Tsitsikammma National Park

Otter Trail

In this park, I did a superb hike of 5 days and 4 nights with Anik, whom I have been travelling with for the past few days. Normally, the hike is limited to 12 persons a day. The day we started, we were only two persons.

The Otter Trail follows the shoreline along a path with fantastic scenery. The days (except one) are quite short with only 4 hours of walking. The rest of the day, we did small walks and we swam in the ocean followed by a nice cold shower. Oh yes, there were showers!

Exploration of a small cave on the first day.

Refuges were quite luxurious. I was not expecting such comfort. Moreover, we were only two in a refuge for six persons; we had more than enough space to move about.

Outside shower.

A refuge.

There were a few rivers to cross... The fourth day, we didn't manage to cross the river since the water level was above our head. We wondered how people crossed the river and we understood when we reached the next refuge (the rangers drove us there by going around the river). On the photo below on the right, the hikers of the previous group had some large plastic bags in which to put their backpack. They were then able to swim across the river with their backpack floating with the help of the plastic bag.

The plastic bags used by the previous group.

View just before the refuge on the fourth day.

What an end! The beach at Nature Valley on the last day.

The Suspended Bridges

Back on my own, I went to the section of the park with the suspended bridges. In fact, it is basically at the same place where we started our five days hike.

On top of a hill, there is a magnificent viewpoint on the Storms River mouth.

Storms River mouth.