Popular Summit Hike
Route: Up Mlambonja Pass, south along the Escarpment to Windy Gap, and down Organ Pipes Pass.
Distance: 38 km, starting at the hotel and ending at the top of Mike's Pass
Duration: 3 or 4 days
Grade: Extreme
General: This is one of the most popular summit hikes in the Drakensberg, but it's not easy. That is to say it's a slog. But what views!
Decisions Decisions
Although the route I describe is the one commonly done, I prefer to do it the other way round: drive to the top of Mike's Pass, climb up the shorter Organ Pipes Pass route, then slip-slide down long and steep Mlambonja Pass and end at the hotel. You can start and end at the hotel by going via Tryme Hill up the Camel Pass, which meets Organ Pipes Pass after a traverse from under Castle Buttress into the Organ Pipes gully.
If you start off up Mlambonja then I suggest taking two days up for a four-day trip. However, by reversing the trip you can do the round-trip in just three as the up trip can be cut by driving up Mike's Pass - but then you either have to have a driver take the car down, or come back up to fetch it later yourself. And don't forget to carry your keys. Decisions, decisions.
High-Level Traverse
Refer to the Mlambonja Pass hike description for the first part of this route. The hike up the pass is 12.5 hard kilometers, and it will take a full day, or two very full half days. Your only real decision here is: one or two. From Twins Cave you have to head across the saddle and traverse up under the lip of the Escarpment to reach the summit, and then proceed south just over the lip.
When doing a high-level traverse it’s often easier to follow the valleys on the Lesotho side of the watershed than repeatedly to climb the lateral ridges. Do this by assessing the lie of the land. Although maps show paths here it's pretty much a case of keeping the big cliffs on your left and following your instincts.
On this hike, presuming you’ve taken two days to reach the summit, I would strongly urge you to hug the Escarpment, only taking short cuts to avoid unnecessary double trips like the hike onto the promontory of Mlambonja Buttress (although it is a fantastic viewpoint). The whole section round the top of Xeni Pass, the convoluted, crinkled rim along Elephant Plume and Cockade then looking down onto the Pyramid and Column peaks, is to my mind one of the highlights of the Drakensberg.
Linger Longer
Instead of trying your best to scoot over to Windy Gap, linger round these parts for it may be some time (years, decades) before you come back to see it again.
Cleft Peak is a bit of a monster, reaching the northern side about 7.5 km from the summit of Mlambonja Pass. What you want to do is to traverse around it on the Lesotho side for about 3 km: from the top of Tseketseke Pass you can go either over the unnamed high point (3 202 m) rising up to the south, or around it to the right.
Once around or over Cleft Peak there is a bit of a mish-mash of paths that cut down diagonally towards and then around the back of Castle Buttress, to the Kakoatsan River and then slightly up to Windy Gap directly behind the summit of Organ Pipes Pass. Just walk up the river towards the Escarpment edge and choose your campsite.
Ndumeni Dome (3 206 m) Cave might look enticing on a map, but I'd give it a miss unless conditions insisted. There are two reasons. First, you have quite a slog up rocky ground, following indistinct cairns up the left-hand side of the dome, to the top of a gully.
The first cave is just over on the left-hand side of the gully, and the second a little further down. Second, these are pretty small caves and alright for one or even two people but others would have to sleep down a low tunnel. But Ndumeni means ‘the place of thunderstorms’ so, who knows, those tunnels might become the best option.
Scramble the Rocky Ridges
From Windy Gap, you head along the Escarpment and steeply down for 250 m, the fluted Organ Pipes rearing up ahead and on right. At a point where the path levels off, there is a choice: either you traverse off around to the left under Castle Buttress for 750 m and down the knife-edge ridge of the Camel, or you carry on down the knife-edge ridge under the Organ Pipes. They both involve some scrambling along rocky ridges, the difference being that the Camel route takes you directly down to the hotel via Tarn or Tryme hills, while the Organ Pipes route takes you past the old lookout to the top of Mike's Pass.
The old lookout is a small timber hut 4.5 km down the ridge, at the bottom of the pass. It was indeed a lookout when the area below was under pine (hard to imagine now), but it can be hired as overnight accommodation. From the lookout an unofficial but well-used short cut heads off down the spur to the left, making directly for the point where the jeep track continuation of Mike's Pass meets the Contour Path jeep track. The official route heads down to the right, to The Nek, then back left along the jeep track for 3.5 km to the head of Mike's Pass continuation track.
Park at Arendsig
I don't know about you, but after tackling the pass the extra 'official' 5 km seems like a lot to ask. From the Contour Path junction it's still 3 km to the gate and car park at the top of Mike's Pass (Arendsig). As the pass itself is over 5 km, you will want to avoid having to walk that too: therefore leaving a car safely parked at Arendsig is a high priority.