“Never miss a good opportunity to shut up….. and listen.”
Hiking the Giants Cup Trail in the Drakensberg
The Giants cup trail is a 60km trail through the Drakensberg mountains in South Africa and has been on my wish list since the early days of planning the “change of pace” moments in this trip. Most people do it as an organised trip with porters and guide which costs about €450-550 for 5 days. But of course the idea of porters and guides goes against my nature of self sufficiency and would kill my budget. Unfortunately I was once again potentially stopped dead by bureaucrats and rules. They don’t allow people to hike the trail alone because………???
After not wanting to wait a year to do the Otter trail or wait a month to do the Amatol trail I refused to be thwarted by the rules once again and made my own plan. starting at the guest farm (Khotso) I’m staying at instead of the trail head and avoiding the main KZN(ranger) offices along the trail I was still able to hike 4 days in stealth mode. I didn’t see any other hikers or officials during the 1 day recce to the trail or during the 4 day hike. Pure bliss and silence all alone on the mountain:).
Day 1-2
I took a day trip with just a small pack up to the trail just to check out the route, get a feel for the mountains and get my bearings a little. The next morning I heading out with the full pack, camping gear and food for about 3 days(Candis from Khotso guest farm had offered to do a food drop half way). It was a hard walk cross country without any paths until the trail, through a forest with a couple of fences to climb through and over to keep life interesting.
The only wild life I saw where some birds and group of about 20 baboons (only 500m from where I camped). Unfortunately my sole of my shoes started talking to me on day 1 so I had to do some Macgyver repairs.
Day 3
After a nice early start I passed one of the mountain huts, this is an option for sleeping but I prefer the fresh air and better views from my tent. I did sneak into the hut for a quick cold shower and some water though.
The hike was fairly easy and well marked, with beautiful views of the mountains. That night I camped just after the Wintershoek hut (after filling up on water again…), the view from my tent while enjoying a cup of coffee and dairy milk was awesome.
Day 4
Hot Hot Hot, I got burned out of my tent at 6am and was on the move by 7.30, it was already so hot that I could only walk for 30 minutes then needed to hide in the shade and cool off for 30 minutes.
By 10am I gave up, made a good sunshade from my tent footprint and just chilled out for an hour, read a little, ate a little, slept a little and before I knew it it was 2pm and my water was almost done. So I had to leave my gear and backtrack 500m to a swamp and filter some water…yum.
Once I got moving again the scenery just got better and better. I had to use every ounce of tenacity and stubbornness I have to keep moving, not through any physical difficulties but I just really wanted to set up camp and stare at the mountains for the rest of the day, but just didn’t have enough water to stay the night.
Water the giver of life, but also the giver of sore shoulders when carrying 5 liters on top of an already heavy backpack (I had about 3kg too much food with me). The few rivers I came across during day 4 I had a big struggle with myself, “but I only want to carry 1-2 liters of water”, “but you know it makes sense to take 5”. And filtering almost 5 liters of water is no fun I can assure you, Msr may say that the MSR Miniworks takes 1-2 minutes per liter but it really takes twice as long. I often went for a compromise of 4 liters then regretted it 2 hours later as I thirstily searched for the next river.
Day 5
Burned out of my tent even earlier, I considered adding an extra day to the route because it was all going so easy. But when I looked at the pure blue sky I thought, its been fantastic and very hot weather for 5 days, its time for a storm, I’m just going to blast out the last 12km before it comes. I have no idea how I predicted it but I got hit by a hailstone storm 2km before the finish at Bushmans neck, the rains stayed after that for the rest of the day. I once again got lucky and caught a taxi bus within minutes of starting the 39km hitchhike to town. Once near town I walk the 6km back to the guest farm.
Mountain man
Ok so that’s the boring part of the story done with, and now my thoughts on being alone for 4 days in the mountains……..
A few weeks ago I found myself asking why I was at the coast when I prefer the mountains, why go to the coast just because that’s what you’re supposed to do in South Africa when really I’m a mountain man not a beach bum. How right I was, I’m just so in my element all alone on the mountains, the views give me so much strength, energy and inspiration and the physical challenge makes me feel alive.
I haven’t hiked with so much weight on my back since my army days, and found my self wondering why it was so much more pleasant now than then. The answer of course is simple. Thanks to Youtube I recently found out how to adjust a backpack properly after doing it wrong for more than 20 years, so I had almost no pain or discomfort despite the weight. I got to choose my own pace, take a break or siesta when I wanted, and most important of all I was in a beautiful environment and was totally distracted by the beauty of these mountains. And the biggest surprise for me was no knee pain or tired muscles, maybe all that cycling is usefully for something, that and my new Rucksack and hiking pole.
To think that just 2 weeks ago and only 65km from here I had my lowest point in the trip to date, a day where I thought I might die, and 2 weeks on I’m on such a high, feeling so strong, on top of the world and unstoppable. This for me is the charm of a solo tour and Africa, such high peaks and low downers so close together, it make me feel so alive, instead of the undulating ripples of “normal life”.
Shane, loved reading about your Drakensburg hike – totally with you on the frustration of not being able to hike alone due to nonsensical rules. I wonder can you help me – I’m traveling to Jo Burg for work next month and want to add on a week in the Drakensburg but don’t want to join group or have a guide for all the same reasons as you. I’m a female and have trekked solo in many places but never South Africa. I haven’t been able to book the huts as they won’t let me book alone. From your experience do you think I can just go anyway and sleep in the huts if they’re not locked up? Any advice welcomed! Thanks, Yvette.
Hi Yvette,
The first hut I passed was open but others have combination padlocks where I guess you get the code on booking.
An expensive and not ideal solution would be to book for 2 then turn up alone.
Sorry I don’t have any better idea’s than camping.
Good luck.