Celebrate Trees

What would our earth look like without trees?
This Saturday afternoon I photographed trees in the setting winter sun. As most of the trees had shed their leaves, I enjoyed the bared trunks, branches and the beautiful light. What a feast I had with Elaine! Please go to this page to see the photos  richardhuntphotographer.blogspot.com/p/ce.html

Visiting The Pools at Mnweni

Elaine, Roger, Karl and myself visited the 3 major pools at Mnweni. Normally during our Mnweni trips we hike past all 3 pools to higher areas bypassing the pools on a different pathway. Since we have never spent time at the pools we decided to make a weekend of it and explore them.
Please go to this link to see our trip report    richardhuntphotographer.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_14.html

Amphitheatre Exposed

Amphitheatre Exposed

We have hiked through the Amphitheatre but have never had a good look at the whole area. This area we have put off for a long time and together with a few buddies (In the photo below: Farouk, Rinaldo, Ryan, Richard, Elaine & Roger) spent 3 days meandering through all the crooks and crannies. It is an amazing place with many little mini cutbacks and surprises. The massive cliffs throughout this area are breath taking, making the Amphitheatre one of the most remarkable places in Africa.
Elaine and myself have over the past 6 years hiked all the Berg, some places a couple of times and the Amphitheatre was the last place on our list to be discovered. Maybe because it is the easiest place to access and the mass of hikers going there discouraged us. If you had to ask most people if they have gone to the Drakensberg Escarpment they would say Amphitheatre.
We went up the Gully route coming out on Beacon Buttress. I have done the chain ladders before and wanted to experience this alternative route with an aim to photograph the view from Beacon Buttress.
We spent the 1st night above the Tugela Falls together with a mass of other tents. It looked like some sort of Flashy Fen music festival...tented village, not my cup of tea. To make it worse there was a drone making a very annoying noise, definitely not a place to experience mountain solitude!!
We spent the 2nd night tenting at Ribbon Falls Stream and enjoyed a quiet evening having the whole place to ourselves.
On our walk back on the 3rd day some went to see Crows Nest and others along the escarpment for more photos. On the last morning we witnessed a typical Drakensberg cloud inversion and later during the day the clouds spilled over the escarpment engulfing all the views bringing a fresh winter coolness to the air. To view the photos please click on this link.....  http://richardhuntphotographer.blogspot.co.za/p/amphitheatre-exposed.html

Mnweni/Rockeries Pass Easter Hike

Mnweni/Rockeries Easter Trip Report

(Compiled by Elaine and taken off Vertical Endeavor)


Our plan had been to meet up with the MCSA Joburg group Andrew Porter was leading at the Hanging Valleys in the Mnweni. The guys were going to be climbing the Mnweni Pinnacles while Tony Marshall was going to tackle some passes in the Mnweni Cutback. Our group was going to head up Rockeries Pass and tent on top, and then make our way to the Hanging Valleys the next day and we were looking forward to watching the climbers and taking some photographs. The weather forecast was not looking promising but we were hoping that conditions would improve. Unfortunately mother nature had other ideas and all the plans changed…..
We set off from the drop off point at the Rockeries with the skies over the Mnweni looking cloudy and a little threatening, and made steady progress up the pass, reaching the top in the mid afternoon. By now there was a strong wind blowing and the mist was coming in. It had been a long day and it was good to get inside our tents and settle down. It rained heavily during the night for quite some time and we woke to a thick mist and a light drizzle. We hoped it would burn off, but apart from a few occasions when the mist lifted momentarily, it remained the same for the entire day. We made our way north to the cutback taking the path that overlooks Eeny Meeny Miny Mo and the Twelve Apostles (not that we saw anything!) and then, as the mist and drizzle continued, decided to tent in the small valley to the South of the Hanging Valleys. We found a beautiful site right at the edge of the escarpment close to the source of the Mnweni river which plunges over the escarpment ( this is what it appears from the map - please correct me if I am wrong!). Richard was very excited as he could only imagine what sights would unfold when the mist lifted. As we were putting up our tents, the mist did indeed lift for a few minutes and I managed to capture this photo.

It closed in again and we were engulfed in thick mist the entire afternoon and everything became rather wet - its amazing how the mist manages to get in to everything. We spent a peaceful night with the sound of the rushing river and it rained heavily at times. In anticipation we opened our tent flaps the next morning only to discover yet more thick mist and drizzle. To say we were disappointed is an understatement! We have vowed to return to this spot sometime soon. As we were pretty sure that the climbers would have abandoned their plans, we decided to return south and spend the morning walking along the escarpment edge past Ledgers Cave and then on to Mponjwane Cave where we would spend the night. By now our tents were sodden and we were hoping for some sun at some point to dry out our gear. We came across the MCSA camp close to the top of Mnweni Pass - they had left on a day hike so were sorry to miss them. The ground was extremely wet, little rivers and pools everywhere, I have never seen the Mnweni with so much water. We collected water on our way to Mponjwane Cave but as we discovered later, could have got water a lot closer to the cave. By now the sun was making more of a show and we could see clearer skies to the south. The mist persisted though, along the escarpment until dusk. The path down to Mponjwane Cave is very eroded and some care is needed to negotiate it. On arrival we all spread out our tents and wet gear on the grass in front of the cave and happily it all got dry as the sun vied for attention with the sporadic mist. It was interesting to see where we had climbed up the Rockeries Tower on an epic trip a while back when we climbed up Mponjwane Gully. See ....    https://www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/11-drakensberg-passes/56169-mponjwane-pass.html#70406

 Monday morning dawned clear and bright - celebrations! But as is often the case, it was the day we were going back down the escarpment via Rockeries Pass. We thought we would stretch our stay in the mountains and overnight at Sunshine Cave. However the rain had swelled the river in front of the cave and it looked very dodgy - we decided against it, and walked out to the road. We encountered a few other hiking groups, amongst them some of the MCSA group and we all gathered at the pick up point, hoping to organise a lift. There was no cell phone signal so we resigned ourselves to the 5km trudge back to the Mnweni Cultural Centre. We understand that Andrew Tony and Roger (Diamond) had stayed back to do a descent of the gully at the back of the cutback which involved several abseils . One of them will be doing a write up soon so we can look forward to an epic read!
The day which had started out with beautiful blue skies had changed and become cloudy and threatening and there were distinct rumbles of thunder. On cue the rain started falling as we started our walk and there were quite a few hikers on the road, one guy with an umbrella ( did he really carry that all the way up to the escarpment and back??). We met a local woman on her way back to her hut, and after exchanging greetings and Two Minute Noodles and energy bars, she insisted that she would arrange a lift for us. She instructed us to wait at the “Taxi pick up” which is near the bridge. Sure enough our lift arrived within 15 minutes. - the driver a lovely elderly traditional Zulu with a beautiful smile. It was an interesting trip. Richard sat in the front and observed our driver pumping the brakes on steep declines as they didn’t work all the time and told us afterwards that it was only the rut in the road which ensured our safe trajectory! In the meantime we enjoyed a very erratic and bumpy ride in the back complete with water streaming in all the various openings accompanied by a dubious smell……….. all part of the fun!

So, the weather didn’t play ball, but we still enjoyed a memorable hike. Thats the Mnweni for you.

See more photos at this link......  
http://richardhuntphotographer.blogspot.co.za/p/rockeries-pass.html

Cathedral Hiking Adventure

After a long absence I am blogging again. This last weekend Elaine and myself went to Cathedral Peak for a hike, still looking for photos to put in the Spirit of the Drakensberg book. We have climbed Cathedral Peak before but this hike was a photographic hike and an escape into the wilderness for a much needed refueling. The day began at Didima Resort where we signed in the Mountain Register and began walking from the Cathedral Peak Hotel Golf Course. We had walk over the bridge here because the river had too much water in it to cross over higher at the normal crossing place which is situated higher up the river.

It was a very hot day and we suffered in the humid heat which was very draining on the body. Walking up to our overnight tent spot was uphill the whole way along a long ridge that drops steeply on both sides. By lunch time clouds had accumulated on the mountains which made for a cooler walk and Cathedral Peak was hidden in the clouds. The ground was very wet from rain the night before and one had to be careful of slipping especially on the steeper slopes. Our plan was to tent at the base of Cathedral which is the start of the Bell Traverse.

We found a nice flat tenting spot on a high point but after we saw where lightning had recently ripped the ground up we then walked to a safer place into a valley and eventually found the only place for a tent. Not the perfect spot as we later discovered with sore backs the next morning! It does not look like it in the photo but the ground was rocky, uneven and full of lumps.

This hike was a good introduction into 2018 as we have many places to hike this year. The highlight of  this adventure were all the wild flowers growing abundantly because of the good rains. Please click on this link to see the rest of our photos.............     http://richardhuntphotographer.blogspot.co.za/p/ca.html