Lotheni Weekend 30 Sept – 2 Oct 2022
Report by Kevin Stoffberg
Alta Keyter, Amy and Daryll Jacobs, Christine Harris, Dave Sclanders, Ed Hohls, Hettie Randall, Kevin Stoffberg, Libby Deysel, Sharon Lennon, Sue van Malsen and Sylvia Varty.
Ed and Sharon arrived on Thursday, a day early, to set up their caravan at the Lotheni camp site, a few hundred metres from Sime’s Cottage, where the rest of us stayed. The ten of us that stayed at Sime’s Cottage, arrived around 12 pm, but headed for Ed and Sharon for lunch and refreshments, while waiting for 2 pm, when we could move into Sime’s.
After lunch, as hikers do, we decided to take a hike. We drove back the way we had come, past the Lotheni office to Cool Pools and from there walked to the Gelib Tree, an acacia tree planted from a seed taken at Gelib in Italian Somaliland. An ambush on the 10th of February 1941 resulted in 13 Carbineers losing their lives near the town of Gelib. Several seeds taken from Gelib were planted at Lotheni in the late 1940’s, in memory of the 13 Carbineers killed at this battle. One grew into this splendid memorial.
The walk was followed by a swim for some of us, at the magnificent Cool Pools, a natural jacuzzi of note with deep pools of flowing water to jump and dive into.
There is nothing better than a swim in clear mountain water after a hike.
While the rest of us disappeared up the hill to the Gelib tree memorial, Libby, with an apparent recent injury and stitches, sat on the marker stone at the turnoff to the Gelib tree, with strict instructions to stay put till we returned.
On our return about an hour later, Libby was showing off her legs to the Lotheni hills and as we were told, a solitary motorist who passed by while we were away.
On Saturday night, after leaving Libby at Sime’s all day, we heard so much about Fritz, a Swiss tourist who had visited Libby, that we wondered if the solitary motorist, who passed Libby the day before at the Gelib tree marker stone, may have had the name of Fritz. We are starting to wonder if there were any stitches at all under that plaster on Libby’s leg.
In all seriousness, we missed Libby on the hike and enjoyed her company immensely on the weekend, as I’m sure Fritz did too.
Back at Sime’s cottage after our Gelib tree hike, we witnessed a herd of around 80 Eland across the Lotheni river on the slopes of the eNdlovini ridge. What a privilege to see so many Eland grazing together in the cool of the afternoon.
That evening at Sime’s cottage, we had a fun filled time, split into 3 teams for a general knowledge quiz and the winners were rewarded with a surprise chocolate. Everyone was a winner
On Saturday we woke to clear skies and fresh air. It wasn’t long before the low-level clouds from the east, had blown in over the valleys and the escarpment was hidden. Nevertheless, it was lovely weather for hiking as we set out on the Emandundwini trail, crossing the Lotheni River and heading upstream on the eastern side of the river.
We passed the herd of Eland at a lower altitude, than where we had seen them the previous evening, but saw a dozen or so of them higher up from our path.
We gradually gained altitude before crossing a tributary and then headed east, away from the Lotheni river, rising steadily to the Taylor Pass junction.
We walked through indigenous forest, boulder hopped over streams and were all relieved when the walking levelled out on top of the eNdlovini ridge plateau. We stopped for lunch under a protea grove before descending steeply back towards the suspension bridge, reaching our vehicles six hours after starting the hike.
On Sunday morning we enjoyed the views at Sime’s over coffee and breakfast, packed up and again parked our cars at the office before hiking to Jacob ladder falls. Of course, as I do, I had a swim, but the water was cold compared to Cool Pool’s. This tributary is in a narrow gorge and obviously doesn’t get much sunshine. We spotted a couple of Eland near the falls which may have well been the ones we spotted on Friday when arriving at Lotheni.
We dragged our heels, enjoying the wilderness, on our walk back to the cars and made our way to Cool Pools for a final swim before saying our goodbyes after a happy weekend spent together.
So, as you may have heard me say, or certainly will hear me say in the future, “that’s enough talking, let’s do some walking!”
The two sides of the Giant
