Giants Cup Trail

Myself and a few friends are booked in for the Giant’s cup trail in about a week’s time.

We have heard that some of the huts are in quite bad order, with no running water, missing mattresses etc.
Has anyone done this hike recently, or know of someone who has that can pass comment on the state of the huts and trail in general?

Thanks in advance.

Night 1: Pholela Hut has mattresses, hot water and electricity
Night 2: Mzimkhulwana Hut has no mattresses, only cold water and no electricity
Night 3: Wintershoek Hut has mattresses, but they are locked in one of the rooms (make sure you get the lock combination). Only cold water.
Night 4: Swiman Hut has mattresses, and water. The electricity and hot water have been unreliable over the last few years.
Night 5 - which you probably won’t use: Bushman’s Nek Hut has mattresses and cold water. Same combination for the lock as night 3.

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Thank you, Very much appreciated, I will remember to get the combination code!

We have just completed the Giants cup, and for anyone else reading this thread:

I can confirm:
Night 1: Pholela Hut has mattresses, hot water and electricity
Night 2: Mzimkhulwana Hut has no mattresses, only cold water and no electricity
Night 3: Wintershoek Hut has mattresses, rooms are locked with combination locks
Night 4: Swiman Hut has mattresses, electricity and hot water

All the huts are in reasonable order, and are clean and well looked after.

Really a great hike!

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Nice, well done! It is an awesome route - definitely deserves more use than it gets.

For those who haven’t done it - R120 pppn for the huts. Park your car at the end and get Underberg Express to take you to the start - for a group of 5+ they usually charge about R250 per person. So for about R750 you can do a 5 day hutted trail on a really scenic route. Not many places on earth where you can get that for R750 per person!

I have done it 5 times, ranging from 16 hours to 5 days.

One of my writeups is at:

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I am updating this post, and add some new points which would have been helpful if I had known before, as of May 2021.

  • Throughout the trail, the marks (white footprints) were a bit faded, except in some stretches where they were new, it seems. But still, well marked, and hard to miss. I didn’t see any footprints with numbers supposed to indicate distance after every km on them, as the trail information says.
  • 98% of the time it was fine with markings. a couple times there were forks, but checking paper map was enough to determine where to go.
  • All days have steep (or not) climbing up in the beginning, and then it’s mostly flat and then climbing down to get to the next hut. Except Day 5 where there were no climbing up in the beginning, but some climbs after a river crossing.
  • About huts (didn’t pass through Bushman’s Nek, so skipping that one) :

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Fantastic feedback! Thanks @hiking_around

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