Many know him already. The “Caveman” Clifford. He is the main attraction in the former “Kaaiman’s Grotto” between Wilderness and Victoria Bay. Abandoned railway tracks run along the coast and through a pitch-black tunnel. On the other side you can already see the cave on the edge of the cliff.

The cave was originally home to a high-class restaurant with about 300 seats until it was buried by a landslide. After that, it has Caveman Clifford who made ​​it his home and tells everybody who wants to hear his story.

While he tells his story, he lines up shells on a string in such an affectionate way you seriously feel as if you only have gross sensory motor skills. All his pieces of “shell art” are hanging in the cave and swinging to the sea breaze. The rest of the decoration Clifford is made up from driftwood, treasures the ozean brought or presents from visitors.

The walk along the Tsitsikamma trail takes six days and leads 60km from the town of Nature’s Valley to the Storms River Bridge and ends in the village Storms River / Paul Sauer Bridge. Almost cut off from civilization, the trail runs through the heart of the beautiful Tsitsikamma mountains, through canyons, over small rivulets but by wider mountain streams. There is only rare cell phone reception and therefore the hike is perfect for getting away from it all and enjoying the beautiful nature of south africa.

We have divided the posts on this blog by our daily routes and today we take you on our hike to the Keurbos hut.

Day 02 Keurbos hut
Bloukrantz – Keurbos hut: 13,4 km, 6 hours

On the third day a relatively short march was laying ahead. With perfect weather we had breakfast overlooking the Tsitsikamma mountains and then shot our obligatory daily group picture.

The first mini stage led us past our private waterfall. (More pictures are to be found in Pt. 2 of the hike) After we passed the waterfall, the trail went through the fynbos and underneath the blazing South African sun we walked steadily uphill and downhill for a few hours.

Protected by the canopy of the Keurbos-forest and accompanied by the chirping of many birds, we crossed a few streams, in order to finally reach our interim target; The Waterwitelsgat basin. From here arises the Bloukrantz river.

We took the opportunity of a small break, swam a little in Waterwitelsgat basin and plundered our lunch packages. BTW: The cover picture of this article was shot underwater in the Waterwitelsgat basin. The light broke on the surface and revealed anamazing underwater play of colors.

The path lead us up along the ridge. The beauty of the fynbos vegetation was immense. Among other beautiful plants we saw numerous Protea plants, the national flower of South Africa.

As we dipped back into the Keurbos forrest, we felt really tiny next to the huge Yellowwood trees. Thanks to allocated signs on various trees and signposts along the way you could gain a good impression of natures great variety in Keurbos forest.

For one and a half hours we hiked on another fynbosplateau after which we dipped back into a forest section. There was a warm and humid climate and it was noticeable that the vegetation of this forest section was a completely different than those of the previous sections we had passed. The trail led us next to thick – mossy tree trunks and past huge ferns. We crossed many rust-colored streams that meandered down the valley from above the mountains. From the towering trees there were vines hanging down and often we had to climb over such fallen giants.

Finally beeing out of Tarzan’s forest, it was not very far to Keurbos hut. Sitting around the fire we had to admid that this stage of the hike was much more exhausting than we originally thought.

The walk along the Tsitsikamma trail takes six days and leads 60km from the town of Nature’s Valley to the Storms River Bridge and ends in the village Storms River / Paul Sauer Bridge. Almost cut off from civilization, the trail runs through the heart of the beautiful Tsitsikamma mountains, through canyons, over small rivulets but by wider mountain streams. There is only rare cell phone reception and therefore the hike is perfect for getting away from it all and enjoying the beautiful nature of south africa.

We have divided the posts on this blog by our daily routes and today we take you on our hike to the Bloukrantz hut.

Day 02 Bloukrantz hut
Kalander – Bloukrantz hut: 17 km +/- 6 hours

We started from the calender hut relatively early in the morning since this day we had one of the longest marches ahead. The official figure of 13.5km is not entirely true. At the end, it was about 17km through the Tsitsikamma mountains on that day 😉

Full motivation we got up in the morning to hike up Duwurmkop mountain. From up there were able to take a breathtaking view of the ocean and the small town Nature’s Valley. As this sight it is also clear hwo this place came to this name.

Once on top of the mountain, the trail turned away from the ocean and it went into the fynbos. Fynbos is derived from the Dutch (“fijnbosch”) and indicates a vegetation with “delicate plants / bushes”.

After we had hiked a few kilometers through the fynbos, the trail disappeared into dense forest. In this we were able to see a huge diversity of trees and plants. Along the trail we even saw some tall yellowwood trees .

From a distance we heard the noise of a waterfall. After some meters opened a great look at the waterfall. Charmed by the sight of the red-colored water (red colored through the roots) we took a little break. Some of us climbed up the rocks a bit, whereby the height of the waterfall was to be realized even better for the others.

After our break at the water basin, the trail turned into a rough gravel road we did not leave until reaching the Bloukrantz hut. From the dirt road, we could see the Bloukrantz bridge, from where you can bungee jump. (highest bungee jump in the world.) Impressive sandstone formations arose along the way. After another exhausting kilometers on the gravel road, we finally reached the Bloukrantz hut which probably has the best view of the Tsitsikamma mountains of the entire trail.

The walk along the Tsitsikamma trail takes six days and leads 60km from the town of Nature’s Valley to the Storms River Bridge and ends in the village Storms River / Paul Sauer Bridge. Almost cut off from civilization, the trail runs through the heart of the beautiful Tsitsikamma mountains, through canyons, over small rivulets but by wider mountain streams. There is only rare cell phone reception and therefore the hike is perfect for getting away from it all and enjoying the beautiful nature of south africa.

We have divided the posts on this blog by our daily routes and today we take you on our hike to the Kalander hut.

Day 01 destination: Kalanders Hut
Nature’s Valley – Kalander hut: 3,6km +/- 1 hour 30 mins

We had 60km trail through the Tsitsikamma National Park in front of us. We were a group of nine people of whom some were really trained others more or less. Before i took off to South Africa, Thys reminded me on a daily basis to train for the “Tsitsi-hike”. Now thats what i did – every day 😉

With preparations made we drove along the Garden Route to the meeting place at the headquarters of the Tsitsikamma National Park. After an introduction to the park and hiking rules we loaded our evening meals and other utensils needed at the huts onto the jeep. (Yes, we were slackpacking) From Nature’s Valley it was a relatively short walk to the first hut. But a very impressing one.

Off you go with some impressions of the first day.

Our Tsitsi challenge: The pefect Tsitsikamma dinner.
We were divided into groups of two and each pair had to cook a meal one evening for the others. We judged the food, the table decoration, the creativity and accompanying show elements.

The Kalander hut is located just behind the dunes. Behind it, the Douwurmkop mountain rises. (You will se some gorgeous pictures from above in the post on the second day hike.)

After we put our stuff in the cabin and the bed situation was clarified (in most of the huts there were triple bunk beds), we headed back to the beach. Some took a swim in the ocean, others enjoyed the beautiful view. While we were drinking gin and tonic from our camping mugs, a school of dolphins swam by in front of us and the sun sank slowly into the ocean. A dreamlike scene.

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