In my early days of hiking, I always remember hearing old friends Rose and Dan Dix talking about walking across Ndlovini Mountain. They did it quite often and have many fond memories of time spent on the mountain. Dan has sadly since passed away, but I contacted Rose recently to pick her brains on the route and she happily obliged. And so it was that a group of us (Farouk, Thora, Lindy Ann, Abdullah, Mark and myself) set off from Cobham over the Heritage Day weekend to conquer the mountain. Roger, after much debate elected to stay behind at the campsite - we missed his company. Ndlovini is not far from Cobham camp site and can be seen easily to the north across the Pholela river. We crossed the river and hiked up the Emerald Stream valley until we reached the plateau where the well known Pinnacle Rock is found. This is a massive obelisk type rock that is situated on a flat area and one wonders what forces enabled it to make its final resting place there.
We managed to find a small running stream in amongst some large boulders close to the bottom of Ndlovini so set up our tents amongst them. The day had been hot so it was good to sit and relax and enjoy our surroundings. We had a little excitement later that evening as we spotted lights in the distance – either torches or headlights and there was much debate as to the source – smugglers were the main theory although we couldn’t understand the erratic and jerky trajectory of the lights. We lowered our voices and watched in trepidation until we figured out that it must be hikers quite far off pitching their tent. Somewhat satisfied we retired to our tents and spent a restful night. In the morning we could indeed see two little white tents in the far distance – we still don’t know how they ended up in such a remote spot though!
It did not take us too long to ascend the side of Ndlovini as it was just a steep grassy slope and must have taken about 20 minutes of steady climbing. The top was pretty flat and grassy and I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that it was bigger than expected. We had hoped to tent up there that evening, and in anticipation of there being no water, we each lugged along a couple of extra litres of water in our packs. It was very dry and the only water would have been deep down in the side gullies. We walked to the highest point at 2206m and then across to the other side of the mountain. We had marvellous views of the escarpment and also the huge boulder field below the northern edge which is home to numerous rock art. We had lunch under the welcome shade of an overhang and as it was still early and there were no amazing tenting areas, we descended down the eastern side on a ridge line which was relatively easy. Despite us carrying extra water all day ( sorry guys!) we wanted to find fresh, cold water and after some scouting around, managed to find a small stream for our needs on a flat area below. It really was an idyllic spot and we sat outside for quite some time enjoying the late afternoon followed by a most beautiful still evening.
Our last day dawned and we reluctantly made our way back to camp and civilization. All too soon we would be back on the hamster wheel of life, but for now we could savour the memories of a truly enjoyable weekend!
