Two hikes in the Drakensberg Mountains

This nice view reminded me that the 15km back to Injisuthi would still be quite the hike - photo Arjan van Denzen

My girlfriend Steph and I paid a visit to the Drakensberg Mountains last autumn (or, locally, spring).  As I’m mainly interested in ultras and country highpoints, I had my hiking goals set on Mafadi 3451m, P111m (South Africa’s HP) and Thabana Ntlenyana 3482m, P2390m (ultra and Lesotho HP).

Mafadi is normally a multi-day hike and Thabana Ntlenyana is a day-hike.  As we’d only planned one day for each summit, we decided that I’d do a solo summit attempt for Mafadi and we’d do Thabana Ntlenyana together.

Mafadi

The closest you will get to Mafadi by car is Injisuthi, at around 1450m.  All routes have about 400-500m of extra elevation gain, so you’re looking at a total gain of 2500m, covering 40 km, for the whole hike.  Oh well, I’d done something similar before on Chirripó in Costa Rica, so it should be doable, right? There were two problems, though:

1.      I had (obviously) never hiked here, so I didn’t know the way.  I’d have to rely on a couple of GPX files, common sense, and an eye for spotting used trails.

2.      The second and more unusual obstacle was the fact that there had been a crocodile in the area, and we were explicitly advised by the Injisuthi staff to stay away from water and not do too much adventuring in the dark.  I was very happy to oblige!

So I had around 12 hours of daylight to make it happen.

I set off, and after about 30 minutes, there was a river crossing.  It was here that I lost the trail completely.  It had rained hard for the first time in months the night before, so I mistook a creek for the path, and ended up wading through this creek for half an hour before I called it quits and made a 90-degree turn.  This led to an unpleasant bushwhack through thorns of all shapes (but all pointy) and sizes: thank goodness I found the trail after only a few minutes!

So here I am, one hour in, having lost both half an hour and all hope for ever having dry feet again that day.

The next 5 km were relatively flat, so after about 1:45 hours of hiking, I had gained less than 200m of elevation.  In Dutch, there is a saying that translates to “a good start is half the work.” I clearly still had all the work to do!

However, not all was bad.  That flat part of the hike is very scenic and has that African feel to it that you get from movies like The Lion King.  I heard baboons barking in the distance and saw some cool trees, and there was a mysterious mist that completed the whole scene.

From this point, the vegetation ended and the trail became clearer.  The next couple of hours were easy walking, and at 2800 metres I poked my head above the clouds.  It was the perfect spot to do so because I saw the legendary Drakensberg escarpment rising in front of me - an awesome and unique view.

At this point, I checked the time and realized I wasn’t going to make my deadline.  Having seen the view and having had my fair share of exercise, I turned back.  The hike out was uneventful, except for a handful of baboons staring me down from a distance.

Climbing Mafadi (with knowledge of the route and without a crocodile deadline) would be a great excuse to return to this place!

Thabana Ntlenyana

After a relaxing day of driving, we reached the Sani Pass (an adventure of its own), and at the top of the pass, we entered Lesotho.  There’s a cool lodge (Sani Stone Lodge) close to the border in which we’d decided to stay.  The accommodation doesn’t have any heating but they provided millions of blankets so we had a good night’s sleep, even though the outside temperature was below freezing at some point.

I had told Steph this would likely be her hardest hike yet, but she was stoked and ready to attack this ultra.  We drove to the trailhead, actually located at 3260m! We had Rob Woodall’s GPS track and lots of water and snacks to guide us to the top of Southern Africa and back.  It starts out relatively flat, making for quick progress.  You feel very remote very quickly.

After a while, the trail disappears and you dive into a valley and go all the way down, where there is a little stream.  This spot is a perfect place for a break.

On the way, we had a habit of spotting the huts of the locals, but only when we were walking right by them or when we had already even passed them! These huts blend into the environment so ridiculously well that there might have been a whole city up there and we just didn’t spot it.  Most huts make themselves known by having a dog barking at you if you come too close to it.  However, these dogs are clearly trained to only make a fuss if you actually come close.  We just walked around these huts with only a medium distance and the dogs couldn’t have cared less.

From the stream, it’s only up, all the way to the summit.  This ascent is just an open country semi-straight shot to the summit.  At some point, we crested a ridge and were able to look into a new valley in which we saw some horses, undoubtedly owned and used to their full extent by the locals.  The clouds had been growing lower as we went higher, and they had engulfed the summit of Thabana Ntlenyana before we could make it there.  The cold and viewless top didn’t stop us from celebrating our achievement with a feast of energy bars and water, though!

The way back into the valley went smoothly.  We saw a shepherd tending his sheep in the distance, and heard the unmistakable sound of cowbells coming from the valley.  Sure enough, the cowbells were attached to cows, making for our third and last petting zoo animal spot of the day.  An easy downhill hike brought us back to the stream.  From here, we would have to climb up again, which was a bitter pill to swallow for Steph after having already walked so far and having spent so much time at this altitude.

To make things even more interesting, soon after we started going uphill again, it started raining, the wind picked up, and the temperature went down.  Needless to say, it was literally an uphill battle back to the car.  We trekked on, slowly but surely, and eventually made it back.  We had spent ten hours in the Mosotho mountains without seeing any other tourists: a great day in my books.  We celebrated our success with a meal in the (heated!) highest pub in Africa.

Arjan van Denzen