Sani Top to Gaints Castle Camp Day Walk write up

Hi All

I thought that you might be interested in some info of our Day walk from Sani Top Chalet to Giants Castle on the 01st 0f September.

Please excuse spelling and grammar as I just wrote this quite quickly and I hope it all makes sense.

Three of us booked into the Sani Backpackers for Friday night and had a relaxed evening there. We left at 2am on Saturday morning. The temperature at 2am was 8 degree Celsius but with the wind blowing at about 25Km/h it was probably closer to freezing. The temperature reading on my GPS remained at about 8 deg C until about 5am when it started to drop. When we reached Thabana Ntlenyana at 6am the mercury had dropped to -2 deg C and the wind speed was picking up. It was difficult to know the wind speed up there but all I can say is that we were being blown sideways and off our feet on any ridge line. My face for the first time ever in the berg stated to go numb – a feeling that I won’t forget but it was worth it as we felt exhilarated standing on top of Southern Africa’s highest point watching the sun rise in the east and the blue moon set in the west.

Craig Warr, one of my walking companions 5Km after Thabana Ntlenyana started to feel sick and did not feel like eating anything. This was not something that I wanted to happen to our party when we still had about 40Km to go. Our overall pace started to drop and I became a little concerned that we were not going to make the Giants Pass before some bad weather was predicted to come in between 3 and 5Pm. My plan was to make to Giants Pass at 2Pm and get below the weather.

At the 30Km mark Craig was not looking great at all. He was weak and said that he just had no energy. We took as much of his gear from his day pack and split it between us. I has a feeling that he was showing some classic symptoms of being affected by the altitude. We gave him a re-hydrate and managed to get a little food down him and coupled with the lighter day pack and hitting the Mokhotlong River flats Craig started to come right and our pace stared to pick up much to my relief.

About 12Km from Giants Pass still along the Mokhotlong River Flats I came round a bend and was attacked by three Basotho dogs that I had startled who were all sunning themselves with their Basotho Owner. It happened so quickly and savagely that I did not even have time to reach my Mace spray that is on waist belt specially put there for this exact situation. There was no doubt in there intent to attack me and all I could do was rush at them and bellow some primeval scream from the depths of my belly that even frightened me. I rushed there attack but this then split the attack from one pronged into a 3 pronged attack. All I could do was spin from 90 to 180 degrees and hit each dog with my Black Diamond walking Pole as they attached from different angles. (Black Diamond THANK YOU for making such a strong piece of equipment) I knew that if one got me that I would be bitten very badly. There were two smaller Whippet type dogs that were easier to fend off and one of my blows split the one dogs face from it’s ear to it’s jaw bone. It went whimpering off with its mate much to my relief. However, there was this Woolly Mammoth of a Basotho Dog that I had to hit so hard that my beloved Black Diamond walking stick finally gave up the ghost. I made my last stand with half my walking pole with this evil benevolent rabid dog growling, snarling and glaring at me when the Basotho owner rushed in to save the day and sent it off with a well aimed rock. My companions pitched up none the wiser to what had happened.

An interesting aside: the Basotho owner actually had 4 dogs but one had just been kicked in the head by his horse and was busy dying. We only noticed this once we left. I don’t think I would have been able to fend off the four dogs. Thank you Basotho Horse

Lessons Learnt.
1. Walk closer together especially in this area. I was about 400m ahead of my mates. I was attacked with two other day walking companions by 8 dogs about 4km further on, on a previous Sani Top to Giants day walk. We were together and were able to fend them off. These are the only two occasions that I have had problems with dogs.
2. A walking stick is a must

After my adrenalin rush we managed to get to Giants Pass by 3pm just as the bad weather started to push over from Lotheni. I was very grateful that Craig had dug so deep into his reserves and had soldered on but he was extremely tired and sore. We ate some grub and got another 500ml of re-hydrate and some anti-inflammatory’s down Craig throat. At half past three we started to make our way down the pass with already 48 tough kilometres behind us. I broke the route down for Craig so that we just focused on one section at a time instead of the whole way from Giants Pass to Giants Camp. This gave him a bit of a mental edge

The weather started to get really cold and the cloud was chasing us all the way down the pass as it bellowed down to try and catch us. Giants Ridge just went on forever but we finally made Giants camp by 6:45Pm. We managed to do the last stretch from the top of the pass to the camp in 3 hours and 15 minutes with a total walking time of just under 17 hours. You always know that you have had a long day in the mountains when you use your head torch twice in one day.

What a wonderful route and what a privilege to have been up there on Spring Day
My Pack Weight: 10Kg’s (with 1.5l of Water in a camel pack). My pack also included a small down sleeping bag and a bivy bag for emergency.

Start Time: 2am
Finish Time: 18:45pm
Total Time: 16h and 45minutes
Distance: Just shy of 60Km (Garmin 310xt)
Average speed: 3.5Km/h
Start Temperature: 8 degrees C
Minimum Temp: -2 Deg C
Wind speeds: 25Km/h to 50Km/h
Total Ascent: 1945m
Total Decent: 2958m

I know that sickly feeling of not being able to eat or drink, but being low on energy - its a horrible feeling

Good hike - sounds fun! Its a clever route, 2 of the hardest ridges of a GT are on either side of your start/end (i.e. Hodgeson's and Giant's).

Wow this is a mighty one-day'er!

Well done and great write-up!

Hi Intrepid

The dog encounter was very scary and a really close call. It has given me lots of room for thought on how to deal with it further.
The nice thing is that they are rare, but they do occur. Normally one has time, with this one the dogs were frightened because they had no idea I was there due to the strong winds taking my scent and sound away from them.
Regards
Selous

@Selous: I think I speak on behalf of the entire forum in saying we are all really glad that you are ok. Thats a Berg experience I really hope to never have.

Did the dogs get any bites in? Scary stuff - especially with the rabies outbreak.

Hi Ghaz
Thanks a lot.
No they did not get any bites in but twice the Border Collie on steroids nearly got me. Aka the Woolly Momoth Dog. That Black Diamond walking pole was all that prevented them in getting me. Rabies and being mauled made me react very out of character.
Regards
Selous

Hi Smurfatefrog

At first I thought he was angry because I was hitting his dogs as he came in screaming and shouting. My thoughts at that moment were how can you be livid with me for trying to prevent myself from being bitten.
As he got close to me he leant down and picked up a big stone and threw it at the Border Collie on Steroids which chased hime away. Compounding my thoughts at that time was as the Basotho owner was half way to me that was when the sharp end of BD walking stick connected with the one whippets face and split it open. It really yelped and took the sting out of there attack.

He was not cross at all and seemed very relieved that none of the dogs had bitten me. There were smiles all around with a few back slaps. He was pleasant and friendly. I then warned him that my two others walking companions were on there way and he went and grabbed all the dogs. That was when he called me closer to see the cut. It had neatly split the skin from below they left eye to wards the jaw. It was about 5cm in length.

He did not seem too concerned about his other dog that was in a really bad way from being kicked by his horse. This was explained by him demonstrating what happend.

Regards
Selous

Selous wrote: Hi Ghaz
Rabies and being mauled made me react very out of character.
Regards
Selous

Bud, nothing wrong with the way you reacted although you clearly feel bad.

What else can one do?

None of us abuse animals, but this is NOT AT ALL what you did, it was self defense. As tough as it may sound, the injury to the dog may have helped in you not getting bitten, one can only fight off 'multiples' for so long. Glad you're OK, and yes, I hope I do not find myself in this position soon.