Our plan was to do an escarpment hike, overnighting in Whytes Cave and then Mzimude Cave via Walkers Ridge before descending a new pass, Mzimude North. I had seen a photo of the latter which looked amazing, an arrow straight gully leading down into the valley below so this immediately had a place on my ‘must do’ list. The one time I had completed Walkers Ridge before had been in thick mist, so this was another opportunity to see this route in clear conditions.
We decided we would approach Whytes Cave from Garden Castle and 4 of us set off to climb over the Sondonzima Ridge and into the Hidden Valley beyond. From here we made our way to Robs Cave which involves a steep climb. While having lunch in the cave we noticed that there was still plenty of snow and ice about on the south facing slopes of the escarpment and that Mzimude North pass appeared to be full of ice. This did not look promising for our return descent. From Robs Cave you make your way up another very steep gully which ends up on a flat ridge . A bit of acrobatic work is required to get down from Robs into this gully and there is an obliging tree on hand to assist. Thora and I chose the ledge route after passing our packs on down to Roger and Tegan who had chosen the tree option. Initially the gully is thick with trees and we followed an animal path. Once clear of the trees, a long 60 degree grassy gully opens up and we slowly trudged our way to the top. We had the most magnificent views of the massive rock walls on either side and we stopped often to admire the scenery and to catch our breath! Once on the ridge we made our way around to the gully that leads to Whytes Cave. There had been a lot of smoke from burning during the day which added to the hazy atmosphere, but now we could see there was mist forming too. By the time we got to the cave it was already quite low and the temperature was chilly. After settling in the mist seemed to descend and Thora and I eventually decided to put our tent up as I have experienced a wet sleeping bag in Whytes before from mist. Naturally our tents had been up about an hour before the mist miraculously lifted and the stars came out……..and all of this without a breeze of any kind. it has to be a first that I have ever tented in Whytes!
We left early the following morning but it was apparent as we were climbing the first hill that Roger was not feeling well. We made a call and decided to abandon the idea of the escarpment, not only because of this, but also because we were very unsure whether we would get down Mzimude North the following day. Truth be told, I think there were probably more than a few amongst us that were secretly relieved that we would not have to endure a long hard day with strong winds forecast on the escarpment……..
I suggested that we find a place to tent in the valley that is directly above Whytes Cave - an area I visited some years ago. Now would be a perfect opportunity to do some more exploration. We found a spot to tent near one of the streams that flows down into the pool at Whytes below and spent time relaxing, learning how to tie knots from Roger, and later, some exploration. As mentioned, there are two streams that feed the waterfall in Whytes. As there was not much water flow, it enabled us to explore quite far down the rivers that feeds the upper gully. It was amazing to venture down between massive rock walls and see where the water was going. I only got as far as where the stream plunges down into a grassy gully and it would be interesting to see if one can still explore from here to where the water falls into Whytes Cave - maybe next time!
We were back at Garden Castle by lunchtime the following day and although we had not achieved our objective, we had enjoyed a perfect day in a unique spot - thanks to all for the wonderful company!
