Ndumeni Hut

My father in law sent me this picture. He is one of the guys in the picture. This was taken around 1965. He remembers this hut to be below Cleft peak. From the landscape it looks like it must have been at the head of the perenial  stream starting just below the crest of Ndumeni gulley and heading to Lesotho's side.

Can anyone confirm this position for the hut and is there more information on its origin and history?

No idea, but those guys those days ay, 'kortbroek, bandit's balaclava and rugby socks'!!
Now it's Gore-broeks, Tech-max Plus Facial Shelter and Pro-Weave Foot Stockings.

Some details are covered in David Dodds’ book Cradle of Rivers. 

The Transvaal Section of the Mountain Club was responsible for building the hut with Eddie Lude earning a particular mention. 

The demise of the hut follows a familiar history.   

 

 

Awesome - thanks Tiska.

Fricking tragic. Noble. And tragic.
To think what could have been...now I'm upset again

I visited it a few times back in the 1970's. From the top of Organ Pipes Pass you carried on walking down the valley in to Lesotho. It was just a few hundred metres away. Those slopes in the background must be side of Cleft Peak. Can't remember much else about it but I wonder why it was removed. It was well in to Lesotho and I imagine the locals might have taken a liking to the corrugated iron sheets.