11/12 May 2002
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Leaving Howick at about 06h00 on the Saturday morning,
four club members, Dave (leader), Joan, Margaret and Keith plus Di (a guest
from KZN Wildlife) set off for the Cathedral Peak area. We met two more guests at the Cathedral Peak
office, overseas students Fabian (Swiss) and Soeren (German). Having completed the formalities we drove
back past the old Brotherton trading store (now demolished) and parked our two
vehicles at a nearby kraal in the safekeeping of a contact of Dave’s.
Backpacks donned we started our hike on a beautiful sunny day, passing Brotherton Rock on our right and heading towards the magnificent view of Cathkin Peak and Champagne Castle in the distance. After a while we reached Solar Cliffs rangers outpost where we had a break and drink in the shade of the trees.
It was then onwards and slightly downhill to cross the
Mhlwazini river which necessitated most of us removing our boots. We continued roughly parallel to the
Mhlwazini river, with beautiful views all around us until we reached our river
crossing point at the junction of the Ndedema and Mhlwazini rivers. Some
careful boulder hopping and balancing here avoided the need to remove
boots. Lunch was enjoyed at the small
shady “campsite” before we started climbing roughly parallel to the Ndedema
river. The views on this stretch of
the hike along the Ndedema Gorge are stunning with rugged rock formations and
high waterfalls from mountain streams whilst still listening to the rippling
water of the Ndedema river far below.
Having gradually climbed over 2 km with our backpacks
since lunch (and about 10km since starting out) it was soon time for a drink
and rest next to a pool in a lovely mountain stream. We were hot and sweaty with the climb and the bright sunshine
beating down on us. Some of us had the
courage to cool (freeze) our feet and legs but Dave shamed us all by having a
“bracing” swim.
We
were soon off again, now climbing even more steeply through shoulder-high dense
grass towards Poachers Cave. After what seemed a long time it was a
delight to enter the cave, which is very sheltered and comfortable (by cave
standards of course).
After a short rest, snacks and setting up our sleeping
quarters, four of us (Dave, Fabian, Margaret and I) with a little “persuasion”
from Dave set off to climb higher for about another hour (fortunately without
backpacks) to Gravel Cave which is well above Poachers Cave and on the same
water source. There are no paintings
in Gravel Cave but it would be useful to sit-out a storm and it was a brisk
and enjoy- able detour for us. By the time we got back to Poachers Cave it
was getting dark and our other hikers were nice and comfortable by now. Soon we were eating supper and having our
medicinal drinks etc. Margaret and I
enjoyed Drambuie while Dave had a mixture of Brandy and Van der Hum (very good
indeed). Our overseas students had an
unlimited supply of chocolate and enough apples to last us all a week.
After a relatively warm night for winter in a cave, it
was up bright and early on the Sunday morning.
After breakfast we set off towards Leopard Cave which meant making our
way through head-high grass again and more climbing before we reached the cave
with the famous leopard painting as well as several other Bushmen’s
paintings. Rested we continued with
more climbing in brilliant sunshine towards Eland Cave. The steep climbing was eventually completed
and we “strolled” downwards to a dip where we left our now heavy backpacks in
long grass before we made our way to Eland Cave to view the numerous
magnificent paintings (our overseas students were amazed). We still had a long way to go so it was
back to our backpacks and on towards Junction Cave, still with brilliant
sunshine and beautiful scenery. We
reached the large boulder looking far down to the junction of the Ndedema and
Mhlwazini rivers (our proposed lunch spot.
Soeren stayed here to admire the view whilst the rest of us went to
explore Junction Cave and view more paintings.
Hunger pangs set in and we were off down the steep
zigzag descent to eventually enjoy lunch under the trees at the junction of the
rivers. Dave and Fabian even braved
the freezing river to have a quick swim.
Soon we had to re-cross the river and footslog it back to Solar Cliffs
to re-cross the river again before heading back to our vehicles at the kraal (a
good 7 km from our lunch spot and about 16 km of backpacking in the day).
Thanks Dave for great leadership and an extremely
interesting (5 caves) and enjoyable week-end.
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Keith Ashton
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