Mini Hike Reports

Riaang wrote: Always a mission to convince the rest of the group to get up early. You should have heard the complaints when the alarm went off at 5am .

5AM? Sleeping in, are we

Huh, seems like a buff could be a win. I'll do some invetigation, I know that there is a minimum quantity but i'll get details first.

I am normally wearing two at a time, either on head, wrist, face, neck.

On Saturday 3 June I hiked with my Father from Monk's Cowl, via Blind Man's Corner to Keith's Bush Camp, where we spent a very windy night and hiked back the same way the next day (6 hours each way with breaks). Perfect early winter conditions (in the day) and great to see other hikers out on the trail.

I used the GPS track posted in the download sections. Route is perfect and particularly useful in the Valley immediately below the camp, where the path gets slightly overgrown.

Lots of signs of locals using the trail (Litter!), but didn't encounter anyone. PLEASE take your used loo roll with you when camping, and don't just hide it behind a rock, like many people have done at Keith's Bush Camp!

Next time we will look to spend an extra night at Keith's Bush Camp and use it as a based to get to the top of Greys Pass and explore the top of the escarpment.

Years ago when we started the VE Berg Trips with the Pine Tree Project, intrepid and diverian had samples of VE Buffs made up, various artwork was prepared and the idea of producing and selling/distributing buffs was quite thoroughly investigated, as well as VE badges that could be affixed to backpacks, caps, hats etc. I can't remember the precise details, but at the time the scheme was deemed not to be economically feasible, and was not pursued further.

If anyone wants to look into this again (we all thought it was a good idea back then, and I still think it is a good idea), please liaise with intrepid and diverian to pick up the idea where they left off - artwork prepared, preferred fabric identified, etc.

A group of us headed out to Bannerman Hut for the weekend. We had fantastic weather, although the wind did pick up quite a bit in the evening and continued howling through the night, so we were grateful for the awesome shelter that the hut provided. One the guys went for a run up Bannerman Pass on Saturday afternoon, but had to turn just before the top due to the light fading quickly.
This is the longest hike to date that the kids have done and I think they all handled it pretty well and had a great time. As usual, this morning my son was already asking to go back...

The group back at the picnic site after the hike:




Saturday night at around 8:30pm:

JonWells wrote: @ Dillon- I think we bumped into 2 members of your group that chose to return via Langalibalele Pass?

Hi Jon, yes those guys were from our group. They'd been down Langalibalele Ridge twice before - once in the pitch dark and once in thick mist, so they were dying to see it in clear weather! I sent them off an hour or so before we left the hut and they "raced" us back.

So three of us we were up in the Cathedral area over the weekend, the wind was terrible on Saturday and Sunday - I see that the vultures retreat weather station measured up to 65km/h winds yesterday and it certainly felt like that on the escarpment. I wasn't able to look at it yesterday so I don't know what it was on Saturday. Dillon, Jon I can certain agree with the heavy wind over the weekend.



So we started hiking at mid day on Friday and headed up the camel and organ pipes to Rolands cave.

Took us 4h 40m to get from the hiker parking to Rolands cave, including collecting water in the valley as you come out of the organ pipes pass, I took strain up the camel it was a tough afternoon for me.



Rolands was great and thanks to the guys that have laid fresh grass in the cave it really helps with the cold from the ground



Our view on Saturday morning was as usual excellent, but the wind had picked up during the night and was progressively getting harder



There was another group of 5 in the one upper dome cave and another family that had set up their tent just as you get out of the organ pipes pass.

On Saturday we headed north, the wind was really serious, and we headed up Cleft, Tseke peak, Mahout and Elephant, we all had a great climb up Mahout as the view into Lesotho was really great, and heading up elephant was really special, the vultures were just above us and we took some time to just enjoy being up there with them. The group of 5 what were in the one dome cave on Friday were heading to twins for Saturday night.

On our ascent up cleft there were three guys making their way down, they have spent a windy night on top of Cleft.





After Elephant the Valley between there and Easter cave was relatively calm from a wind perspective, but as soon as we got into Easter cave, mid afternoon, it was already very cold in there, the wind howled into the cave the entire night making the temperature even worse, and I guess that we have all resolved ourselves to sit out the night and just try stay as warm as possible. It was a very cold night, I felt like I shivered all night and none of us got much sleep, it was very unpleasant. I have never been that cold for such a long period.

As soon as the sun started to appear on Sunday morning we packed up as quick as we could and made our way out.



The original plan was to head down via the Bell Traverse back to the car, but we had called it on Saturday and decided to head down Mlambonja because we could only imagine how hard the wind was blowing on the Bell traverse by the gauge of the wild at Easter cave, and we were not up to fighting through the wind along that whole bell traverse.

As we left Easter cave it felt like the wind was able to picked us up, I had to steady myself with each step most of the way across to the top of the pass. as we got to the pass again a huge gust of wind hit us from behind as if it was trying to toss us into the pass it was fairly hair raising.

We had to decent a fair but down the pass before the wind started to die out, and from there we actually made great time back to car.

Wind aside we all had a good trip with some great highlights.

Sunrise on Sunday

Thanks for the trip reports guys, making me homesick, but I'll be there on Friday..