Are there any suitable long distance multi-day backpacking Camino / pilgrimage trails in South Africa.
I am looking for wilderness trails with tent, not hot meal stop-over huts etc, but trails that will test endurance and ability to survive in wilderness, connecting with yourself. The trail needs to be longer than 10 days, have access to water, and dont need to be booked with expensive reservations. If map of route areas can be obtained even better to plan own camp stop-overs. Any recommendations please?
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Only two come to mind:
- Drakensberg Grand Traverse - @Ghaznavid can give more info on this.
- The Rim of Africa is without a doubt the longest multi-day trail in South Africa.
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The DGT is definitely one of the more wild long hiking routes, but there’s no trail for most of it - so it depends a great deal what you’re looking for. But you can even do a loop from Bushman’s Nek up the Giants Cup Trail to the Sani Road, up to the top and across the top back to Bushman’s Nek - the Drakensberg has practically limitless combinations of long hiking routes one can do with relatively easy access. You could similarly set up almost any route through Lesotho - I know a team once started at Mnweni, up Rockeries Pass and then followed the Senqu River down to Mokhotlong and then caught the local taxi from there to Underberg. 10 days depends on the person - Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel did a DGT in about 42 hours, while most take two weeks. I once did the DGT twice in a row over 16 days - which had the upside of finishing where I started.
Incidentally the word “camino” is Spanish for either path or I walk. E.g. “camino por las montañas” means “I walk through the mountains”, or “camino por el camino” means “I walk along the path”. I’m not entirely sure how camino entered the SA hiking vocab.
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Thanks Jonathan. Will contact you directly to chat more about appropriate routes.
Yes Camino may seem like a strange connotation for something most of us thrive in. Yet it has a familiar dynamic for those who want to be alone and reconnect with themselves, nature, life, and the Devine - hence going on a pilgrimage. Nothing to do with penance, just simply a way some people conquer the inner struggles by spending time alone with their thoughts and sweating, battling out the dragons and overcomming their own inner struggles. I used to take groups on difficult routes with extra baggage (e.g. car tyre) to carry as group team effort, but in reality all to do with being able to go beyond the inner comforts and overcomming the conveniences the ego demands - hense a pilgrimage.