The Otter Trail

Many people would consider the highlight of any trip along the Garden Route to be a visit to the long stretch of coastal forest and marine preserve that forms Tsitsikamma National Park. The villages of Storm's River and Nature's Valley sit like sentinels at either end of the park. Storm's River is famous for bungy jumps and a roaring canyon while Nature's Valley (seen below) is a a very peaceful tourist enclave nestled into the forest, sandwiched between the ocean and a large lagoon. The fresh air, tranquility and quaint wooden homes reminded us of the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. Prior to our trip to the Otter Trail we stayed at a place called Hiker's Haven. It's a family home that gets rented out part of the year to help pay the bills. Nearly all of the houses in Nature's Valley are guesthouses of some sort. People told us that they come every year - that it is one of the few places in South Africa where they feel that they can let their kids play more or less unsupervised. Indeed, Jacques (one of the owners) told us that they hadn't locked the doors during twenty years of living there. The doors to the rooms are traditional Dutch - split into a lower and upper half. The upper half is usually left wide open to allow air to circulate but does little to prevent a rogue baboon from making the rounds every few days and stealing all of the sugar, coffee and anything else available on a complimentary tea and food tray. The owners get mad but don't solve the problem, continuing to leave the doors open! I guess old habits are hard to break.

The Otter Trail is unidirectional so it's necessary to get a shuttle to drive the thirty minutes to Storm's River. The entire area is quite spectacular - never a dull view!

The Otter Trail is about a 42 kilometer hike - not very far but with little flat terrain - lots of climbs up and down. The clawless cape otter inhabits the area although there are only 33 in total in the waters throughout the park that empty into the ocean. You have to be pretty lucky to see one. Prior to beginning the hike we were required to watch a 53 minute long video that inspired and frightened us. There are only fixed stopping points (huts) along the trail and you have to time your river crossings with low tide. When somebody tells you that you may have to hike some sections in the dark where there are leopards, potentially dangerous wild pigs and other beasts, it gets your attention. The video also showed a group of four that barely crossed the Bloukrans River without drowning - a harrowing experience that I suppose was meant as a warning to those who didn't take the river crossings too seriously.

The views along the trail are simply gorgeous. The surf churns, foams and crashes relentlessly

upon huge formations of striated rock that seems to have been turned onto its side and pushed upward. In many places the dark rock appears like the leaves of a burnt book.

Most of the days we hiked for hours without encountering another soul. Relaxing over a snack, a slurp, and some leisurely conversation we soaked up the views and appreciated the moment as we looked upon the southern coast of Africa and outwards towards the bottom of Earth.

There are countless caves to explore along the way...

and plenty of waterfalls that tumble over the sides of the cliffs.
The water in the rivers were a welcome relief from the heat. The brown colouration is tannin, a nature pigment from dissolved vegetation. The water is pure and fit to drink. Large pinnacles of rock provide fantastic vistas along the coast...

and are sometimes the homes of a cute little species of rodent-like animal called the rock dassie. The locals don't pay them much respect but we found them to be quite curious and cute. They are also the closest living relative, believe it or not, of the elephant. They have two teeth that look like incisors that are actually remnants of tusks!

Surprisingly, very little of the hike actually takes place a long the beach itself. There were only a few sandy spots at river mouths to provide some relief for our muscles.

South African Parks seem to have very high quality facilities that are cared for well. Only twelve people are permitted on each leg of the trail per day. There are two cabins at each rest spot, each sleeping six people. We were fortunate that five people had cancelled their reservation. A group of five South Africans took one hut each night and we had the other all to ourselves. Each of the spots provided spectacular views.

We witnessed dolphins breaching and some pretty exotic species of birds but most of the wildlife that we saw along the trail was a variety of sea birds like cormorants and oyster catchers. Our most constant companions were large (4-5 inch) colourful grasshoppers that seemed to be everywhere. They tried to avoid us for the most part but Nancy did get quite anxious when she found one of these "babies" as well as "mom" (even larger) crawling along her arm! Needless to say we observed many spectacular varieties of wild flower that we had never previously encountered. The most unique species was one that was growing near the station near the entrance to the gateway to the park. The rivers that we had to cross became increasingly difficult. Two in particular seemed rather impossible to contemplate at mid or high tide. Strong tides met the flowing rivers in a pretty impressive two-punch made even more intimidating by the high rocky cliffs on either shore.

Our fellow hikers had something called a survival bag into which they could pack their knapsack and all other gear. The idea is to tie all of the bags together with rope, wait for low tide, then swim to the slip of a landing on the far shore. Its recommended that at least person in your group is a strong swimmer. If you can't swim you simply hang on for dear life. The South Africans (currently living in Pretoria and Swaziland) told us all kinds of interesting stories about natural dangers (snakes) as well as human (crime) from South Africa and further afield. Perhaps the strangest (which they swear is true) comes from a hospital in Swaziland. The hospital officials noticed that someone was dieing every Friday in the intensive care unit. Upon investigation they discovered that Friday was the day in which the room was fully cleaned. An employee was pulling the plug out of the life support system to plug in a vacuum! Perhaps they were pulling our leg but we have read lots of strange stories in the news during the past month.

Fortunately, we were able to find a spot that we could cross where the water was at most the height of our ribs...some distance from the beach head. We then managed to scramble up and over some of the rocks. No photo of that - we were far too busy! Here's a shot of Nancy crossing the Lottering River at low tide. It does look like much...but we didn't think that we were going to be able to do it when we looked down from the cliffs some hours before! We finished the Otter Trail in good spirits and not too much discomfort. The tradition for hikers is to head immediately to the only local restaurant where you have the option of leaving one or both of your worn-out boots in the tree located within the courtyard.

The closest that we got to experiencing a clawless otter was when Nancy took the plunge and followed another custom: drinking a shot called an otter's a--hole. It tastes like a combination of cough syrup and mustard.

Thanks for taking the time to read the blog. We hope that all friends, family and colleagues are well and looking forward to the arrival of spring in the Great White North.