Sehlabathebe Trip Report Jan 2013

@Stijn, Ghaznavid: Hahaha…not too much to report in terms of hiking. Two of us drove up from Matatiele through Ramatseliso's gate border post to Sehlabathebe. We arrived there at 5:30pm in misty weather, paid our camping fees for two nights at the lodge, parked the bakkie and set off into the mist towards Tarn cave. The mist got so bad, that we had about 2-10m visibility at the best of times. After walking around in circles we eventually stumbled into the cave just before dark.








The next day we awoke to clear skies and were up early to photograph the tarns. The plan for the day was to lounge around and explore the tarns and rock formations. I opted to rather give the Knuckles a go, hid my bag and reached the top 2 hours later. What an easy “pass”!





The evening was spent in Irish cave. What an interesting cave. In winter you can walk straight into it, summer is a bit more of a mission. Either climbing over the roof and dropping down or wading through the waist deep water. The level sleeping area of the cave was wet and the grass area underneath the skylight also received rain, not a pleasant cave in wet weather, but the views and atmosphere definitely makes up for any discomfort.







The next day we headed for Sani top via the Matabeng pass. (in the bakkie )





Arrived very late the evening at Sani top.



The next morning we headed down the Sani pass, stopped for lunch at the Himeville Arms Hotel and headed for the Tsitsa Falls Backpackers just outside Maclear. The backpackers is a well positioned if you plan on exploring the Eastern Cape Berg. The zipline is a must do. www.tsitsafalls.com/

Nicely done plouw. It seems someone is taking their tripod along with them these days...

I love the mist shot with the watsonias and also the misty tarn images. The swaying grasses in front of the tarn also work nicely. The lesotho pano shot is amazing, i love the muted colours and the clouds work well. Really good work.

I really wish i could be there for a summer hike to get the flowers.

Thanks Serious tribe and JonWells.
@Serious tribe, jip, from now on the tent stays behind to make space for the tripod.

Amazing pictures! Would love to go hike here some day (soon)

On that, I have a few questions if you don't mind?

Are there any hiking routes / maps for this area?
What does the camping cost?
Is this area safe?
Are there guided overnight hikes in the area?
What is the difficulty level for this hike?
Are there any other areas in Sehlabathebe worth visiting?
Can you drive to the park via Sani Top? How is the route?

Thanks!

LouisvV wrote: Are there any hiking routes / maps for this area?

Plenty of trails, get Drakensberg Geomaps series map 6, it has all the trails for the area, but remember that lots of the trails on the map actually don't exist.

LouisvV wrote: What is the difficulty level for this hike?
Are there any other areas in Sehlabathebe worth visiting?

Mostly very easy. Knuckles (especially Knuckles traverse) is a classic.

Some great images! Well done plouw.

Thanks for the beautiful set of photos.
Did you use a neutral density filter for the waterfall photo (30 seconds but at f8 on ISO 100)?

Thank you!

I found this in the meantime :

www.zambezikanyembasafaris.com/sehlabathebe_national_park_main_lodge.php

www.safarinow.com/go/SehlabathebeNationalParkHeritageLodge

www.evanhaussmann.com/lesotho-sehlabathebe/