Monday 28 September 2015

HIKING FOOD AND CLOTHES

Quathlamba
“A mass of Spears. Named thus by the Zulu warriors before the white man came. Today called the Drakensberg, Mountains of the Dragon, a name given by the Voortrekkers. Evocative names, both equally applicable to South Africa’s mightiest mountain range with its spear-like peaks – reminiscent of the saw-toothed spine of a gigantic dragon.”
Panorama April 1966



This blog is all about the Drakensberg Mountains and its Wilderness area, South Africa. I have lost my heart and soul to this area and every single time I hike these mountains, I stand in awe all over again at this magnificent beauty.

"How often in the course of our travels through Kwazulu-Natal do we stop and gaze at the beauty of a distant range of mountains? The Drakensberg stands as a monument to one of the greatest cataclysms the Earth has experienced. As you approach the mountains, you realize why early Zulus called it "Quathlamba", meaning “Barrier of Up-pointed Spears". A cradle of rivers. Listen to the streams as they gurgle from their cradles and you will hear the story of the mountains. You will hear fascinating tales if only you listen! Lie next to a stream and listen to the song of the mountains. The smiling faces of the flowers, dancing in the wind. Venture into the remote valleys or stand on a peak at sunrise or sunset, after snow has fallen, and you will hear a song that you will never forget - the Song of the High Mountain". (DA Dodds)

Hiking adventures, hiking gear reviews, day walks, accommodation, books, articles and photos, all related to these magnificent mountains will feature here.
Should you want to accompany me on a hike or need some information or advice, please make contact with me. I hope you enjoy the articles.

Please visit the archive for some more interesting stories, photos and reviews.


Available in the Archive (Do read it!)
1) Injasuthi to Lotheni - Epic 6 Day Hike
2) Review: Hi-Tec Altitude Pro RGS Hiking Boots
3) Drakensberg Wilderness Hiking - 14 Day Hiking trip - Lotheni Reserve (Part 3)
4) Lotheni - 14 Day Hiking Trip (Part 2)
5) Lotheni - 14 Day Hiking Trip (Part 3)
6) The Bushmen of the Drakensberg
7) Thunderstorms in the Drakensberg Mountains
8)  Before setting out on a hike………..
9)  Cathkin Peak – Drakensberg
10) Why backpack and multi-day hiking
11) Safety in the Drakensberg
12) In the Shadow of Cathedral Peak
13) Injasuthi – ‘well fed dog’
14) Lotheni Reserve
15) Garmin eTrex 10 & 20 Specs and Review
16) The birth of the Drakensberg – The Ancient Rocks
17) Drakensberg Mountains – Rock Art
18) Drakensberg Mountain Reserve Accommodation
19) Drakensberg – Mkhomazi Area – Hikers Paradise
20) Drakensberg – Hiking Kamberg – Highmoor - Kamberg, Exploring the Mooi
       River Valleys
21) Chelmsford Nature Reserve
22) Bushmen Art – Deep in a Mooi River Valley
23) Missing in the Drakensberg Mountains – Dragon’s Wrath
24) Hiking Food and Clothes

Please note that all photos on this blog are copyright protected. If you would like to obtain
Photos please make contact with the author, Willem Pelser.




“i am convinced that the wilderness with her beauty and severe laws is one of the best schools of character.”
W Pelser








HIKING FOOD AND CLOTHES

Eland Carcass in the Mooi River - Drakensberg



FOOD
   
   Everyone’s favorite subject and the hardest to agree on is food. It is enormously amusing to hike with people and watch the various foods produced from their packs – everything from smoked oysters to hard, fish-meal squares, commonly referred to as “dog biscuits.” Many factors govern what food to take: the length of the trip, number of people, distance to be travelled, and demands of the terrain, time of year and nature of overnight facilities – quite apart from personal preference.

    In general, hiking food should be nutritious, lightweight, low in bulk, and prepared with a minimum of fuss. I food can be divided into five categories: fresh, tinned, dried, dehydrated and freeze dried.

   Fresh foods such as apples, oranges, cold meats, tomatoes, bread and eggs, spoil easily with exposure to the sun, and are heavy and bulky. They are great for day walks, but for serious hiking only the strongest members of the party will feast on them. However, the enjoyment of one item of fresh fruit a day on any type of hike is worth the extra muscle strain.



Part of the Mooi River Valley leading to the Escarpment - Drakensberg


   Tinned foods should generally be avoided as the tins and the opener add extra mass, and once the contents have been eaten you must put the smelly tin with its rough edges back in your pack and carry dead weight. No, you cannot bury the tin! Exceptions to carrying tins can be made on canoeing or kloofing trips when waterproofing is essential and space for waterproofed items is dear.

   Dried foods (sweets, nuts, energy bars, figs, raisins) will form your diet’s bulk, make great trail snacks and are usually packed with energy giving kilojoules.

    Dehydrated foods such as soup mixes, isotonic drinks, milk powders, instant potatoes, cereals and certain meats and soya, or ready-made meals, are important hiking foods. They need little space, have a long storage life and a higher long-term nutritive value than any other type of food. Their only disadvantage is that preparation takes a little longer. Dehydrated foods are usually less costly than dried or off-season fresh foods, and are certainly less expensive than those which are freeze dried.

   Freeze-dried foods are sliced or processed, immersed or sprayed with a preserving agent, and frozen. The moisture content in the food turns to ice. The food is then placed in a vacuum chamber and subjected to microwaves. The ice is evaporated, leaving the cellular structure of the food essentially the same. The food is lightweight and porous and, when immersed in water, rapidly soaks it up to become reconstituted and ready to use. The convenient and extremely lightweight nature of freeze-dried foods makes them indispensable for strenuous hiking trips. They are very expensive and within six months their nutritional value is lower and deteriorates faster than dehydrated products. Two favorites are freeze-dried pizza and ice-cream!


   When planning meals remember the following:

1)  Energy: Kilojoules required by the average hiker walking with a moderate load during a cool summer’s day vary between 14 700 and 16 800 a day. Hard, mountain walking in winter, such as in the Drakensberg, can increase needs to between 25 000 and 33 600 kilojoules per day.

2)  Properly planned meals, including snacks, need not exceed I kg per person per day.

3)  Seasonings are important and give a necessary sparkle to the trail traveler’s meal.

4))  Always carry extra high-energy and quickly digestible food, some of which can be eaten cold, in a separate re-sealable plastic bag. Suggestions include glucose-tablets, nuts, dried fruits, chocolate, soup and energy bars. Always carry more tea than you think you will need; not coffee or alcohol, both of which if drunk in excess can cause hypothermia.



Mooi River Valley - Drakensberg



CLOTHES

  High, exposed windy summits; warm sun-heated valleys; hot midday sun and cold nights – these may all be experience in a 24 hour hiking day. Always be prepared for a wide range of temperatures, as well as humidity and rain. Two important principles to keep in mind are that several light layers are more adaptable than a single, heavy garment, and that wool is the only fabric that retains its warmth even when wet. Wearing wet cotton clothing actually makes you feel colder than walking naked!

Warm clothing: Adopt the layered look and be as warm or cool as you like. Here are suggestions, starting with extremities: light wool or synthetic socks under heavy woolen ones (avoid cotton inside boots as cotton holds moisture next to the skin, promoting soft skin and blisters); thin leather glove liners and wool or fiberfill insulated mittens; a brimmed cotton hat for sunshine and a woolen hat for or balaclava for the cold; cotton shorts or long pants for winter or high altitudes; water repellent, breathable nylon, wind-resistant pants: a thin, cotton, long sleeved shirt for summer, a woolen one for cold weather or high altitudes; a woolen jersey or a down or fiberfill sleeveless jacket; a down or fibrefilled hooded parka; and a waterproof/breathable hooded parka and long pants for rain. Do not take denim jeans on a hike; lightweight tracksuit pants are more comfortable and not as bulky or heavy.

Choose versatile clothes. For example, a long sleeved cotton shirt can be worn buttoned or unbuttoned, sleeves rolled up or down, and it has pockets for all sorts of stuff. T-shirts has none of these.

A small but useful hint for day hikers, leave a change of warm clothing at your base camp. It is a most encouraging prospect to look forward to if you become cold and wet in the course of an outing.


Mooi River Valley – Route to Highmoor – Drakensberg


Rainwear: The biggest clothing dilemma hiker’s face is choosing between waterproof and water repellent outer-wear. If, when trailing, you walk wearing a waterproof jackets and pants, you keep out the rain but keep in body moisture. Water repellent clothes allow body moisture to escape but, as the waterproof coating wears off, will eventually prove useless in keeping out the rain. Waterproof rain gear has the advantage, however, of keeping out wind associated with rain and thereby allowing your body to warm its trapped moisture. In this way the waterproof jacket and pants work like a diving wet-suit.

Some people have expressed dissatisfaction with Gortex or Ventex and similar fabrics that claim to be windproof and waterproof while allowing condensation to escape. This is because these fabrics work well only if the rate of perspiration is low, there are significant temperature and humidity differences between the inside and outside of the material, and the outer surface is not coated with a layer of water, such as during a torrential downpour. These are also the reasons why the large dome Goretex tents have failed while the tiny one-man Goretex tents work very well. In pouring rain you will get damp no matter what you wear. How wet you get will depend on how ingeniously you arrange your clothing layers.

Underwear and pajamas: Select your underwear by taking into consideration the weather conditions you are likely to encounter. The coolest type of underwear are those made from pure cotton or cotton and nylon combinations. Cold weather underclothing requires more thought. Long johns made of cotton in a conventional weave or net construction are warm, but woven wool or silk combinations are even warmer. In really cold conditions wear 2- or 3- ply thermals – which usually consist of a wool outer layer, with silk or cotton next to the skin. For winter night wear, long wool underwear inside a tent is good. In the summer, a cotton track suit or clean, light underwear is all that is needed.

Never wear your walking clothes in your sleeping bag. Apart from reasons of hygiene, the fibers of your walking clothes compress and fill with dirt and moisture so that they are no longer able to trap and hold warm air.
Happy hiking!




The End.




           
Willem Pelser – The Mountain Man

Tuesday 22 September 2015

MISSING IN THE DRAKENSBERG MOUNTAINS – DRAGONS WRATH

Quathlamba
“A mass of Spears. Named thus by the Zulu warriors before the white man came. Today called the Drakensberg, Mountains of the Dragon, a name given by the Voortrekkers. Evocative names, both equally applicable to South Africa’s mightiest mountain range with its spear-like peaks – reminiscent of the saw-toothed spine of a gigantic dragon.”
Panorama April 1966



This blog is all about the Drakensberg Mountains and its Wilderness area, South Africa. I have lost my heart and soul to this area and every single time I hike these mountains, I stand in awe all over again at this magnificent beauty.

"How often in the course of our travels through Kwazulu-Natal do we stop and gaze at the beauty of a distant range of mountains? The Drakensberg stands as a monument to one of the greatest cataclysms the Earth has experienced. As you approach the mountains, you realize why early Zulus called it "Quathlamba", meaning “Barrier of Up-pointed Spears". A cradle of rivers. Listen to the streams as they gurgle from their cradles and you will hear the story of the mountains. You will hear fascinating tales if only you listen! Lie next to a stream and listen to the song of the mountains. The smiling faces of the flowers, dancing in the wind. Venture into the remote valleys or stand on a peak at sunrise or sunset, after snow has fallen, and you will hear a song that you will never forget - the Song of the High Mountain". (DA Dodds)

Hiking adventures, hiking gear reviews, day walks, accommodation, books, articles and photos, all related to these magnificent mountains will feature here.
Should you want to accompany me on a hike or need some information or advice, please make contact with me. I hope you enjoy the articles.
Please visit the archive for some more interesting stories, photos and reviews.


Available in the Archive (Do read it!)
1) Injasuthi to Lotheni - Epic 6 Day Hike
2) Review: Hi-Tec Altitude Pro RGS Hiking Boots
3) Drakensberg Wilderness Hiking - 14 Day Hiking trip - Lotheni Reserve (Part 3)
4) Lotheni - 14 Day Hiking Trip (Part 2)
5) Lotheni - 14 Day Hiking Trip (Part 3)
6) The Bushmen of the Drakensberg
7) Thunderstorms in the Drakensberg Mountains
8)  Before setting out on a hike………..
9)  Cathkin Peak – Drakensberg
10) Why backpack and multi-day hiking
11) Safety in the Drakensberg
12) In the Shadow of Cathedral Peak
13) Injasuthi – ‘well fed dog’
14) Lotheni Reserve
15) Garmin eTrex 10 & 20 Specs and Review
16) The birth of the Drakensberg – The Ancient Rocks
17) Drakensberg Mountains – Rock Art
18) Drakensberg Mountain Reserve Accommodation
19) Drakensberg – Mkhomazi Area – Hikers Paradise
20) Drakensberg – Hiking Kamberg – Highmoor - Kamberg, Exploring the Mooi
       River Valleys
21) Chelmsford Nature Reserve
22) Bushmen Art – Deep in a Mooi River Valley
23) Missing in the Drakensberg Mountains – Dragon’s Wrath

Please note that all photos on this blog are copyright protected. If you would like to obtain
Photos please make contact with the author, Willem Pelser.




“IT IS THE NATURE OF MAN TO JOURNEY WHERE THERE IS HOPE OF GREAT DANGER”

From a medieval Norse MS, “The King’s Mirror”




MISSING IN THE DRAKENSBERG MOUNTAINS – DRAGONS WRATH

THE SHIP’S PROW PASS DISASTER

In newspaper parlance, a news story that develops over a period of days or weeks is a “running story”. An investigation of one of these running stories as it built up from edition to edition in the daily and weekly newspapers, and in tribute to the reporters who gathered and sifted facts for their readers, we find that there is no new evidence to add, and only very little comment to make, on the stories they wrote during the fateful three days of 10 to 13 January 1981.

The story of disaster as told through various news reports. There is some repetition, but it recreates the feeling of living from edition to edition – morning to evening to morning…….. that feeling of waiting, hoping, praying.



Daily News, Saturday, 10 January 1981:


HUNT FOR BERG HIKERS HIT BY MIST AND RAIN

   Fears for the lives of three mountain hikers, missing for 11 days, are growing. Rescue attempts have been severely hampered by heavy mist and light rain in the Monk’s Cowl area of the Drakensberg.

   Dr Sherman Ripley, leader of the nine-man volunteer Mountain Club team which has been in the area since yesterday morning, said today they were completely bogged down by the mist and rain.

   Three Air Force helicopters from Durban are standing by with the rescue team waiting for the weather to clear.

   “We are getting worried because this weather shows no sign of lifting. They could be anywhere and probably out of food by now unless they ended up in Lesotho – where their chances are still slim,” said Dr Ripley.

   The hikers – two brothers from Steynsrus in the Free State, and a girl friend from Pretoria (names omitted in order not to open old wounds – W Pelser), left the Monk’s Cowl Forest Station at 7 am on 31 December and were due back on 4 January.

   Dr Ripley said the hikers could be almost anywhere because they had failed to record accurate details of their proposed hike.

   “We are really in the dark at the moment. This morning we sent out a three-man party to look in an obvious area, but that’s the safest shot in the dark we can take at the moment,” said Dr Ripley.

   The helicopters flew along the lower slopes of the mountain yesterday but were unable to reach the mist-shrouded mountain tops. The father of the brothers travelled to the Drakensberg yesterday and is anxiously awaiting news of his sons.

   The eldest brother is a teacher in Welkom. His younger brother has just finished his army training and intends going to university next year.



Dr Sherman Ripley, leader of the Mountain Club’s Search and Rescue team at the time, discusses strategy with a group of SAAF pilots.


Sunday Times, Sunday 11 January 1981:


DRAMA ON THE BERG: RACE TO FIND HIKERS

   Hope is fading fast for the three hikers missing in the Drakensberg for six days.

   The party was expected home on Tuesday and when they had not returned on Thursday, the girl’s brother phoned the Winterton Police and raised the alarm.

   They were last seen by two other hikers halfway up Gray’s Pass, which leads to the escarpment, several days ago.

   It was thought that the party may have lost its way across the border into Lesotho, but checks with the authorities in that country have drawn a blank.

   Several rescue teams yesterday scoured other areas.

  A member of one team said that visibility was down to 50 m in places and that it was cold inside the cloud.

   Rain on the Drakensberg put a stop to the search yesterday afternoon.

   The mountain rescue team, led by Dr Ripley, is reported to have gone as far up the escarpment as Gray’s Pass but had to return to base when the rain set in again.

   Dr Ripley described the situation as “pretty desperate”.

   At Monk’s Cowl Forest Station, which has been turned into an emergency operation center, several family members of the missing hikers are waiting anxiously for news.

   The father of the men said “The rescue people have warned me to expect the worst and I know the chances are not good”.

   He said his one son was not keen to go on the hike and “that makes it worse if he is dead. But whatever happens I will accept it as God’s will”.



Unbelievable destruction! The stream below Sip’s Prow Pass where the bodies were found is a horrifying jumble of rocks, debris and smashed trees. In the white circle is one of the bodies.



Sunday Tribune, 11 January 1981:


BERG SEARCHERS FEAR HIKERS DEAD

   Three young hikers missing for a week in the Monk’s Cowl area of the Drakensberg are now feared dead, but the search continued at first light today.

   Three Air Force helicopters airlifted a mountain rescue team into the upper Berg to comb gorges where it is thought the hikers may have got lost or been injured.

   But hopes for the three dwindled yesterday when the helicopters were grounded by mist and darkness after nearly two full days of search, in which they covered an area of 200 square kilometers.

   And at the Forest Station at Monk’s Cowl, base camp for the rescuers, questions were being asked about why there had been a four-day delay before the search began.

   The missing hikers set off towards Cathkin Peak on 31 December, saying they would be back by Sunday, 4 January.

   The search did not get under way until Thursday this week.

   By this time the hiker’s food, light and heating would almost certainly have run out. They are thought to have carried supplies for no more than five days. Their car was left at the forestry station campsite and was found to contain no money and clothing.

   The three walked up Gray’s Pass – one of the few routes through the precipitous cliff face behind Cathkin Peak – and were seen there by another party of hikers on New Year’s Day. That was the last time anyone saw them.

   Dr Ripley said yesterday there was little hope for the three unless they had left the mountain by another route.

   The father of the two brothers said his sons were resourceful and level-headed, but did not know the Drakensberg. Only the girl had hiked there before.

   Mountaineers said the plateau behind Cathkin Peak was filled with deep valleys where it was easy to get lost, even for someone who knew the Berg.



Natal Mercury, 12 January 1981:


BERG TRIO DEAD
WALL OF WATER SWEPT HIKERS DOW GULLY

   Cathkin Peak. The battered bodies of three hikers were recovered from a gully in the Drakensberg yesterday after an intensive search by helicopters and a mountain rescue team.

   The hikers had been swept to their deaths by a wall of water which had roared down a narrow gully ripping through their tent and leaving their belongings scattered for more than a kilometer along the mountainside near there.

   Rescue workers, who were dropped at the spot by three helicopters, worked for more than three hours to free the bodies from the boulder strewn bed of the gully.

   The force of the water, thought to have been fed by a fierce storm on 2 January, had ripped the clothing from the hikers and battered their bodies beyond recognition.

   “The water hit so hard that it picked up a huge boulder and tossed it into the branches of a tree,” one of the rescue workers said yesterday.
   “They didn’t have a chance. It probably happened so fast they never even knew what was happening.”

   The missing trio was found, three days after the aerial search had begun, when a pilot spotted a haversack lying near a gully in Ship’s Prow Pass.

   A team of volunteers from the Mountain Club was dropped to scour the area and made the gruesome discovery about 30 minutes later.

   The three hikers had left Monk’s Cowl area on 31 December with the intention of returning to the Forest Station there on 4 January. By the time the alarm was raised, all three had probably been dead for five days.

   Mist, rain and hail hampered the Air Force search for hours at a time and helicopters, blinded by mist, actually overflew the scene of the tragedy several times before finding the bodies.

   The three helicopters scoured a 250 square kilometer area so thoroughly that they stopped to retrieve pieces of refuse and discarded bottles in the hope that the hikers may have scrawled a message for help.

  The brothers were on their first visit to the Drakensberg.

“What makes it even more tragic is the fact that the one brother did not want to come in the first place,” said his father, but we persuaded him to go.

   The families had spent 60 anxious hours at Monk’s Cowl before a Winterton policeman broke the news of their children’s death.

   The bodies were flown from the gully to the Winterton Police Station.

   A Natal Parks Board spokesman said the accident was the worst of its kind in the Drakensberg.

   When the storm hit on the 2 January it washed out the road to Injasuthi Resort and nearly swept away a family who were camping there, he said.



Ship’s Prow Pass after a heavy snowfall. The party would have descended the left-hand fork.



Daily News, Monday, 12 January 1981:


DIARY OF HORROR IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH

   The Ship’s Prow Pass is a steep-sided valley running up the side of the Drakensberg between Injasuthi and the Champagne Castle Peak above.

   During the past 10 days the area has been subjected alternately to fierce storms and thick mist.

   Thirteen days ago a party of three hikers arrived in the Cathkin Peak area to spend five days walking in the mountains.

   Only one of the parties had been in the mountains before.

   On Old Year’s Day they parked their car at the Monk’s Cowl Forest Station, noted their intention to walk up Cathkin Peak to return by 4 January, and set off up Gray’s Pass into the Drakensberg.

   They saw in the New Year in the popular Nkosezana cave on the trail, where they told another hiker they planned to walk along the plateau to Champagne Castle, then down Ship’s Prow Pass to the path which led back to their car.

   The next day they met another group and told them the same story. They were never seen alive again.

   The alarm was first raised by the girl’s brother who realized something was wrong when his sister did not return to Pretoria by Tuesday to resume her classes.

   He told the Police. By Thursday a nine-man Mountain Club team had formed. The Air Force and rescue team gathered on Friday, using the Monk’s Cowl Forest Station as their base. By mid-morning they had scoured the lower reaches of the mountains but were forced to call off the search above 3000 m while dense mist persisted.

   On Sunday the cloud lifted, enabling the helicopters to get above the mist to search the plateau, only to report o success to the group of relatives of the missing trio and a growing contingent from the Press.

   Yesterday dawned bright and clear. The three helicopters rose with the dawn to check the remaining mountain reaches. They also flew 20 km into neighboring Lesotho, checked refuse on the mountain trails and interviewed hut dwellers.

   They reported nothing but some hail along the edges and an air temperature on the top of five degrees.

   At mid-morning the searchers decided to re-examine the hiker’s most likely trail before moving the base of the search further south.

   In particular the Ship’s Prow Pass had been examined only through binoculars as air currents made flying treacherous.

   When they managed to enter the valley they were horrified by the devastation they found – “the worst I have ever seen” as more than one seasoned climber described it.

   Trees had been torn out and boulders thrown about like marbles.

   They also found the first traces of the missing hikers.

   It did not take long to discover the bodies. Two were seen almost immediately, and the third, glimpsed from the air, was located by a Daily News reporter an hour later.

   There seems to be little chance of being sure exactly what happened. But the three had obviously been dead for some days and the devastation around them told its own tale.

   Many members of the rescue team felt they had been caught in a flash flood while picking their way down the pass in a heavy downpour.

   The vast mountain walls would have fed enormous amounts of water into the stream in the space of a few minutes, filling all the pools and gullies to capacity.

   Somewhere high on the pass a rock would have slipped, releasing a tiny dam of water into the next pool and knocking out the retaining rock.

   In a few seconds a wall of water, tossing boulders ahead of it, tearing out and shredding full grown trees to matchwood, would have scoured the place from top to bottom.

   The hikers stood no chance. They were found, partly buried under debris, with a distance between them of 150 m, while scraps of their shredded belongings appeared over as much as a kilometer.



Natal Witness, 12 January 1981:


BERG TRAGEDY
FLASH FLOOD KILLED THREE HIKERS

   The bodies of the three hikers missing in the Champagne Castle area of the Drakensberg were discovered yesterday by Air Force helicopters and members of the Mountain Club rescue team.

   The three hikers were apparently on their way down Ship’s Prow Pass from the top of the escarpment when they were overpowered by a flash flood and either drowned or were battered to death on boulders and scree.

   Their bodies were flown from the scene of the tragedy to Winterton late yesterday.

   The leader of the rescue team said the bodies of the hikers were found after one of the helicopters reported sighting debris floating in a stream about a kilometer from a rest camp named Injasuthi.

   Although it is believed that the three were drowned while trying to cross a stream, a member of the rescue team said that he thought the party might have been camping by the stream when the flash flood struck.

“Over an extensive area we found pieces of tent, open sleeping bags and rucksacks,” he said. “In one place I saw a large boulder lodged in the branches of a tree at least a meter from the ground.”

   Flooding ten days ago in the stream at Injasuthi – which has its source at the head of Ship’s Prow Pass – suggests that the three young people died on Friday, 2 January.



Natal Mercury, 13 January 1981:


NEW THEORY ON BERG DEATH HIKE TRIO

   Three hikers swept to their death in a Drakensberg gully were probably overcome by a flooded stream as they attempted a crossing.

   This was the theory offered yesterday by Dr Sherman Ripley, rescue convener of the Mountain Club.

   It was likely that the hikers had no idea that a flooded mountain stream could become a “torrential grinding machine” in which boulders were thrown around, said Dr Ripley.

   He said he did not believe that the two brothers and the girl had been hit by a wall of water fed by high-altitude streams. “I believe they were trying to cross the already flooded stream on their way back to the forestry camp at Monk’s Cowl when they were swept away,” he said.

   “I think that a lack of knowledge tempted them to cross the stream. They were probably a few hours late and decided to cross before the stream became a heavy flood. They probably had no idea that a flooded boulder stream is so dangerous. It is a torrential grinding machine,” he said.

   Dr Ripley said that the sketchy plan of the intended route supplied by the trio at the forestry camp had also complicated search operations by three helicopters and a nine-man rescue team.

   The meager outline of their route merely said they intended walking up to Cathkin Peak.

   “We knew it was wrong as the last 300 m of Cathkin Peak is vertical. But they had no idea where they were.”

   The eventual possible route of the three was discovered after people who had met them on their ill-fated hike told the Mountain Club of the trio’s plans.

   “If people go into an environment that can be dangerous they should be sufficient knowledgeable and give more details of their intentions when they fill in the forms,” he said.

   Dr Ripley said he was against legal obligations being imposed on people who chose to go hiking and climbing in the mountains.


   THERE is not much to add to this grim story. A few days later we spoke to the District Surgeon who had done the post-mortem examinations. He told us they were the most horrifying he had ever done. The two men were quite unidentifiable. Bill Barnes, of the Parks Board, said it looked as if the bodies had been through a mincing machine.

   How they died we shall never know. Were they still descending the pass when the wall of water and tumbling boulders came roaring down upon them? Were they trying to cross the stream to the contour path? Or had they camped for the night, and in their sleep knew not what had struck them? We do not know.


   Never, under any circumstances, make camp beside a Drakensberg Mountain stream, no matter how small it is. If you have to cross a flooded stream, use a rope, with two of the party keeping a tight hold on it from the bank. The terrain in the Drakensberg is so steep that a placid stream can become a thundering torrent in a few minutes, and if you miss your footing in it, hope dies.

   In 1976 the Sterkspruit broke its banks and came roaring down the quiet valley. A Forestry game guard, trying to cross just above the Sterkspruit Falls, lost his footing and was swept over the falls to his death. In 1975 a Transvaal school boy tried to cross the flooded Umlambonja River in the Cathedral area. He lost his footing, and he too was drowned in the raging waters.

   Among the many joys of the Drakensberg are the mountain streams, chuckling and brawling in the sunlight over the pewter grey stones, their song a madrigal of quiet contentment and joy. But when a cloudburst strikes like a clenched fist, they become vicious and relentless killers. Watch them!




The End.


           






Acknowledgements
Story and B/W Photos from the book “Dragon’s Wrath” – James Byron/R O Pearse