Drakensberg’s Mnweni Circuit
17KG, 12 HIKERS, 10 COFFEE RATIONS, THREE NIGHTS, TWO PASSES AND ONE COMMUNITY PROJECT. DO THE MATHS AND IT SUMS UP THE MNWENI CIRCUIT AS THE MOST SPECTACULAR DRAKENSBERG HIKE
This three-day hike may just be the Berg’s most spectacular
Rustle. Hustle. Boil and bubble. My sleeping bag fizzes against the shiny inflated hiking mat as I wrestle internal debate. Do I kip for another five minutes? I can hear others stirring. Or is it time to get stiff muscles moving again? Actually, I don't need to exit my sleeping bag to simultaneously sip a hot cup of coffee and marvel at the Mnweni Valley. Unzipping the sky-blue 2,59kg tent (every milligram counts), I see Iʼm not the only one taking advantage of our scenic perch.
Iʼd just woken up to day three of the Mnweni Circuit, a hike in the northern Drakensberg, that I was doing with 12 others. Someone bolder had already left the safety of Ledges Cave (and their snug sleeping bag) to better soak up the dawnʼs pastel palette.
The tiny stick figure perched on the precipice of an outcrop which bulged off the escarpment like the bow of a gargantuan ship about to sail down the hilly waves of the rippling valley. Still bleary-eyed, I waved at the figure – a fitting ʻAhoy there!ʼ – before settling into the morning routine: exit sleeping bag, roll up mattress, boil more water for oats and a second coffee ration, get dressed, eat and pack. Rustle. Hustle. Boil and bubble.
A Unesco World Heritage Site and transfrontier wilderness, the Maloti-Drakensberg Park encompasses 12 protected areas. Interestingly, Mnweni does not fall into any of these official zones. Sandwiched by the better-known Royal Natal National Park and Cathedral Peak, this hiking trail is managed by the amaNgwane Tribal Authority, traversing land occupied by traditional Zulu communities and smallscale farmers.
Our three-night, 40km trek had begun at the Mnweni Cultural and Hiking Centre where we met our sprightly mountain guide, and founder of PathFinders SA, Michaela Geytenbeek, alongside the centre manager, Leonard Hlatshwayo. He has worked at the non-profit organisation since 2005 and is one of seven staff members directly from the Mnweni community. ʻFunds from the hiking permits also help support the creche and school next door,ʼ Leonard told me. ʻWe have 460 children going to school here.ʼ
With a lopsided smile, Leonard brought out a luggage scale to weigh our bulging backpacks, convincing many of us to recalculate the contents before boarding the Kombi for a lift to the trail start.
We passed thatched huts, goats and gurgling streams, women with laden buckets on their heads, donkeys, dogs and lively children frolicking with friends. Leonard pulled over before a bridge where we disembarked and strapped on our packs, fresh-faced and fully loaded beside the Mnweni River. Clouds hung low, ashen and heavy, so we couldn ʼ t see any of the peaks weʼd soon summit. Probably for the best. The first thing I'd read about the impending hike was: ʻItʼs not to be underestimated and will require a high level of fitness and hiking competencyʼ. Eish.
Fluent in traditional plant and folklore knowledge, local guides and porters can be hired from the Mnweni Cultural and Hiking Centre. However, being a predominantly female group of hikers under the name ʻWomxn for Wildʼ, we wanted a swashbuckling gal to take us into the mountains. ʻThey are not strong enough,ʼ Leonard said when I enquired whether there are any female guides in the community. Heʼd clearly never seen Michaela and her crew on the ridges and ravines.
During the week, Michaela is a Masters student in sustainable development (focusing on integrating nature into the education curriculum). But youʼll find her in the mountains on any given Saturday. She started PathFinders SA in 2017 and qualified as a mountain guide in 2020, specialising in mountain walking. To qualify, Mix, as we called her, had to spend a minimum of 40 days at roughly 3 000 metres leading groups. Sheʼs also run this route as a marathon – twice.
Being a predominantly FEMALE GROUP of hikers under the name ‘Womxn for Wild’, we wanted a SWASHBUCKLING GAL to take us into THE MOUNTAINS
Weʼd barely walked 3km over the emerald slopes (always keeping the Mnweni River in sight and sometimes removing our boots to cross it) when I was already grateful to have a captain. One of our party choked (thankfully just on an awkward squirt of water from the bladder) but, equipped with Level 3 First Aid, Mix promptly jumped to her rescue. Then there were the cattle tracks and myriad paths meandering everywhere – there are no marked trails in Mnweni.
Just 10km into our hike a storm stirred the sky and Chichi Bushcamp, our overnight abode, was still a good 5km further on. No matter, Mix shepherded us to another scenic campsite wedged between the Rwanqua and Mnweni streams. We snapped our tents up in a hurry and had barely battened the hatches before a hailstorm erupted. Oh the joys of walking on the Berg in the height of summer!
Mnweni means ʻthe place of fingersʼ in isiZulu and refers to the pointed rock spires that shoot into the heavens. The next morning, we finally saw them in clearer weather. Our target for day two was roughly 8km, but with a daunting altitude gain of 1 095 metres. I put my head down and willed my legs up the Mnweni Pass. And up. And up... and up the seemingly insurmountable mountain. The trail was loose and steep, and we had to scramble on all fours sometimes. I felt a swell of relief for hiking poles and their aiding stability. Iʼd often stop to catch my breath and try to distinguish the ant-like hikers trudging below. It was hard to grasp the hallmarks of a 1km ascent but my iPhone health app broke it down into identifiable terms later – 141 gruelling floors.
Iʼve never savoured lunch more than atop Mnweni Pass. Wildflowers flickered in the wind all around us and I smugly admired the tower weʼd just conquered between chews. Later, we filled our water bottles from one of the sources of the Orange River on the plateau top and sipped our way to nearby Ledges Cave, smack on the border of Lesotho and South Africa. Access to the spectacular overhang required a rather hairy descent, but we all revelled in the setting once safely in the cave.
With a relaxed afternoon to spare, we got to know each other better. In 2018, I had won a competition to work remotely from Sicily with digital nomad company Find Your Pack. While I was there in Palermo, I made two excellent South African friends who now sat beside me. Carmen van der Westhuizen is the co-founder of our joint (ad)venture Womxn for Wild, and Lauren Melnick is an equally avid traveller and blogger for Wanderlust Movement.
Since Italy, we'd explored Cape Town together and driven to a music festival in the Okavango Delta. The decision to tackle this specific hiking route was made on Instagram. When presented with hiking options, my (incredibly valid) concerns on trail difficulty were vetoed by Lauren and Carmen thanks to dramatic pictures of Mnweni theyʼd seen while scrolling, most of them snapped by Mixʼs friend, and our new trail companion, Graeme Holliday.
Our entire group of (majority millennial) hikers had landed on this journey together via social media. Dineo Zonke Maduna joined us from Nelspruit, Jina Min came from Joburg and Lauren Holland drove north from Howick. These days many trips and adventures are booked purely to post on the ʼGram, and it can undoubtedly be a toxic platform. Only very rarely does digital networking really foster such authentic connections. Maybe Iʼm just one of the lucky ones.
The Mnweni Circuit is not an easy trail. There were tears. There were welts. There was sunburn and burst water bladders. But I couldnʼt have braved it with a better crew – who captured the pertinent moments. Dineo filmed herself weeping while walking down Rockeries Pass on day three, Carmen posted snaps of blisters nursed by cold beers, while I tried to share the realities of facing a hail storm while smooshed into the tiny skyblue tent with all our gear.
Three years ago, I didnʼt know any of these people and this hike wasnʼt on my radar at all. A literal neverland. Now I count 11 new, very intrepid, friends. Isnʼtit ironic that an online platform got us into the wild without a speck of Wi-Fi for kilometres? Itʼs all about balancing screen time with green time, I guess.
flickered in the wind all around us and I smugly admired the TOWER WE’D JUST CONQUERED
APRIL 2021 • GETAWAY.CO.ZA