KwaZulu-Natal - A holiday hike in the Drakensberg turned into a nightmare for a Western Cape woman who broke her leg and had to be flown to safety on Monday after spending a harrowing time in the cold and rain.
Elmarie Mackier, a 41-year-old teacher who was part of a group of six hikers, was rescued in a joint operation between the KZN section of the Mountain Club of SA and the South African Air Force’s 15 Squadron, which is based in Durban.
Owing to the bad weather, the rescue, which began on Sunday night, was completed only on Monday morning, when the SAAF officers went back to fly Mackier, the rescue team and the other hikers to safety.
Gavin Raubenheimer, the KZN spokesman for the Mountain Club, said Mackier and the hiking party had been on a five-day hike in a remote and rugged region of the Drakensberg, near Rhodes in the Eastern Cape.
He said the hikers had decided to abandon their hike on Sunday owing to the inclement weather and were walking back to safety when Mackier slipped and broke her leg.
“The day before the accident, they experienced difficulties when they could not cross a swollen river to get to a hut where they were due to spend the night. They slept in the open on Saturday night and then had begun walking back when the woman slipped and broke her leg.”
The group carried Mackier to higher ground, some 2 500m above sea level, where they could get cellphone reception and contacted their hiking co-ordinator.
Raubenheimer said the SAAF and Mountain Club members in the Eastern Cape could not respond owing to the weather and they asked their KZN counterparts for assistance. The club’s rescue team, which included a doctor, flew to the area with the SAAF on Sunday but had to be dropped off some distance from the site.
Steve Cooke, who led the four-man rescue team, said they took more than an hour-and-a-half to fly to the area because of poor visibility.
“The pilot had to do some amazing flying to get us close enough because the weather was bad. We were dropped off at 1 700m above sea level and had to hike another 800m to the spot where the hikers had stopped.”
The team walked for three hours in the dark, cold and wet conditions to get to the hiking party.
Mackier was admitted to St Augustine’s Hospital. Staff declined to comment on her condition.
Meanwhile, a Cape Town correspondent reports that
a family spent the night with rescuers in the Olifantsrivier mountains near the town of Porterville on Friday after becoming lost during a hike.
The hikers, who were staying at a local campsite, had gone for a walk in the foothills of the mountains to admire the area’s waterfalls. Their route was supposed to bring them back to their campsite. But on Friday evening the family of five contacted the Porterville police station to say they were lost. Then their cellphone batteries died.
“They got stuck in the dark,” said Mac Jordaan, owner of Waterval farm, where the family were camping over the Easter weekend.
Jordaan said he and colleagues went looking for the family, believing they probably strayed just a little off the path. When he couldn’t find them, he contacted mountain search and rescue.
Rescuers eventually found three family members early on Saturday some distance from the hiking path. Rescuers set up camp and stayed with them overnight.
Early on Saturday, an Air Mercy Services rescue helicopter picked them up from their camp.
The Mercury