Sentinel (Drakensberg) Dec 2005

I first picked Pip up from his work, then we drove to Camilla and Peter’s place where Gordon arrived shortly. As it was raining a fair amount on the road I decided not to risk driving up that night to Sentinel and we drove through to the municipal campsite in Harrismith. None of us slept too well that night, mainly due to traffic and mosquito noise. We got up at 5am and packed quickly to start the hike as early as possible

Day 1 (10 December): We got to Sentinel car park without problems, signed in and started walking. Just before us was a very large church group going up for the day. The wind was blowing strong and cold and all of us were dressed up for a cold day. Although we walked slowly, we made good time and soon sat down at the viewpoint for a short break. Then we continued up to the contour path and was soon below Sentinel. Because we planned to do the climb, I scrambled to the start of the first pitch and saw that it was fairly wet. Combined with the strong wind, the climb would not have been pleasant at all – I decided to write off the climb for the day but said that we would consider it the next day if the weather was any better. We then carried on to the chain ladder where I deemed it necessary to belay Jenny up as the wind was blowing horrendously. On the way to the falls I noticed that there had been a fair amount of rain as the Tugela was flowing strongly. Despite this, we could see that Fika Patso dam was well below its normal level. At the lip of the falls we had some lunch and lazed around for a while. The wind was still blowing without let-up so I decided to head for the cave for some shelter. As I was carrying rope and climbing gear I asked Gordon to carry up the 10 litres of water in the Drom bag. We split up the tent he was carrying to make it easier, and then headed up the slope. Apart form a few drops of rain, we had good weather for the walk up as opposed to November 2004 when we walked up in the hail. We got the cave and settled in quickly. Most people took a well-deserved rest while some others went for an afternoon stroll. It rained later on when the strong wind pushed in some heavier clouds from Lesotho. As the rain cleared, beautiful rainbows caused everyone to rush for their cameras. After 5pm we all started feeling hungry and I put on some water for soup, tea and coffee. As we only had my stove, we had to eat in stages but all worked out well. When we were all settled in our sleeping bags, just before 8pm, Thomas pulled out two good short stories by Herman Charles Bosman. I proceeded to read the stories to everyone and by then we all felt sleep coming on quickly.

Day 2 (11 December): We were all up at 6am and I urged everyone to get going as it was a beautiful day and I wanted to head for Sentinel. Although the wind was still blowing very strong, most clouds have disappeared and there were only scattered clouds in the valleys below. By 07:30 we were all walking back to the chain ladders – still dressed warmly. Past the ladders we walked around quickly to the climb. Some of the clouds in Royal Natal have consolidated and started pushing over the escarpment – luckily the strong wind from Lesotho kept them at bay. I went ahead from the Sentinel saddle to set up. As I tied myself in, Pip and the rest arrived. The wind was still blowing very hard and it made the climbing less fun. It also made the hands and fingers exceptionally cold. At least at the top I climbed into the sun, clipped myself into the top piton and proceeded to belay up the rest. Everyone tried for the climb, even Jenny, and it was nice to have everyone up there in the sun. Pip climbed solo last and then we started hiking up the west face. When we climbed on to the sharp arête we discovered that the wind kindly removed all the clouds that were pushing up the cliffs earlier on and we had a stunning view onto the Amphitheatre. At the start of the final scramble, the wind subsided considerably, but we still thought it necessary to put up a handrail, especially as we had so many novices up there. We finally managed to get up to the final summit and I wrote all our names in the summit log. It was nice to see that my last climb in 2002 with Darrell’s church group was also still there. We then descended quickly back to the handrail. I had most of the girls come down first so that they could start walking back to the top of the abseil while Pip and I pack up. At the abseil I went first and then provided bottom belays for all the rest as they descended. Then it was the last 3.5km back to the cars that we completed in good time.