Mini Hike Reports

tonymarshall wrote: I ascended Scramble Kop (which didn’t require any scrambling)

That has to win the award for VE quote of the year

Nicely done, sounds like an epic trip!

I rate South Saddle Pass is the least pleasant route I have ever done (even more so than a badly overgrown section between Ships Prow and Cowl Fork). Hopefully the vegetation wasn't too bad for you being just after the dry season, but when Hobbit and I did that in 2016, it was really bad. When Andrew did the pass, I believe he traversed over to the gully above Waterfall Cave, which would make it far more pleasant.

On 6-7 October, I lead the 4^th installment of the MCSA Mountain Challenge - a hike up the Knuckles, well, one of them anyway.

We had a group of 9 for this one. We hiked up to Tarn Cave via Tarn Cave Pass on Saturday. 3 stayed behind in the cave to look after packs while the rest of us went up. There was no water near the cave, so I collected all the spare bottles to fill on the way down from the Knuckles.

We went up the pass between the Middle and South Knuckles (which is the route marked on the maps) - and with that, I now have all the marked KZN High Berg passes south of Rhino (no comment on the section between Rhino and Giants). There was a bit of snow near the top of the pass, so we had a bit of a snowball fight. Prof took a snowball to the head, but basically all the other throws were dodged (or more accurate, they missed).

We made it to the top of the South Knuckle (the highest of the 3) in about 3h20 (from Tarn Cave). After some celebratory chocolate - especially seeing as it was the first khulu for a few members of the team - we headed down the South Knuckles Pass. The bottom of the pass was much rougher than I remember, and we lost a lot of time on this.

At the bottom of the pass, we filled up all the bottles we had (I was carrying 6, so about 4kg extra) and set off back to the cave. We got to the cave just as we started needing headlamps, so it was perfectly timed.

We had a trivia contest in the cave last night - and much like the previous one in Mzimkhulwana Hut last year, Alison's team, the "Chocoholics" won. Teams could score double points if they answered without hearing the multiple choice options, or half points if the options were reduced to just two. The scores were exactly tied going into the last question, but the Knuckleheads got their question wrong leaving the Chocoholics with a chance to go for the easiest option, only needing to score a single point to win. The question was "Who recently achieved the first free ascent of the Dawn Wall?" - and the Chocoholics got the answer right.

We walked out this morning via Tarn Cave Pass, with an obligatory stop at Cedric's Pool. We managed to get from the cave to the car park in 3h30, even with a long stop at the pool.

Total distance was 35km, total vertical was about 1.7km.

 

   

Ps. my new Mountain Hardwear 26 litre pack arrived, so I tested it out on this hike. It is an awesome pack. Also, doing a multi-day hike with a 26 litre pack is awesome

Here's a photo comparing my pack to Alison's:

At the end of September my husband and I did the Rockeries Mweni Pass route.
The Mweni area has always fascinated us, and with that fascination also a sense of trepidation...its remoteness, ruggedness!
So, when we arrived at MCC on Saturday morning I was already feeling more anxious than excited. Colleen arranged transport for us and and hour later we were on our way...guess there was no turning back now. As we got dropped off at the end of the road, I thought we would be bombarded with 'sweets' but surprisingly not one child asked. My husband joked and said that they were probably scared of me.

The first thing you notice when you start walking is the multiple paths. There's literally paths going in all directions, the good thing is they almost all join up in the direction you heading. On our way we met 2 ladies going back to Lesotho. After stopping to share some food with them, the older one pointed for us to continue straight and then pointed to a rather steep hill where they going to. It always amazes me to see these women walking in the mountains. We made good time and by late afternoon we set up camp at the Nguza / Rockeries fork. 




The next day we got off to a late start. It was really hot, so we stopped at the waterfall for a quick swim. Starting off late and the heat got the the better of us as we realised we were no where near the top of Rockeries! And the views just got so amazing, it was difficult not to stop to look or take a picture. We eventually reached the top, as it was getting dark, and were rewarded with the most breathtaking view of the escarpment. We had to abandon sleeping at Ledgers Cave so I found a place to set up camp and my husband went to fetch water. It was a clear night and the sky made up for my disappointment about Ledgers Cave.
Later that night, the wind picked up and literally lifted up the tent! This went on the entire night. 

 

The next morning, in the wind, we packed up and started the descent down Mweni. It was steep and slippery and I was really going slow. The wind was literally pushing us down the Pass! A little way down we realised we had left our solar power charger behind! Oh well ... these things happen. Just had to keep moving.
Mweni Pass is just a continuous downhill of slippery rocky zigzags and i remember thinking 'now I know why most hikers preferred going up' It definitely took longer than i expected as the strain was taking a toll on my knees! It had taken almost an entire day to get down and as it was getting late we decided to set up camp at the Mweni River. It was such a pleasure to soak our tired aching feet in the water.






The next morning we realised we had alot of ground to make up for the delay from the previous day. Little did I know that there would be lots of boulder hopping! Thats not my favourite and it slowed us down quite a bit. At some places my husband carried my pack as well as his. By now I was exhausted and really thought I had bitten off more than i could chew! But my husband encouraged, motivated (and shouted) at me to keep moving. After what seemed like forever we made it to the path to Mlambus Kraal and I was ecstatic! I was even walking faster!  The Protea Forest was beautiful! I knew we had to camp out another night, so we got as far as we could from the Kraal and set up camp as it was getting dark. An elderly local shepherd came by on his horse and spoke to us. At no point was i afraid but we took the necessary precautions none the less. 
The last picture I took before my battery died.


It started raining during the night but I had the best sleep. Maybe it was the tiredness or knowing that the next day would be the final stretch. We awoke to more rain but packed up and headed for the MCC. We were soaked, muddy and tired and I can only imagined what we looked like to the locals. Just before the MCC we met a young man, Wiseman, and he accompanied us and told us about himself and life in Mweni. 















 

Mweni really pushed me to my limit and beyond. Its good to have a hiking partner / leader that know what you capable of even when you doubt yourself!

Some pictures taken by my husband


This lady was picking grass on the opposite hill

Tony, you didn't pehaps take a picture of the last obstacle on Mlambonja Buttress South pass? For some reason we all forgot to take pictures or videos. Would be good to post it on VE if you have it. I think this one is the only real dealbreaker in inclement weather, just being so high and on rather smooth rock with not many hand or footholds.

Yes, here is a photo of the top obstacle on Mlambonja Buttress South Pass, viewed from below.



It is quite a lot bigger than it appears in the photo, and the smaller boulder at the bottom foreground also hides the large gap between the bottom of the upper boulder and rock face on the right, and the lack of holds in this area. The smaller boulder is probably about 1.5 m high. I got up it by using some 'stemming' moves with my feet pressing on the opposite sides and very little use of my hands, except for balance, all with my pack on.