Mnweni hikes - 3 days

Hi all.

After doing the amphitheatre hike with my wife (our first ever hike / overnight hike in the berg), I guess the next area to look at would be the Mweni. From what I have gathered so far that this area (passes) is very dramatic with some of the best scenery in the berg.

It seem like there are multiple options for doing a circular route starting from the MCC?
What itenerary do you recommend for second timers? Up Mweni & down Rockeries? Other ideas?
How difficult are the passes?
We liked camping on the escarpment and want to do it again, but I've read that sleeping over in a cave is also a must. Ledgers or Mponjwane Cave? Any recommendations for escarpment camping spots?
How many days do you need and what are average distances covered by day?

Thanks!

I'm with Smurf on this one. Giants is probably the easiest place to learn and also has the easiest High Berg passes (aside from the chain ladders and Bushman's Nek) - Mnweni can be rather confusing if you don't know the area (note: I don't know that area very well either). Didima is awesome, probably has the clearest trails anywhere in the Berg, but the Small Berg is generally steeper and more difficult than most other regions, making for some challenging routes.

If you do go with Mnweni, hire a guide from MCC, Caiaphas is well known for his exceptional knowledge of the area and epic stories. 4 days for up Mnweni down Rockeries is generally advisable (roughly 10km per day), but it depends on fitness - I did the route in 2 days and it was really tough (fyi the speed record for the route is less than 5 hours).

WHAT! less than 5 hours, that's insane!

Cool guys, thanks for the advice. This one will have to wait then. I'll go and do some research on the Didima / Giants Castle area.

THANX!

Smurfatefrog wrote: Look no further than a Bannerman / Langies loop

On second thought, Giant's might be a bit too far south (coming from Pretoria). Will have to look at the Didima area.

Took my wife up Mnweni on her first Berg hike. Was my first time up as well, on day 1 we went up from the cultural centre to 5 star cave, day 2 up Mnweni pass andslept over in Ledgers cave (the drop-off made her a bit tense, I had to sleep on that side ) and day 3 down Rockeries back to the cultural centre.

If you have a good map and a GPS you shouldn't get lost. We had a lot of fog and didn't get lost. Mnweni pass is quite tough though, it would be wise to train a bit for it. I let Sanet do the stairs at a school near our home, 2 hours with full backpack and she was fine on the pass itself.

LouisvV wrote:

Smurfatefrog wrote: Look no further than a Bannerman / Langies loop

On second thought, Giant's might be a bit too far south (coming from Pretoria). Will have to look at the Didima area.

Cathedral Peak itself is a pretty cool hike, but you must be comfortable with exposure/scrambling. There is a good trail the entire way (and there is plenty of info on the route on this site). It makes for a good day hike.

Another good route is Organ Pipes Pass - also has a good trail, although you must make sure you pick up the right trail from the contour path. Mlambonja Pass is also good, but there is no trail for the first 500m (which is very overgrown) and it is harder than Organ Pipes.

Soon we'll be going up Ifidi pass and then plan on sleeping over night 1 in the real Ifidi cave. For day 2 I have the following planned (and this is the part my question relates to): Travelling South from Ifidi cave around the Mnweni cutback to sleep obver at Ledgers cave.
Any estimates of the typical distance and altitude gained over this stretch? I'm planning on walking into Lesotho a bit for the first stretch and then along the escapment edge from around Fangs pass onwards.

Hi Riaan,

It's quite a long day but certainly doable if the group is fit (and survived Ifidi Pass the previous day). The typical distance is about 25 km, and I have done this section a few times in a day on GT's before. I don't know the exact altitude gained and lost on this section, but there are five major ridges to cross; Ifidi, Icidi, Stimela, Rwanqa and Mnweni.

I'll email you some of my tracks so you can look at the routes and altitude gained.