We decided to do a short weekend hike in the Mpumalanga area at a hiking trail called Queen Rose. Excellent facilities at the start/base camp, the cleanest, modern and facility rich base camp I ever stayed in! The over night camp, practically still brand new, was also excellent. The base camp has electricity, hot water and excellent dorms. The over night camp has solar power and gas geysers for a nice long shower after a long day one hike!
That said, the day one hike was epic, climbing a little hill at the start and then just descending for kilometers. Noting the about 1000 step stairway, and absolutely amazing valley/gorge views as you descent to the basin. Then from there it is a few km’s of hiking next to the river with some interesting rock climbs/clambering. Fortunately for us, day one was without rain, as I wouldn’t like to have hiked down with muddy trails, as it would make a bit dangerous.
As mentioned, the over night camp was neat, secure and showers and toilets top notch. Never, as a hiker did I stay in such nice hiking huts!
The next morning, as the saying goes: “what goes down, must go up”, and boy, it starts rather easy, then its just one massive climb. Unfortunately for us, it starting hammering down with rain, making the trail treacherous. Then to top it off, since we are in the mountains, we had serious lightning! One of the things I liked about the camp staff is that they issued each team of hikers a two way radio in case of emergencies. We had to call in at the arrival and departure of the over night camp so that the camp staff had an idea you have arrived safely and departed as such. We where about halve way when the camp manager radioed us and told it was too dangerous to continue, and he met us with a 4×4 to take us back to base camp.
Slightly relieved and partially disappointed, we left the beautiful trail to get a nice warm shower at the base camp. Needless to say, all of us where drenched with the heavy rains. All in all, what a great trail!
P.S: A little while after our hike, the trail closed. A great loss to the hiking community!