Planning and preparing for the Drakensberg Grand Traverse

How do you plan and prepare for “one of the most difficult hikes in the world”, the Drakensberg Grand Traverse? Omakase is the art of letting go and having an open mind. And planning and preparation seems to be … well … the exact opposite. But it is pretty hard to hike multiple days in the mountains without a clearly marked trail, without resupply stations, … without preparation. Preparation and planning often free up time and opportunity to travel with an open mind. And frankly, it is one of the significant parts of the fun; exploring the option, reading up on the region and its inhabitants … anticipation is a big part of the fun in hiking. So, this is my planning and preparation for the Drakensberg Grand Traverse.

Before we start: the Drakensberg Grand Traverse

If you’ve ever been to South Africa, you know the Drakensberg. Or at least, you’ve seen it. The Drakensberg escarpment stretches for more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from North to South with peaks up to 3,482 meters (Thabana Ntlenyana) and is therefore hard to miss.

The Afrikaans name Drakensberge comes from the name the earliest Dutch settlers gave to the escarpment, namely Drakensbergen, or Dragons’ Mountains. And it isn’t too difficult to imagine why – the spikey peaks resemble the back or teeth of dragons (depending on your personal preference).

The Drakensberg Grand Traverse is the trail that covers the key peaks of Drakensbergen, in the mountainous region between South Africa and Lesotho. 6 peaks, a collection of sheep- and shepherd trails … making it a route of approximately 210 kilometers. Approximately, as the “trail” is a loose collection of unmarked trails, with multiple options to get from peak to peak. That, the fact that the weather is notoriously unpredictable and fast-changing (the only constant is the fast change), and that the area is remote without options to re-supply make it -as some people say- “one of the most difficult trails in the world”.

Step 1: Settle on the idea for the Drakensberg Grand Traverse

To be honest, the Drakensberg Grand Traverse was not my first choice when I was exploring options back in 2024. And not my second. And not even my third. I had my eye set on the Israel National Trail through the Negev desert in Israel. But then the situation in the region pretty much quite literally exploded. My second option, a third attempt on the Jordan Trail, didn’t land that well when I talked it through with my family (because of the regional unrest). And my third option, Egypt’s Sinai trail, was discarded for the same reasons.

So, then I went back to the (virtual) drawing board. In Notion, where I also keep my digitised packing lists, I keep a separate list of different treks, trails, day hikes and destinations I get tipped by others. On the corresponding pages, I keep track of my ideas and planning. Some plannings are already very detailed (e.g. I have pretty much a finished plan for Torres del Paine, I have been planning some longer hikes in Namibia for a while, …), some are just blurbs or thoughts. In this list, I had been keeping some ideas on the Drakensberg Grand Traverse for a while now.

Finally, I settled on the Drakensberg Grand Traverse for several reasons:

• Remoteness. When hiking the Camino Santiago and the Nijmegen Four Days Marches, the Peaks of the Balkans trail in 2023, and more recently, the Routeburn Track in New Zealand, I realized again how much I hate hiking with big groups. My best hiking experiences to date (Arctic Circle Trail in Greenland and Jordan Trail in Jordan) were the ones in more remote areas. Where I would camp alone, where I would be one with nature most of the day, where I would need to rely on my own food rather than over-priced locals. Drakensberg Grand Traverse definitely ticks those boxes.
• Accessibility. It seems contradictory to my previous point, but it is relatively doable to reach the trail. Flying into Johannesburg and a 5h car ride (with the last part being a 4×4) will get you to the trailhead at Sentinel Car Park. I had been considering The Huayhuash Circuit in Peru, but with all my travels and acclimatising to the height, it was just too much. Same for Mongolia (which is still high on my list).
• Safe enough. With safety concerns for Israel, Jordan, Egypt and some countries bordering Russia, plenty of valid options weren’t possible for this year. Although the Drakensberg Grand Traverse and South Africa in general have their own concerns (more on that in a second), it felt “safe enough” to travel with the right preparations.
• Friggin’ beautiful. Just Google Drakensbergen or the Drakensberg Grand Traverse. It is just stunning, otherworldly almost. The terrain for me resembles a bit what I have seen in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. I really can’t wait to wake up with the sunrise over the mountains, camping in the caves, drinking from the streams.
• The challenge. When it comes to trails, I became a bit of a spoilt brat over the years. When hiking things like the Camino Santiago, the flat terrain and trail that makes me think of walking on a highway bores me. I need to at least experience the possibility that I get lost, get stuck in a hail storm or something else. The Drakensberg Grand Traverse definitely offers that. And the sheer act of preparing for this, going over the trail again and again, optimising the packing list, knowing that all that effort pays off, definitely helps.

So, eventually, it made all the sense in the world.

Step 2: Validate my Drakensberg Grand Traverse plans.

I tend to read up on the trail as much as possible. I tend to follow the Instagram tags well in advance to spot other hikers and their experiences and read up on other blogs and forums. In this particular case, the Vertical Endeavour website has proven to be extremely valuable. A forum with years and years of entries on the Drakensberg Grand Traverse and the different areas along the route.

Some key take-aways that were relevant for planning:

• Logistics: With limited time and the need to travel from and to Johannesburg OR Tambo airport to both trailheads, I needed to work out a way to get to the trail, pick up a gas canister somewhere, ideally leave some of my luggage at/near the airport to avoid me bringing it along the way and get back safely.
• Safety: There are some reports of confrontations and theft on the trail, especially in march/april (before the winter season when it seems interesting for thieves to gear up for winter), especially with larger groups and especially around the Giant’s castle and Sani saddle.
• Weather volatility: The weather in the Drakensberg Mountains is notoriously unpredictable. Especially towards December, it gets worse. So that meant not planning too late and making sure to consider this when packing. Which kinda meant that march/april and september/october/november would be the most logical windowns.
• Unpredictability: On a 220-250km mountain trail, pretty much anything can happen. From theft to horrible rains or storms and from injuries to illness. Knowing when/where to exit and what to do when things go wrong was/is essential (also read my post on that).

Step 3: Settle on a date for my Drakensberg Grand Traverse.

As some of you probably are aware, I am quite intentional about the planning of my year. I use my quarterlies to review how I’m doing, if I achieve the right things in the right way and how I feel -for example- about my planning of that year.

When reflecting on 2023, I realised I didn’t like my summer set-up. I had three short holiday breaks, one with my kids, one with my girlfriend, and one for hiking (the Peaks of the Balkans). I felt I had a really fragmented summer in which I was either on holiday, catching up after my holidays or preparing my colleagues for me going on holidays.

So, for 2024, I structured this in a way that felt better. I locked in a holiday with my girlfriend early in the year (South Africa in spring), with kids in summer (London) and that left me with the end-of-year period for my hike. Considering the fact that work restarts after the summer months in September (suboptimal) and December is full of family holidays, it left me with October and November. A last thing to consider was the weather in Drakensbergen, which can be really bad and volatile from December onwards. So eventually I settled on early November. I eventually got ill in 2024 and had to re-adjust my plans, but the time window remained the same.

Step 4: Lock in my Drakensberg Grand Traverse.

As I normally have a 10-day window in which my kids are with my ex, I tried to optimise the time as much as possible. My Air France-KLM loyalty (at the time, almost Platinum for life status) usually dictates my flights. In this case, I found a very convenient option, which would let me leave on Sunday in the evening, arrive in Johannesburg Monday morning around 09h00 and would let me fly back on Tuesday the way after around midnight, to arrive in Amsterdam Wednesday morning around 10h00, so I would be in time to see the kids again. I settled on the window between 19 and 28 October 2025.

Step 5: Create a rough day plan for the Drakensberg Grand Traverse.

Based on the dates available, the booked flights, I started drafting and refining my day planning. Kinda against my own habit, but forced by the unpredictable nature of the trail, I left most of my days rather flexible:

Roughly:

• Day one: travel day; arrive at Johannesburg O.R. Tambo International airport. Pick up last minute items (gas cannisters, food for the day). Leave redundant items at airport hotel. Transfer to Witsiehoek Mountain Lodge. Rest. Eat well. Ask for last local info on the trail, latest development.
• Day two: first hiking day. 06h00-06h45 transfer from the Witsiehoek Mountain Lodge to the Sentinel Car Park. Start the traverse. Scale the chain ladders, see where the trail takes me – ideally approx 25-35km, ideally cross the ridge down to the magnificent Hanging Valleys and stay in one of the caves there. If not, also fine, but don’t drop below 20km. Use this day mainly to assess what is possible in the next days.
• Day three, four, five, six, seven, eight: See what is possible day-per-day. With 7,5 days to finish the trail, I would need to at least make 30-35km per day. Which should be doable. Depending on the terrain for that day.

• Day nine; latest moment to arrive at Bushman’s Neck, travel back home. 13h00 transfer to Pietermaritzburg Airport (already booked beforehand with the same guys that would bring me to Witsiehoek), flight to Johannesburg and than the midnight flight back to Amsterdam.

How it turned out?

Well, have a look at my post.