Please refer to this sample itinerary (.xlsx or .pdf) for a north to south 14-day Grand Traverse.

Time of year:

The ideal time to do a traverse is autumn (April-May). In autumn there is usually still plenty of drinking water to be found, the weather is calmer and more predictable, and the days are quite warm on average. Nights can be cold though, and frost is the norm.

Summer is accompanied by violent thunderstorms and often torrential rain. Mist can set in for days on end. Large expanses of the escarpment can be covered in swamp and puddles. There is also a lot of livestock around, accompanied by shepherds and their dogs.

Winter is simply too cold, especially at night, and a deep snowfall can bring your traverse to an abrupt end. Daylight hours are short, so you will do most of your evening chores in the dark and freezing cold. Collapsing a frozen tent and trying to pull on frozen boots every morning adds to the challenge of winter hiking on the escarpment.

As the weather starts to warm around September, the wind picks up to gale-force strength (60-80 km/h or more) and can last for several days at a time. You are almost certain to have your tent destroyed, you will not get much sleep, and fighting all day against a pummelling wind is exhausting. You may also have difficulty finding water.

Direction:

The most popular direction is north to south. Getting onto the escarpment from the Sentinel car park with a fully-loaded backpack is far easier than making your way up one of the passes in the southern Berg. The Sani Mountain Lodge is like a magnet, drawing you ever further south with the promise of a hot shower, a hot meal and a proper bed (assuming you have planned to overnight there). You are not walking into the sun for most of the day, and you can keep a more watchful eye on the weather, which tends to come in from the south.

The south to north direction is harder and you reach the Sani Mountain Lodge before you can say you have really earned its comparative luxury. The South African border post at Bushman’s Nek could also present an unnecessary complication.

Resupplies and number of days:

These are critical factors. If you are going to do an unsupported traverse (i.e. without having resupplies brought up to you or leaving any at the Sani Mountain Lodge) then you will need to drastically shorten your time en route. You may just be able to carry 9 days’ worth of food for the entire trip, so you will have to cover an average of 27 km per day. While this sounds doable, you will have very little time to rest, recuperate, clean up and socialise at the end of each day. Your traverse will be more like a route march and this does not appeal to everyone’s senses. However, it is possible to reduce your daily average distance if you resupply at Sani Pass while still going without a manned resupply further north.

With a fully-supported traverse, additional resupplies are usually carried up Bannerman Pass in the Giant’s Castle Wilderness area for a north-south traverse, or Giant’s Castle Pass for a south-north traverse. The fully-supported option has the benefit of allowing for a more relaxed traverse with an average distance of 17-20 km per day. An added advantage of a manned resupply is that some perishable food can be brought up, and you can request specific items that may have been forgotten, are in short supply or are needed to repair / replace damaged equipment. Since the manned resupply is usually around the halfway point, it provides an option for injured or sick GTers to exit the traverse in the company of other hikers. This resupply may also be the planned entry / departure point for some hikers who cannot afford to take the full amount of time off work.

You can shorten your total distance quite significantly by taking a more direct line instead of staying close to the escarpment edge all the way. The terrain is usually not as rugged, you are less exposed to the worst of the weather, especially mist, and the ridges are often not as steep further inland. Bypassing the Elephant and Ndumeni gullies, and Yodler’s Cascades, can also save you some time.

Starting and end points:

The northern start / end point is usually the Sentinel car park, but you can also walk up from / down to the bottom of the Amphitheatre via the Witsieshoek Mountain Lodge and the Mudslide or The Crack. The most southerly pass and the one to aim for is Bushman’s Nek Pass, but you can shorten the total distance by descending one of the passes further north of it. You may just cheat yourself out of the satisfaction of having done a full traverse though!

Ridges:

The escarpment is anything but flat. Ridges that run more-or-less perpendicular to the escarpment terminate at its edge in the form of prominent peaks and other landmarks. An “easy” traverse day will involve climbing and descending just one such ridge, but some days will involve two or even three of them – more if you do a quicker traverse. The Stimela, No Man’s and Mashai ridges are especially daunting. When planning each day’s route, take ridges into account and try to achieve a balance.

Sani, campsites and caves:

Depending on the size of your GT team, you may be able to make occasional use of caves en route, but none can comfortably accommodate more than six hikers at the most. There is also no way of booking escarpment caves in advance, but if they are free they can make a welcome  break from the drudgery of erecting and taking down a tent, and they are certainly more sociable, especially in bad weather. “Teams” of two or three hikers can do the entire traverse making use of caves and small overhangs, but this is not an option for a reasonably-sized group.

Choosing the right campsites en route is important for morale. The perfect campsite is on level ground with short, tuft-free lawn; it has a nearby stream for collecting drinking water and preferably another further away where hikers can clean up, so a confluence is ideal; and it is fairly sheltered from the weather but also offers a nice view. If you are doing a more relaxed traverse, try to make camp no later than 16h00 each day, but never fall short of your intended goal for the day!

You will need to book your Sani Mountain Lodge accommodation about 6 months in advance. Their ideal accommodation for a GT group is the backpacker’s lodge, but they also offer tent sites. 

Food:

Your food is your fuel. Take just enough of it – don’t overburden yourself by carrying more than you need. You need high-energy food and drink items, and protein is also important. With the growth in sports nutrition, you should not be lost for options but they are expensive. Each day’s food should be packed separately so that you know what you are limited to and can ration yourself accordingly through the day. A good breakfast is a must. Perk-up items like chocolate slabs and bars are important and you can have these for “pudding” if you don’t need them during the day. You can go far on powdered energy drinks alone, so don’t underestimate them.

You can enjoy a full dinner and breakfast at the Sani Mountain Lodge if you want to. The breakfast especially is highly recommended. If you are being resupplied at Sani Pass, these meals can be sent up the pass as an alternative instead.

Resupplies will have to be packed separately and transferred to the person who is going to be responsible for getting them back to you. Make sure all food parcels are carefully labelled so there are no mistakes.

Recruitment:

Make certain that all those who want to join your GT team are up to the task. Accepting someone who you know is going to struggle can potentially ruin the traverse for everyone. The likely consequence is that you will probably set up camp around sundown every day. Those who have taken the trouble to get fit in preparation will become increasingly frustrated and you could have a mutiny on your hands. The most successful traverses are those where all team members are of around the same fitness level and can hike closely together as a single group.

Transport:

The section of road between the Witsieshoek Mountain Lodge and the Sentinel car park in the north requires a vehicle with good ground clearance. Bushman’s Nek in the south can be reached by sedan but the dirt road is often very rough in sections. If you are unable to organise you own lifts to and from your start and end points, you could consider asking a local Underberg tour company to assist you. Most tour bus companies also offer minibus services and can tailor-make a solution for you.

Costs:

We cannot specify Rand values here because they are constantly changing, but these are the expenses you need to plan for:

• Transport to your start point, including road toll fees.
• Transport from your finish point, including road toll fees.
• There is an additional per person toll fee near Witsieshoek.
• Overnight hike fee –  this is a contentious issue, but the generally accepted solution is to pay per person for the number of days you will spend in the entry wilderness area. There is no means of doing a single payment when you will be traversing areas in three different jurisdictions (QwaQwa, Mnweni and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife). For a south to north traverse, you can pay for the nights you spend in the Bushman’s Nek and Garden Castle Wilderness Areas (the Sani Mountain Lodge is in Lesotho). There are no refunds.
• Sani Mountain Lodge / Backpackers accommodation. You can pay for dinner and breakfast when you check in. Wine and drinks with dinner are an optional extra. You may also want to spend some time at the highest pub in Africa. South African currency and credit cards are accepted. You can include some extra food and old clothing in your Sani Pass resupplies to use as tips for the staff at the backpackers lodge.

Passports:

Carry your passports with you. There is no border post at the Sentinel car park entry point. There is a South African border post at Bushman’s Nek, but no Lesotho equivalent there. This means you can only get a South African exit and no re-entry for a south to north GT, which will raise some eyebrows if spotted at an airport later! If you start at Bushman’s Nek, skip the border post in the way that any other hikers entering the Bushman’s Nek Wilderness Area normally would. Expect long deliberations at the border post if you do decide to check out. The end result will probably be that they do not stamp your passport anyway.

You must report to the Lesotho border post as soon as possible after your arrival at Sani Mountain Lodge. It may only be necessary for the GT leader to do this with passport in hand. Explain the situation to them. They are quite familiar with it and will normally accede to not stamping your passports with an entry and exit stamp. Be prepared either way. The Lesotho border officials often retire to the pub when the border closes in the evenings, so it is best to announce your presence rather than let them discover this for themselves.

It is very important for non-South African passport holders to check with their embassies long beforehand to establish whether visas are required and what other protocols to follow. Usually they cannot offer much advice though. To date, we have never had any problems with foreign passports at Sani Pass because they do not ask to see any passports at all. This only applied to GTers though. If you enter and leave Lesotho via the road pass, full two-way border controls apply.