Durban - For the April school holidays, pupils from Treverton College in the KZN Midlands are putting on their hiking boots and attempting a Grand Traverse of the Drakensberg.
This follows last year’s hike, where pupils Jarred van Alphen and Kai Broom were the first school team to complete the arduous hike, finishing the traverse in 10 days. This year, two school girls will join the 10-person team. Karijn Kooy and Georgie Thompson are both matric pupils with a number of years of experience in the Drakensberg.
The team will start the hike today (Sat) and aim to complete it in 15 days on April 8. In addition to Kooy and Thompson, it consists of three school boys, Alexander and Konstantino Giokos and Daniel Jonck, along with headmaster Kean Broom, staff Derek Brown, Chanelle Oosthuizen and Shaun Robertson, and cameraman Ethan Lundy.
The Drakensberg Grand Traverse is the highest, hardest, and longest hike in South Africa, stretching 250km of the escarpment from the Sentinal Car Park in the North (near Harrismith) to Bushman’s Nek in the South (near Underberg). Hikers climb over 11 000 vertical meters, ascending as high as 3 480m above sea level and sometimes descending below 3 000m. The team will summit the five highest peaks along the way: Mont-aux-Sources (3 281m), Champagne Castle (3 377m), Mafadi (3 450m), Giants Castle (3 319m) and Thabana Ntlenyana (3 489m).
Having enough food for 15 days is a challenge and necessitates two “food drops”. The first will be hiked up the Organ Pipes Pass by a separate team of Treverton College hikers on Day 5. The second will be driven up to the Sani Pass Pub on Day 12, where the team look forward to having a hot meal.
This year, van Alphen and Kai Broom are not part of the hike but are undertaking a separate 100km run of the Northern Traverse with experienced trail runner Pierre Jordaan. Carrying their supplies, they hope to achieve the run within 30 hours, starting at 5am on March 27.
You can follow the main hiking team’s progress at: https://maps.findmespot.com/s/GM5H
The Independent on Saturday