Giants Cup Trail

Battling the Giant

I guess some may wonder what my obsession with the Giants Cup Trail is all about - it is a reasonably easy trail for beginner hikers, slackpackers and the like.

For those who want to get into hiking, or test the waters before deciding if hiking is a sport for them - it is a great place to start. For those with kids, it is a great family outing. But why would someone who has done multiple grand traverses care about a poorly advertised Small Berg trail?

Well, on this occasion, the answer is simple. Hobbit and I lost our target time on our most recent GT due to inability to stay awake while hiking through the night. The only way to get yourself to a point where you can hike through the night is to train for it - and there aren't many places where one can safely hike through the night in KZN, so this had to happen in the mountains. Why not on the escarpment? Well - if things go wrong, the Giants Cup Trail is easier to bail from. It is also a great route, just would be a bit boring for me over 5 days!

So Mike and I set off from Bushman's Nek at 10:17AM - seeing as we would be hiking through the night, a later start shouldn't be an issue (laughing at this logic now). The weather was clear, but hot.

The plan was to establish this as an FKT. There is a single day push race of the GC Trail - but, to the best of my knowledge, it doesn't tag all the huts, so in the spirit of a hutted trial - I don't think the race record is a logical. After all, the detour to Swiman Hut is an extra 2.5km round trip and does form part of the official trail. The rules we had in mind for a double GCT FKT were:
1) Checkpoints: you can start and finish on the Sani Road or Bushman's Nek Office, the 6 checkpoints each way are the 5 huts and the trail sign just past the Sani Road (note that you must actually put your feet on the road itself, the wooden sign is not the start as per the EKZN booklet on the route)
2) The route must be unsupported, with the following adjustment to the normal Berg unsupported rule: trail huts are deemed caves, mattresses in the huts are deemed to be straw on the floor of caves, the taps at the huts are deemed to be rivers, the showers are deemed to be waterfalls, the toilets are deemed to be holes you dug in the ground, and the toilet paper provided in the huts is deemed to be leaves by the side of the trail (provided you don't remove it from the hut). Thus you can sleep in a hut for a power nap, take a hot shower in Pholela Hut etc without it being unsupported. In the spirit of a trailed hut, this seems to make sense.
3) It must be done entirely on foot, no bikes, no lifts on the road section etc.
4) And a fun gimmick rule: you must go at least knee deep in at least one rock pool!


Start line shot

The pain of doing the route S-N is that the biggest hill of the entire route is the start. The detour to Bushman's Nek Hut is also a bit of a pain, adding a few hundred meters and some vertical, since the original trail to the hut cuts through the area now fenced off around the border post.



We soon found ourselves outside Bushman's Nek Hut - checkpoint #1 complete


It was a beautiful clear day, although exceptionally hot.


The top of the first hill provided some really special views - although we were both soaked with sweat already. Not a great sign when you are 6km into a 120km trip!

The trail drops down to the Mzimude River quite gently.


Langalibalele Cave - sleeping in it is prohibited

We ran a bit of the downhill to the Mzimude River


Upon reaching the river, we already had the "at least one rock pool" rule ticked off - not that we needed a rule to tell us to do that!



With the biggest hill of the trip behind us, and a 10 minute swim break, our overall pace had dropped to 4.7km/h, but the hill up towards Swiman Hut is short and easy, and with some jogging on the downhill towards the hut, we were up to 5.1km/h by the hut.

We stopped here for lunch. It had taken 3 hours to cover the 15km - and we were both feeling hot and bothered.



After a 20 minute lunch break, we set off again. S-N day 4 is quite easy, but we knew it would be really tough on the way back - seeing as it has a really substantial hill between the road and Garden Castle Peak.

The trail starts with a gentle uphill, that briefly becomes quite steep.

We saw some buck on the steeper section.



The view from the top of the ridge was quite cool (unlike the weather), although the lighting wasn't right for photos.



This ridge is long and flat, but the grass was quite long, so it wasn't really runnable. Our average pace was still hovering around 4.8km/h, and it was starting to show.

I always forget how long the traverse section on day 4 is. It felt like it would never end!


Eventually we started dropping down Black Eagle Pass. The view up towards the Teapot was quite something:




We arrived at Wintershoek Hut around an hour behind schedule. I had noticed a bit on an annoyance in the back of my knee (ITB), but didn't think much of it.

We had a brief chat with a couple staying at the hut, and had something to eat and drink. By the time we left, our total breaks for the trip had just passed an hour. 27km in, our average was now starting to suffer, but we picked up the pace - taking a few wrong turns around the windmill, before eventually finding the road and starting the early stages of Bamboo Mountain (the hardest ridge in the opposite direction).




Plenty of cloud around, but aside from a few seconds of rain, all was good. As we began the climb up Bamboo Mountain Ridge, the sun was going down.

Because of the Mzimkhulwana Valley being used as a trafficking route, we had hoped to be over the river before dark, but we had started too late or gone too slowly. We were on track to hit the Sani Road around 11PM.

We reached Mzimkhulwana Hut some time after 7PM.


Coming down the hill from Crane Tarn to the river crossing, my knee had gotten quite a bit worse.

We stopped for close to an hour at this hut, eating and drinking quite a bit while we were there.

The climb up to Tortoise Rocks was mostly fine, as we chatted about various topics to help the time pass - time stands still when you hike in the dark!

Coming down from Tortoise Rocks, I could feel that my knee was actually becoming a big issue. We reached Pholela Hut somewhere between 10 and 11PM

We decided that it was best to spend the night here and see how my knee was the next morning. The prospect of a hot shower did also help, although the gas had been switched off - so it ended up being a cold shower.

At 5AM my alarm went off, and trying to straighten my leg, it was soon apparent that our trip was over. Mike was also a bit stiff - but I am reasonably sure that he was telling me this to stop me from feeling bad about having to bail.

We asked around the camp to see if anyone was able to give us a lift. A Himeville farmer named Di offered to drop us at the Bushman's Nek road - this meant that at worst we would have to walk 32km on easier ground. Fortunately it didn't come to that, and within the first 1km of road, a farmer named Chippy gave us a lift right to the border post. @Di and Chippy: if either of you ever read this report, you have no idea how much you helped us, we really appreciate it!

So roughly 24 hours after leaving Bushman's Nek, we were back at my car. I could barely walk, but we were back.

Update: my knee is feeling much better now, although stairs are still sore. I think 2 weeks of no training should restore me to full.

Stats for the trip:
Distance: 47.5km
Total time: 12:08:02
Moving time: 10:22:49
Breaks: 1:55:13
Average moving pace: 4.6km/h
Overall average pace: 3.9km/h
Total ascent: 1758m
Total descent: 1773m

While we did not achieve the goals we set out to do, we were faster in the dark than we have ever been before (also our first time dealing with baboons in the dark). And I guess it was Mike's 4th longest day of hiking, and my 6th longest - we did almost hit ultramarathon length as well, so not the worst effort ever.

Will we take another shot at this? Let's put it this way, if you set yourself goals and always hit them on the first try, then the goals are too easy. If you try something, fail, and never try again - what is the point of setting goals. We have already provisionally set a date for try #2.

My hiking schedule is largely empty between now and Mnweni Marathon, so I should be back to full strength and, based on my pacing on this trip, should be ready for a 10 hour time (down from my previous goal of 9 hours - but based on my fitness this weekend, and my knee, I think 10 hours is more reasonable).

Nice one guys! A great selfie collection in the making also:)

GriffBaker wrote: A great selfie collection in the making also:)

We do collect a sizable collection of mountain selfies (usually summits or checkpoints). Hobbit once observed that I have more photos of him than his parents do - which would seem odd if we hadn't done over 2500km of hiking together!

It seems odd to me that you would develop ITB when you are clearly used to doing a decent amount of mileage.
Have you perhaps changed your shoes recently?

And speaking from experience, 2 weeks of rest won't fix your ITB, you need to do strengthening exercises so your knee is better supported by balanced muscles all around your knee.

Grandeur wrote: It seems odd to me that you would develop ITB when you are clearly used to doing a decent amount of mileage.
Have you perhaps changed your shoes recently?

The irony of me picking up a running injury isn't lost on me - seeing as I don't run. My hiking shoes are more than 500km in, I did just get new work shoes - if that could cause this.

Grandeur wrote: And speaking from experience, 2 weeks of rest won't fix your ITB, you need to do strengthening exercises so your knee is better supported by balanced muscles all around your knee.

Do you a have a link to the types of exercises I should be doing?

ghaznavid wrote: Do you a have a link to the types of exercises I should be doing?

I went to a very good biokineticist who did tests and video analysis and showed me that my knee was collapsing inwards (e.g. right knee collapsing leftwards when I was supporting my weight with my right leg).
Took months of exercising to get it right and literally had to think about every step each time I went down a flight of stairs - I needed to hold my knee straight (hip, knee and 2nd toe must stay in a straight line).

My ITB flaired up due to quads being disproportionately stronger than hamstrings and hamstrings being too tight.
Was also exacerbated by having collapsing arches so high arch insoles in my shoes have saved me since.

Googling ITB prevention exercises and stretches is a good start but these were my specific exercises:


Let me know if you have more questions.
It was the worst thing I ever went through so I'm happy to help someone else avoid it.

Thanks Grandeur, I will give that a shot. Happy to hear it isn't one of those "do nothing for 6 week" injuries.

I bumped into a massage therapist in the line at the shops this evening (random stranger, not sure how we got onto the topic of this, but anyway) - she also said the same thing about having to focus on certain exercises. She also asked if I had an ankle injury on the opposing foot - which I kind of do. Trying to do Langies to car park in under 2 hours last year, I went over on my ankle - it isn't sore unless I take a bad step (and I have done over 600km of Berg hiking since the injury). I had taken a few bad steps on Friday last week, so I am wondering if I didn't adjust my footing technique to prevent issues with my ankle and cause this issue instead.

Yup, gotta agree with Grandeur.

Rest did nothing to help my ITB, exercises are what cured it.

That being said, it is probably best to consult a physio. Quite a few problems can cause ITB symptoms. Mine was an over-worked quad caused by an incorrect stride which was caused by an out of line hip which ultimately was caused by weak butt muscles.

Physio diagnosed the problem, chiro fixed the hip and then weeks of rehab EVERYDAY strengthened the butt muscles to the point where my knee is no longer an issue at all (touch wood). - bonus is my running has improved dramatically since starting the butt strengthening.

I know some really good docs in PMB if you need.

Also, worth checking if it's actually your ITB causing issues. By your "back of the knee" description, it doesn't sound like ITB as that normally causes pain along the side of your knee. I've had back-of-the-knee (i.e. behind the leg) injuries when I was first pushing long fast hikes, so could be a similar thing? Funny enough, that was first picked up on the Garden Castle road just before our first DGT speed attempt in 2006..