The Mt Aux Sources - Amphitheatre - Tugela thread

We had a glorious day on the Berg the 26th, was good to be back

Some pictures of the day added, and our track log can be found here:

adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/pietero/royal-natal-national-park-sentinel-car-park-chain-ladders-tugela-falls/#.VKI7dRAAA

We are looking to go and do an overnighter at ribbon falls at the end of Oct.
Does anyone know what the latest is on Toll and Hiking fees for Sentinal car park?

Many thanks

W

Thanks Viking.....

Hi all, we Hubby hikes regularly, myself not so fit and my daughters 15 and 17 with fairly good fitness) are planning a hike between Christmas and New Year up the chain ladders with a night or two at the top. I'm an avid photographer and love the idea of those stunning sunrise pics I've seen that have been taken up there.

Is it a long drive from Mahai to Sentinel Car Park? I googled it and it came up with this map but I don't recall seeing a road when we camped at Mahai earlier this year www.google.co.za/maps/dir/Royal+Natal+National+Park/Sentinel+Car+Park,+Chain+Ladder+Route,+9870/@-28.7066061,28.8873245,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x1ef2c6d78a9653dd:0xaf716b914877e565!2m2!1d28.9202672!2d-28.7036714!1m5!1m1!1s0x1ef2c64f1aec4d17:0x1ce5902d6c597f3a!2m2!1d28.8908833!2d-28.7274699!3e0

We are looking at camping at Mahai the night before as the thought of getting up really early driving for 3 1/2 hours then climbing for 4 hours is a little daunting as I'd like to start really early. The heat out that side last week was terrible so I'd like to be done with the ladders before it gets too hot.

Any idea how wet it is? I stayed at Alpine Heath last week and there were storms and wind, oh my the wind! in that general area lecphotography.co.za/index.php/2015/12/09/three-cities-alpine-heath-resort/ so I'm a little worried about storms up there. Also good to know how much water to carry.

I'm curious to know if we might meet with security problems if we leave the tents and packs and go for a walk or should we rather just pack up and move on sort of thing?

So my questions are :

Distance from Mahai to Sentinel Car park.
What is the weather like up there and water availability.
Best places to camp for one or two nights on the top.
What is security like at the top?

I'm looking forward to the hike and am very nervous too haven't hiked in a while the last one was in 2010 when we did 3 days of the Giant's cup trail.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Vasbyt

cool pics; summer in the Berg means possibility of 4-seasons in a day, or any one of the 4 all day.
Have a look at these VE discussions to answer some of your questions:
Mahai to Sentinel Car Park
Sentinel Car Park-Chain Ladders-Ifidi Cave
Advice on Hike in Tugela Falls Area

Hope this helps

Hi Andrew,thank you so much for the links. I was battling to find anything yesterday. Perhaps my search words were incorrect.

We really are looking forward to the hike except for my 17 year old but she never regrets the walks / cycles a few weeks later

vasbyt wrote: We really are looking forward to the hike except for my 17 year old but she never regrets the walks / cycles a few weeks later.

I found this line very entertaining, not least because my young one suffers from the same malady.
(Sorry for off topic).

Have fun in the berg and come back to give an update on how it went!

Remaining off topic, it really is amazing how much external energy has to be applied to a teenager to overcome it's inertia (definition: resistance of any physical object to any change in its state of motion, in this case state of rest) but thereafter on occasion seems to be able to continue indefinitely .

Andrew, the trick is to make them think it's their idea, or failing that, make them think they got the upper hand during negotiations.