We had a more than expected attendance as follows i.e. Members: Wolf Schneider, Erich and Margrit Brack, Toni and Evie Bowen, Werner Frei, Saartjie van der Merwe, Fred van Berkel, Clive and Sandy Louw, Sanet van Meersbergen, Marianne and Peter Halbsgut, Dave Barnes, Maretha Alant and me plus guests Christa Joubert and Ruth Powel. 18 Hikers, a record for this hike!
The weather was perfect, what more do you want. We parked our vehicles and started from the Nature’s Valley Rest Camp at 09h00. We walked across the Groot River bridge and proceeded along the lagoon towards Kalander Hut. From here we climbed Pig’s Head for our morning coffee/tea break and continued through beautiful fynbos along the start of the Tsitsikamma hike until we reached Kovie settlement. Here we turned east towards the coast on an easy track for about 20 minutes. The track then suddenly ends and becomes an initially densely overgrown path going down, but then followed by an easy track down for 30 minutes. We then found the densely overgrown track leading towards the coast which we reached around lunchtime i.e. 13h30.
Fortunately none of us suffered any injuries on our way towards the coast. The scenery there is impressive and so beautiful and subsequently we had our lunch on the high cliffs above Helpmekaarsmond with great views along the rugged coast to the east.
After lunch we proceeded to Nature’s Valley with magnificent views of the coastline for the following 5 km.
We had to get across the Groot River, which presented no problem at all. Thereafter we proceeded back to Nature’s Valley Rest camp where our vehicles were parked.
Total distance, estimated from GPS is 19 km and we reached our destination around 16h30.
A very satisfactory hike with friends, with sufficient exercise to feel that lovely after-hike feeling.
Hans van Ameyde – meer leader