After reading Tony Marshall's write up some time ago on his trip up Mponjwane Pass, I was pretty keen to try this out, so over the long weekend in December 2016, the ‘Ballies Brigade’ consisting of myself, Farouk, Greg, Roger and Thora set off knowing we had an adventure on our hands. We were not to be disappointed!
Day one - We got going just after 9.30 and headed up to Mlambu's Kraal where the Nqueda River joins the Mnweni River. The day was very hot and humid and the escarpment had a lot of cloud coming and going. As we hiked in to the Nqueda Valley I started feeling nauseous with little energy. With a bit of vasbyt a lot of water, and frequent rests in the shade, we continued on. We were able to stay on a path for much of the way and I wondered who actually uses this path as it was fairly strong and obviously frequently used ? This valley is pretty wild and rugged and the vegetation was lush. Our aim was to get as high up the valley as we could and find a flattish camping spot. The clouds were gathering and looking ominous so we eventually called it a day just before the valley makes a bend and you get your first glimpse of Mponjwane. We settled in for the evening after fetching water and having a wash in the river which was flowing quite strongly. The rain held off until early evening and then came down steadily for a while, thereafter the mist came down for the night.
Day two - Today was our big day! We awoke early and our first adrenaline rush for the day was when Thora's gas canister misbehaved and caught fire - Roger hurled it away from the tent and then poured water on it -a few anxious moments there……..We were on our way by 6.30am and shortly thereafter our second incident of the day occurred . A boulder dislodged itself in the river whilst boulder hopping and fell on Rogers foot. ( Roger had an extremely eventful day as will be seen later…..) He could not move and was pinned down. I was able to get to him and somehow lift it just enough so that he could move his foot. Although painful he was able to wiggle his toes, and after resting, declared that he would be able to carry on. Luckily it never got any worse, but hats off to Roger for persevering and soldiering on ! The mist cleared and it looked to be a clear day which is what we wanted for the gully section………what you want and what you get are not always the same however!
The hike up the valley was long and tedious - we alternated between boulder hopping in the river bed and traversing out higher on the grass slopes. At one waterfall we had to haul packs up the bank and use a belay system to get the less strong members of the party up - this all took time and we reached the gully proper at midday. We had a break to have lunch and then continued upwards. By now the mist was forming and the upper reaches of the gully was looking ominous. We had a couple of obstacles to overcome, often taking backpacks off and pulling them up with a rope. The men could often climb up with their packs on but Thora and I felt more confident without our packs. The wormhole came into sight and we eventually reached it. Tony mentioned that the ground is very loose here and indeed it was almost impossible to get up - its very steep ( far deeper than the photos indicate) and with the recent rains, the area was very wet and slippery. Thora headed up first without her pack with Roger following close behind. She managed to get up to the wormhole but as Roger was climbing up, the rock he was holding on to moved and instinctively he turned around and braced his arms and legs, holding the boulder against his back. What a disaster it would have been if he hadn’t done this as Greg, myself and Farouk were all waiting in the narrow section directly below and I don't even want to think what could have happened had Roger and the boulders tumbled on to us……..After some very anxious moments moments Thora managed to come down and move the boulders around Roger and we eased them down the slope past ourselves until they were out of harms way. Greg then managed to climb up, followed by myself and then Farouk. We were all extremely grateful to survive this frightening experience. From here you head directly down the grassy gully which is very steep to the nek and the base of the gully where the route from the Rockeries side comes in at the left. By now the mist was very thick and we could only see a little way ahead of us so unfortunately we could not see the towering walls on either side of us. We reached the very top of this gully and looked to the right where the final slope was to the summit. All we could see was an abyss directly below us! Unbeknownst to us at the time and because the mist was so thick, we could not see the short traverse across to the right ( just before the top of the gully) and the steep slope upwards to the final obstacle. With no way forward we climbed out on the left, up a tricky scramble. Once we got to the top of this we were on a slope which looked a bit like the photo from Tonys write up, except the rock scramble ahead did not match up. Confused and tired we headed upwards in the hope that we would find the elusive final scramble to the summit. It was close to 5.00pm at this stage and we only had another hour or so’s daylight left. The mist was as thick as ever and Farouk and Greg went ahead to the flat area up ahead while the rest of us waited against a rock face. We were trying to figure out what went wrong and when they returned they gave us the news that Mponjwane Cave was actually directly ahead of us. We were totally disorientated! We made a decision to stay put, put up our tents and tough it out for the night, wait for morning and then see where we had actually ended up. We had little water left at this stage so we were in for a long night with no cooking of supper etc. There was a fairly large area on top with two cairns - according to the guys we were on top of Rockeries Tower. The mist cleared a bit just then to allow us the view of Mponjwane cave on the other side of the drop off and Mponjwane towering on the other side. We could also see where we should have gone up the slope on the right hand side of the gully. We were all exhausted after the exertions and adrenaline of the day, so settled in for the night. The soil is thin and we could not secure the tents properly with tentpegs so we hoped the rumbling of thunder and black skies would not develop into anything more serious. Apart from a shower of rain, we were spared. Thank goodness as we were pretty exposed and vulnerable up there.
Day three - we awoke bright and early to a clear day although KZN was blanketed under cloud. We packed up and then headed downwards towards the nek - not without a great deal of trepidation on my behalf I might add - its one thing to climb up in the mist, but when it is clear and you can see the drop-offs down below you, its another thing entirely! Unbelievable to think we had climbed up this the evening before. We managed to get down to the nek and then across to the other side. Now we could see our final obstacle and after a bit of investigation, Farouk chose the route to the right with the crack and handhold at head height. He managed to get up with assistance from Greg and then hauled the packs up and the rest of us up to safety. It must be mentioned here that the ground below this slopes away steeply towards the gully and a fall here could be fatal. We were all very relieved to reach the escarpment safely. From here we made our way down to the nearest water just above Rockeries Pass and filled up with some much needed water. After some breakfast to replenish our energy levels we headed down Rockeries Pass and back towards the Mnweni Cultural Centre.
My personal thoughts on this trip is that this is not for the average hiker - we found it pretty tough and very challenging and it is not without its risks! But……..not bad for a bunch of old ballies who are in their mid to late fifties………….and, who knows we may be the first to have tented on top of the Rockeries Tower !
( Roger was bestowed the nickname of 'Roger the Dislodger' after this trip.......)
