Lower Injasuthi cave (Drakensberg) Mar 2007

I met Gordon, Yolandy and Corne at work. We left my and Gordon’s cars there and left in Corne’s, arriving in Bergville just after 11pm. We slept at the tennis courts and got up the next morning at 6am.

Day 1 (24 March): As we didn’t have much walking to do to Lower Injasuthi cave, we didn’t rush. We arrived at Injasuthi at about 08:45, signed in and paid and left at about 09:15. It was almost completely overcast and cool. I decided immediately to take the upper path as it would take us past the river. We made steady progress and it wasn’t long before we were at the junction that splits off to Centenary hut. We walked past this, for my first time on a new path and soon after arrived at Battle cave. The entire area was camped off with barbed wire fencing and the access gate was locked. We discovered a hole in the fence, crawled through and walked to the top. The number of paintings were amazing and we took many photographs before leaving. Continuing up the path that almost immediately became very dense with vegetation, we walked about 500m from the cave before I decided to have an early lunch break. The clouds were dissipating slowly and it was starting to heat up so we didn’t wait very long before carrying on. The cave was quite obvious to spot and Gordon found a direct but very steep, overgrown and slippery path leading up to it. We arrived in the cave at 14:00. Taking a good rest, all of us fell asleep in the lazy afternoon, getting up around 16:30. Corne, Yolandy and I then walked down a different path to get to the river, fetching water in my Drom bag. Back in the cave we prepared dinner of spaghetti, bacon, braai relish and tomato soup. For pudding we had tinned peaches and custard. Gordon had his tripod with him and took some pretty good pictures of the stars we could see. Listening to the SA vs Australia cricket on a small radio Gordon brought, we played cards until almost 10pm, before we finally fell asleep.

Day 2 (25 March): We got up early, had breakfast and left before 8am, walking through the dense vegetation before Battle cave. Not rushing, we walked the last few kilometres without incident and got back to Injasuthi at 11:00. After a good shower, we were back in the car and on our way to have Nando’s

Grootkloof guiding (Magaliesberg) Mar 2007

Gordon came to my place at around 15:30. He helped me load up the two cars as there were lots of things to be transported to Grootkloof. During the afternoon I discovered that I still had to go buy cups for the boys and therefore we stopped along the way to buy some plastic cups. The driving to Sparkling Waters went without a hitch.

Day 1 (10 March): Arriving at Sparkling Waters hotel at around 17:30, we quickly parked the cars, got our very heavy bags on and left for the campsite. Getting there by around 18:30 we quickly put the tent up and had a quick bite to eat before we left at 18:50 for the kloof. I was wearing my shorty wetsuit and Gordon took some thermals. Other than that and the technical gear, we had nothing else. We made it to the top of Main gully in good time and descended in the dark. At the bottom we carried on as usual and had no problems as we went through the kloof, doing a tandem abseil down the waterfall. We got back out at around 20:15 – a very good time! We spent the rest of the evening reading but it didn’t take long for us to hit the bed.

Day 2 (11 March): We woke at around 6am but snoozed for a while before getting up. While Gordon carried the static rope, I bundled all the climbing gear into the backpack. We were quickly at the bottom of Isolation Pinnacle and I took my time getting everything ready. With Gordon belaying me I made pretty good progress to the chock stone block at the base of the pinnacle. Here my courage left me and Gordon had to lower me from a solid hex I had in. I then decided to rather go around the base of the pinnacle, skip the first pitch of the climb and start on the second pitch. Getting to the bottom of the second pitch I first quickly abseiled to retrieve the hex I was lowered on, ran back up, and then started climbing. It was a bit scary initially as I could only get the first decent piece in about 4m off the deck. But from here it went really well and I started enjoying it again. When I got to the top I set up a belay and Gordon climbed up quickly. Then Gordon led through the hole and belayed me on the jump across the gap. Then I belayed him across and we did a tandem abseil off the tree. Back at our packs we took a bite to eat and some water before walking back out to the campsite. Expecting the people from Bosasa only at 14:00, we rested a good while before Gordon loaded his pack, I emptied mine, and we walked back to Sparkling Waters. The Bosasa manager, Comfort, Silindile and Rider as well as one of the guards, Bobo, arrived as we did and after Gordon and I packed our bags we all walked back in to the campsite. They sat around for a while and then we all walked out to Sparkling Waters. After saying goodbye to the Bosasa group and Gordon, I packed my bag with another load and returned to the campsite alone. Dinner was some of the food of the extra food package I had for the guards. I sat on the Woodpecker gully/Grootkloof junction until after sunset and then read a few pages of Dracula before finally going to sleep.

Day 3 (12 March): I got up at 6am, had breakfast and then walked to Sparkling Waters. On the way Chris phoned to arrange dropping off my tent he still had with him after the previous weekend’s trip. Getting to Sparkling Waters at 07:15, I immediately set about unpacking everything and setting up the reception of the boys. Chris arrived at around 07:45 to hand back the tent and we chatted a while before he left. The Bosasa group arrived on time at 08:30. After greeting them, I handed out all the different items and food bags. Then I helped them packing the bags. With all of them bringing large bags of clothing and other things along, It was quite a mission getting everything inside the packs, but finally, at about 09:30, we were ready to go. Taking my time at the front of the group, we arrived at the campsite a few minutes after 10am. We then relaxed for about an hour before I showed them how to set up the tents. This was followed by lunch of bread, tomatoes and polony. After lunch I decided to take them swimming as it was very hot and we didn’t have much else to do. We walked in to the pools at the Woodpecker – Grootkloof junction and it was great to see how much the boys enjoyed getting into the water. Back at the campsite, we rested some more. Later in the afternoon, some of the boys were entertained by baboons coming into the bottom of Ysterhoutkloof. Suddenly they called out to me and arriving at the kloof I discovered to my dismay that the baboons got hold of my precious watermelon I had left in the water to stay cool. I had to write it off and carried it up beyond the kloof so the baboons would leave the rest of my stuff alone. I also discovered that a lot of ants managed to get to the margarine despite it being in a cooler bag. It took a while to get rid of it. Late in the afternoon I left for Sparkling Waters to collect Chris. Chris arrived at 17:30 and together we walked in to the campsite, arriving a little after 6pm. I cooked some pasta for the two of us but the rest of the group seemed to have their own idea of what they wanted for dinner. Chris spent the night just outside my tent in a bivvy bag.

Day 4 (13 March): We got up early but I didn’t rush the boys as I didn’t expect the day’s activities to take very long. After breakfast I gathered the group for a safety briefing before we walked in to the bottom of Ysterhoutkloof. I had a good site where I wanted to climb and having the group stay at the bottom, Chris and I walked to the top to set up a top-rope. Chris then abseiled to the bottom and we got them to all to climb to the top, followed by being lowered down. Then we moved the rope system higher up in the kloof with the idea of giving them each some good exposure to abseiling so that the next day’s waterfall abseil won’t be a complete shock. All went well until Ambrose had to abseil – he refused to go. Eventually I had to put Chris up on the abseil rope and just belay Ambrose slowly on the way down with his hand on Chris’s shoulder. It was already past lunch and we went back to the camp. After lunch I took them swimming once again as the afternoon was getting impressively hot. We made dinner at around 6pm as heavy clouds built to the south and east.

Day 5: (14 March): I got the boys going early as I wanted to get to the waterfall as early as possible. With myself leading the group and Chris bringing up the rear, we made good time to the top of Main gully. As we descended Chris took the first and I the second obstacle and sent Silindile and Tumi down first to keep the boys together once they reached the bottom. When they were all down, I sped past the group to go and set up the abseil, while Chris helped them on the wet slabby rock before the waterfall. As they arrived at the waterfall I had to talk loudly to keep them behind the tree. Chris and I agreed that we would not let Ambrose abseil himself but would only belay him with Chris abseiling with him. Then Chris would take a dry-bag and cordelette down with him to drag the boys across the water using the inflated dry-bag as a makeshift bouy. But we couldn’t get Ambrose to step down from the chock stone boulder below the tree. After about 10 minutes of coaxing, I decided to take more firm control. I took the cordelette from Chris, attached myself to the tree and climbed down to them. Then I set Ambrose up on a direct belay off myself. Chris and I then walked Ambrose down together to the edge of the boulder from where there was no more turning back for Ambrose. I then let him down very slow with Chris abseiling next to him. When they got to the bottom, Ambrose refused to get into the water and I had to get Tumi down first, sending the cordelette and Ambrose’s Drimac with her. Only then was Chris able to attach the cordelette to Ambrose and get him into the water. Ambrose struggled to hold on to the dry-bag and kept on grabbing at Chris but Chris was able to swim him across the pool to where he could stand. Chris then proceeded to set the rope up for slinging the bags down. With all the bags down I started abseiling the remainder of the group. The only incident I had with the remainder was when Sicelo slipped on the way down, bashing his knuckles into the rock. He also did not keep his feet apart as I told him and slipped once more below the chock stone where I couldn’t see him anymore. He then needed some instruction from Chris to get him going again. Finally we were all down and I was able to abseil and pull the rope down. While I abseiled, Chris got the group going. At the open spot before the slide rock I sat them down for lunch and a good rest. Chris and I then had a look at the slide rock and we decided it would be sufficient just to set up the rope as a handrail on the way down, with myself acting as the anchor. This went well and it was not long before we exited the kloof. Everyone dropped their bags and proceeded to dry out in the sun after the cold in the kloof. Chris was especially cold after spending a considerable time in the water. At around 14:30 we returned to camp. We collected all the technical gear, including the ropes and personal technical gear and Chris and I walked all of this out to Sparkling Waters. Chris volunteered to take all the gear home and dry it out properly – this also saved some space in my car. When Chris left I waited for Comfort to arrive as agreed on Monday, bringing the boys some fresh chicken and apples. He also brought sugar which I refused as I reasoned that the boys must show responsibility to ration their sugar. However, the guards insisted that they take the sugar for themselves so I relented. We then walked back to camp where the boys had already cooked their dinners.

Day 6 (15 March): The boys were up early and we were able to leave well before 8am. With the intention of giving each a chance to lead, I started with Ambrose at the front. Changing leaders frequently we soon got to beacon 48 at the summit. I could see the boys were happy with what they achieved. We sat half an hour at the top enjoying the view and the cool breeze before starting back. I chose a different route so that the other boys also got a chance to lead over unfamiliar terrain. I took us to the junction of Woodpecker and Grootkloof and had them swim again before returning to the campsite for lunch. Relaxing until the early afternoon we started packing up the tent and gear of the 3 boys who had to return that afternoon, Sicelo, Simphiwe and Ambrose. Rider walked out with us and when we met Comfort at Sparkling Waters, there were two other people form Bosasa who also wanted to see the campsite. I then walked them to the campsite at a brisk pace, and even went to show one of them the swimming pools at the junction. I then walked them back, said goodbye to the three boys and walked back to the campsite alone. Dinner consisted of biscuits and a few other bits and pieces left over from the previous days.

Day 7 (16 March): I woke at 5am with a commotion in the camp – the boys were already busy packing up. We cooked oats for breakfast and were packed and ready to go soon after 8am. We still had a lot of time to kill because Comfort would only come to fetch them at 12:30. I therefore took them swimming again but it was chilly in the bottom of the kloof so it wasn’t long before they wanted to go back to the campsite. Finally we started walking back at 10:45, getting to Sparkling Waters at 11:15. We took a little while sorting out all the gear and loading the car and then we settled down to wait for Comfort. Luckily he showed up earlier than expected and on the dot of 12:00 I was able to leave Sparkling Waters.

Amphitheatre (Drakensberg) Mar 2007

Chris drove through to my place on Friday afternoon from where we left at around 4pm. We got to Sentinel car park at 21:30 – it was raining and an icy wind was blowing so we fled into the hut quickly.

Day 1 (3 March): The alarm went of at 05:00 but we snoozed another 30 minutes before finally getting up. We were away by 06:45, making good progress up the zig zags. Chris was feeling a little groggy so we didn’t hike very fast but we still got to the chain ladders in 1:45! Getting to the top quickly we walked straight to the hut and then climbed over the ridge behind the hut. Although the morning started out cool, it had become hot on top. We hiked until we got to Ribbon falls and sat for a quick bite to eat. We still had to climb the ridge behind Ribbon falls to get to the gap between the Amphitheatre and Inner Tower. Both of us started to feel the heat and we wanted to get to shade, so we quickly walked the final bit to the top of the wall and quickly found the descent gully to the saddle between Amphitheatre and Inner Tower. We geared up and started the extremely steep gully, holding onto grass as far as we went. The route description for the descent gully proved to be accurate and we quickly found the chimney which we had to skirt to access a very steep ramp leading down to a few metres below the saddle. Sitting on the saddle we were a bit daunted by the very scary-looking traverse we had to carry out onto the east face of the Inner Tower. We started up very steep grass, kicking in steps and pulling up on grass as far as we went. About 30m up I had enough. I was freaked out by the insecurity of the grass and the consequences of a fall. Chris agreed that things looked dodgy higher up and we started going back down the neck. From here we struggled up the gully back to the top where I finally sat to have a breather. We were both disappointed about not getting Inner Tower but it really looked scary from where we were. We then walked back to Ribbon falls where we passed out at the very edge and rested in the shade for almost 2 hours. We then decided to go sleep at Bilanjil and started walking there. However, we saw Basothos walking all over as we approached Bilanjil. We were in a bit of a quandary as to what to do. Finally we decided to eat dinner at Bilanjil and as it got dark, to walk over to a different spot close to the escarpment. Chris provided cook-in-the-bag cous-cous with tuna packets which was really nice. We finished with tea and as the moon rose brightly in the east, we packed up and walked to the escarpment, finding a good spot only about 20m from the edge. We pitched the tent in the moon light, avoiding our flashlights completely. Although lightning threatened in the east, it was a beautiful evening and we sat on the edge for more than half an hour before getting into the tent at around 19:30. Only about 5 minutes later, the wind picked up and shortly after it started raining. Luckily it didn’t storm too much and later in the night it eased up and we slept well. It seemed our move was a good idea since we didn’t have any visitors in the night.

Day 2 (4 March): I rose shortly before 6am in the hope of getting nice sunrise pictures. Unfortunately there were lots of cloud around and a pretty sunrise was not to be. We packed up and got ready to go, aiming to go climb Sentinel before going back. As we got over the ridge, clouds from the west started colliding with a front from the east and things got dark as we got to the chain ladder. Below the chain ladder we had just decided that we should probably not chance climbing Sentinel if the rain threatened, when it started to rain. A guy coming up behind us told us that they’ve been robbed the previous night but luckily nothing valuable and they were able to recover some things that have been dropped by the Basothos. Chris and I decided to rather spend the morning driving to Fika Patso and Monontsha to check out future hiking options. The last bit of the walk the rain came in pouring and by the time we got to the car park we were soaked. But as we got dressed in dry clothes inside the hut, the rain stopped and it started to clear. Soon we were on our way home.