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Bundi! what an excellent trail, report and pics!
Sounded amazing and I can see why you are so keen to do another.
Thanks so much for sharing it with us!

Bundi, great trip report!
Would you have space for me on your 1 May trail next year? I am also serious

Hi Josh

Off coarse I have space and can PM you if you want.

I have booked the Mphongolo backpack Trail for 27 - 30 March 2013 Can't wait to walk it again, backpacking is the most magical way to experience Kruger!!!!

I am however wondering what is gonna happen to the usual departure of the Backpack trail since the trashing floods of January 2013?! I'm sure the veld will be walkable by then, however the point of departure is Shingwedzi.... and it seems one of my most favourite camps (Shingwedzi) has been hit the worst.... Is SANParks going to change the point of departure for this walk, or will they first assess the damage and make recommedations from there??

REALLY hope the walk is still happening!! Maybe somebody informed can help a brother out?

I spoke to Sanparks this morning,because we have a booking for this trail in September and according to them Shingwedzi will be closed the whole year and our trail will be cancelled.

I then called a friend or two in Kruger, who is connected to the trails, who said the most likely thing to happen is that they would probably move the departure point to Mopani.

It is wait and see I suppose.

Dear All,

Please take note, that the backpack trails (Mphongolo, Lonely Bull and Olifants) will still proceed.

For the Mphongolo Backpack Trail the departure point will be changing and whoever is booked on the trail will be notified.
.

Regards,

Hey Lourens

That is awesome news, thanks! would love to know where the new pickup point is, and would suppose it would be Mopanie or something....

Glad the trails are still going ahead. Surely we should see some changes from the floods!

Thanks man

Thank you for the news Lourens.

I have spoken with a trial guide (name not important) who confirmed the trial departure will be from Mopanie Camp. This makes sense, since Shingwedzi was flooded and is closed. Mopanie has all the parking and other facilities, and is not far from Shingwedzi.

Can't wait for our trip to commence

I miss the reports that the trails guides used to post here ...

Traditional Aboriginal Australians have developed, and are bound by, a highly complex belief systems that interconnects the land, spirituality, law, social life and care of the environment. They share a common belief in the creation or “Dreaming”.

The creation myths tell of legendary totemic beings who wander across the continent during the Dreamtime, singing out the name of everything that crossed their path – birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes – and so singing the world into existence.
Many of the Dreamtime stories are presented as elaborate song cycles (Songlines). They provide the Aboriginal with a map, recording details of the landscape and expressing the relationship between the land and their people. Listening to the song of the land is the same as navigating along the Songline and observing the land as you walk. A knowledgeable person is able to navigate across the land by repeating the words of the song, which describe the location of landmarks, waterholes and other natural phenomena. The Songlines combine to form a labyrinth of invisible pathways which meander all over Australia. By singing the songs in the appropriate sequence, indigenous people could navigate vast distances, often travelling through the deserts of Australia’s interior.
In some cases, a Songline has a particular direction and walking the wrong way along a Songline may be sacrilegious (e.g. climbing up Uluru where the correct direction is down). Some Songlines even span the lands of several different language groups. However, language is not a barrier to the Songline, because the melodic contour of the song describes the nature of the land over which the song passes. The rhythm is what is crucial to understand the song.

“The ancestor is responsible for the law and country, a responsibility which is carried by the traditional owner of the song today. The owner of the song is responsible for the country and particular sacred places, and when the song travels over these sacred places it is sung by the traditional owner of song or country”.
- Wardaman Elder, 2009

The stories and Songlines encompass law, culture and spirituality to ensure the continuity of all living things. Traditional Aboriginal people regard all land as sacred and according to tradition these songs must be continually sung to keep the land “alive”.

I can draw a parallel between the Traditional Aboriginal Australian's responsibility and that of the Wilderness guide. Dreamtime is our journey of realisation, discovery and understanding of Wilderness. Collectively the guides contribute to Wilderness Dreamtime by exploring the Wilderness concept on trail and discussing it amongst each other. It allows us to revisit and share our Dreamtime and develop our own Songline.

Think of the Wilderness guide’s Songline as his Wilderness and conservation message. Our personal definitions and feeling of Wilderness and the ways in which we facilitate the Wilderness experience on trail will differ. Perhaps this can be compared to the different languages the Songline transcends. As long as the rhythm of our song (our Wilderness message) is the same, we must surely still be on the right track.

But where have all the trailists gone, are they now perhaps singing a silicon song?

The human race largely is indeed out of tune with the wilderness , we sing silicon songs , we dream silicon dreams ....



Brenden , is there a scarcity of Mphongholo trailists ... ?

I am afraid we have a scarcity of trailists on all backpack and most wilderness trails. The reason(s) still elude many of us.

Brenden, the most obvious reason is cost. It is becoming too expensive, as is accommodation!

I agree with Oryx , I just cannot any longer justify spending R4000 on the traditional wilderness trails , where one runs the chance of having your experience ruined by egotists who cannot shut up while walking , talking incessantly about "silicon" related matters at snack breaks which I try to block out while listening to the music of the wind in the grass or the sound of an elephant breaking a branch ....

Brenden . are you referring to a scarcity of "genuine / purist " wilderness trailists who understand the concept of the wilderness , or trailists in general ?
Are you permitted to quote the actuall occupancy rate of the backpack trails ?