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Summary: Drakensberg Grand Traverse

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Tuesday, 21 September 2010 13:56 Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 September 2010 14:28 Written by Billy van Graan

Name: Drakensberg Grand Traverse
Type: Walking
Distance: +-210km
Countries: South Africa
Date: 1 October 2010
Team: Me my brother Muis and two friends Arno and Loenen

Time for another micro adventure. The Drakensberg Grand Traverse is a hike from the north of the Drakensberg to the sought. Most of the hike is on the escarpment and is +- 210km in distance. To say you have done the Drakensberg Grand Traverse there are some rules. 

Various checkpoints have to be visited along the way. These include:

  • The Chain Ladders
  • Mont-aux-Sources summit (3282m)
  • Cleft Peak summit (3277m)
  • Champagne Castle summit (3377m)
  • Mafadi summit (3451m)
  • Giant’s Castle summit (3314m)
  • Thabana Ntlenyana summit (3482m)
  • Thomathu Pass must be used to descend to Bushman’s Nek


The only other rules are that it needs to be entirely self-supported (i.e. no seconds, food caches or resupplies) and entirely on foot. GPS is allowed.

Below is the route. Thanks Jabberwock for posting this on Wikiloc.com



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Getting married and planning trips

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Friday, 24 July 2009 22:33 Last Updated on Friday, 24 July 2009 22:53 Written by Billy van Graan

Since I came back from China things have been very busy. I’m trying to get as much work done as possible before leaving for my next big trip, but more about that later. The biggest news is that I have asked my girlfriend of nearly eight years, Claudine, to marry me and she has accepted. I am very excited about this as you can imagine.

I’ve also got a new bike, a Bajaj Pulsar 180 DTS-I which I really like and plan to use when I commute closer to my house. I have started the process of getting a human trailer built for my next trip. Ian Cristol from Chairman Industries is helping me with the design and manufacturing. I will post some pictures and details of this human trailer as soon as it is done and then I will also post plans for the trip for which it will get used.

My brother just got hijacked tonight trying to sell his car which he traded for his bike a week ago. His knees and arms are a bit bruised because he hung on to the car as they couple which high jacked them sped off. 2 White people with 2 children took the car for a test drive. The car only has 2 doors and the woman was in the back and said she is going to be sick. My brother got out to let her out and they sped off. There is no insurance on the car since he just got it.

South Africa is a great place to live. If you can handle the crime.
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