (GT) in the downloads section, failing which there are guys on this forum who do have this track. Navigation on the escarpment isn't as easy as it sounds - especially in mist. The finding of passes in bad weather becomes basically impossible.

Also make sure you are prepared for all weather - even in summer the temperatures on top frequently drop below 0. It has snowed in summer on many occasions in the past. Combine being wet with wind chill in a gale force wind - it can become very cold.

Ps. good luck - hope she says yes