Bermanzi hiking trail Jul 2008

I had a half day off and drove to George’s place after work at 12:45. Shortly after I arrived, Shirley and Eddy showed up. We packed and left before 2pm. We took our time; Eddy still had to pick up something in Witbank and took the back roads to Middelburg. Before 6pm we were at Bermanzi but the combination lock code that was faxed through to George didn’t work. After some struggling, Eddie tried the code that was used the last time the club was there – magically this worked and soon after we were making fire at the hut. We were using the new Stables hut which was much nicer. Chris and the rest showed up a little later and by 19:00 we were having a barbeque, going to bed not long after.

Day 1 (19 Jul): It was chilly when we got up but we got going at 8am. We walked without much plan, knowing the area by now very well. We eventually ended up at the river in the bottom of the gorge, having skipped out on the trail that walked past the Swazi and Pedi kraals. We continued upstream, enjoying a slow walk and spotting some Knysna turacos as well. Approaching the waterfall, some of us walked straight down to the river and then made our way upstream along the riverbed. This turned out to be very tricky as the waterfall spray and growth on the rocks made everything exceptionally slick. However, we made it to just before the waterfall. George, Shirley and Eddy were talking about climbing out on the other side of the waterfall and seeing a nice looking grass ramp to the right, I voted to go up there. After scrambling up some steep grass and rock, we suddenly came onto a beautiful open trail which we followed right to the top. The remaining 3 members stayed at the waterfall and walked back from there. Soon after we reached the top, we had lunch and then walked back along the top, meeting the rest shortly after the waterfall. I stood on the spot where I anchored my rope 3 years before when I made the 122m abseil and remembered how scary that was. We walked back to the hut, with me in the lead, and arrived at about 1pm. After resting a short while, Shirley, Eddy and I went to practice some abseiling and knot passing at the short section of vertical rock immediately below the huts. Back at the hut we made fire, had a braai and chatted around the fire until about 8pm before all hitting the bed.

Day 2 (20 Jul): Sunday saw us up early and on our way by 8am. This time we took the walk down to the river and past the kraals before heading upstream. Before we got to the waterfall this time, we turned steeply uphill and made our way back to camp. We were probably away for only 2 hours before we were back, had a quick shower and were on our way home by 11:00.