Mnweni Pass - Rockeries Pass Loop

Ok, thank you, I'll keep that in mind. 

Howsit hikers

I'm planning a multi-day hike up Mnweni Pass and down Rockies... and we wish to stay a night in Ledgers Cave.
Dates: 23rd Sept (Saturday) and 24th Sept (Sunday)

Given it's a long weekend, I was wondering how busy this route may be, if there are any other hikers / groups planning a similar route on similar days, and if there are other caves you can recommend. 

Wild regards
Ali

That route sees a lot of action and I'm sure there'll be other parties on it over a long weekend. The other cave in the area is Mponjwane, also popular.

Ditto firephish's comment.

The worst I've ever had was from Ifidi cave around the cutback, only found one small rock pool at about 4pm near the top of Mnweni pass, after being out of water for the entire day. It was a hot August day. Apparently all the animals still around also knew about this water source, and it was literally full of saliva strands. Not very appealing, but I addeded sterilization drops and boiled it for a while to kill everything present in the water. We were all fine though, and at the first "normal" water spot the next day I emptied all the old water and filled up with clean water.

On our August 2023 hike there was enough water everywhere in this area, from Ifidi pass to Rockeries.

You shoud be fine, but what I tend to do in such instances is to top up my water levels whenever I find suitable water. Yes, you carry heavier, but on the flip side you don't run out of water. Trust me, not having water for nearly a full day does tend to influence your future hydration decisions.

Hope you find enough water on your hike.

Thanks. We will likely fill up to about 3l at the last source before taking up the Mnweni pass, and then search around at the top for a good source, fill up to 4-6 liters and take it up to the cave so that we enough for the night as well as the start down the next day.

Just came back from doing the loop.

The weather was very nice, but the landscape is quite burnt out. Everything is completely blackened around Mponjwane cave. There are running veld fires all over the place, up on the tops of the peaks and down in the valleys. Quite something to watch at night from Mponjwane. 

We had to walk about a kilometer inland to get water at the top (to where another tributary meets the senqu). Plenty of water in the valleys though. 

5 Star cave was occupied by herders, so we had to trek up to Mbundini, of which I'm very glad. Awesome cave.

Everything else went smoothly.

Thank you for that info, Wandelaar. Planning to go there over the long weekend. Is the plateau at the top of Mnweni going towards Rockeries also burnt?

In the pic below, where the black cross is, is that where you found water

Thank you Smurf for the water spots.. A bit disappointing that its all burnt but it will still be great.

Hi Sabine, here is a screen capture of the GPX data of how far we had to walk inland to find potable water. You'll notice it's at the next tributary flow-in from where you marked.

There were 'n few pools of water earlier on in the river, but I'd boil, filter, and treat that before considering drinking that. The water we ended up finding was much cleaner and was flowing well with actuall small fish (not tadpoles). The plateau wasn't badly burned, but the whole area around Mponjwane cave was torched.