Drakensberg South Africa Day 3 - Langalibalele Pass to Giant's Hut 9 May 2012.

Drakensberg South Africa - Day 3
Langalibalele Pass to Giant's Hut
Distance 14km
Wednesday 9th May 2012

Our team settled into a routine. Fatha and Woody would get up first and put some water on.  Closely followed by Lyle, I was the next to get up and would like to think it was still quite early but I think it was really some time later.  Tim was next up followed by Itchy and Steely.  What a great set of lads.

Despite the height it was quite warm in our tents during the night.  We usually found ourselves in our sleeping bags not long after it got dark at 18.00 hrs.  I found this sometimes would lead to a restless night, and I think most of the lads found this as well.  One of the things I found was that I can honestly say I felt as though I hardly slept.  Lyle disagreed and said I snored all night.

After breakfast and packing our kit, Tim gave us a few more tips on navigating before we set off again.

From the top of Langalibalele Pass we walked East down the pass which was a sharp steep slope.  Near the bottom we collected water from the stream before taking a track across country then turned South (right) onto the Contour Path. 

View down Langalibalele Pass

Itchy and Woody posing at a stream

Steely, Tim, Lyle and Fatha scratching

Tim, Lyle, Itchy, Woody and Steely a short rest after arriving on the contour path

Fatha at the Contour Path looking South

Look for the Countour Path

Just as we were approaching the Contour Path Fatha spotted some wild life.  It was fantastic. 

Real Wild life

The Contour Path which in parts was very up and down in and out of stream re-entrants, took a little longer to travel than we first thought.  Lots of the heights and gully's did not break the contours shown on the map.  We turned right further along the Contour Path passed the Giant’s Ridge Path towards the Giant’s Hut. 

Just before the Giant’s Hut came into sight it started to rain, thunder was again booming around the area.  With the rain and the hut coming into sight it became a race to get into cover.  The surprise was that the hut no longer had a roof.  In a magazine I had borrowed from my friend Ron who was a work colleague at the time of the trip, I had seen a picture of the Giant's Hut it was shown with a straw roof and in the picture, nearby there was a lake full of water.  I have copied the picture at the bottom of my blog, you will see from the picture it looked stunning. Today although the views and countryside were still stunning the hut and lake did not match the picture.  The hut had been damaged in a lightening strike and the lake was now dried up. 

Giant's Hut

As there was no roof on the hut we just set up our tents.

Dried up lake

Itchy, Woody, Steely, Fatha, Lyle preparing food

As we were preparing the evening meal it started to come in a lot colder than it had been over the last couple of days.  Steely was brilliant, he knew exactly what to do to repair one of the stoves we had had a problem with.  

From information I have seen following our walk I have read that the damage to the Giants Hut was due to a storm of thunder and lightening in 2007.  The lightening caused a fire to the straw roof and had not been repaired or replaced.  

Picture of Giant's Hut from a 1994 magazine

The top of Langalibalele Pass 2921m to Giant’s Hut 2293m.  Approx 600m of descent with approx 14km walking.

More to follow


Boz North
Details correct at time of walking.

If you have enjoyed reading my walk or found it useful you may also like to read other walks I have done in South Africa or other areas. Please check out the links on the right hand side.

Follow link to previous - Day 2 Bannerman's Hut to Langalibalele Pass
Follow link to next - Day 4 Giant's Hut to Giant's Castle Main Camp