Five days hike by the Indian Ocean

The crushing waves of the indigo blue Indian Ocean on my left. Fragrant fynbos bushes and dense forest on my right. This amazingly beautiful scenery just blew my mind while I was struggling to climb the 25 odd coastal hills of South Africa's most famous hiking trail, the five day long Otter Trail.

Little did I know when I signed up for this epic hike six months ago, that it was actually more of a climbing trip than a hiking trip. The more I read about it, the more I understood that I had to train to succeed.  And I did train; I hiked, I did bootcamp, I ran, I cycled, and I certainly needed every single muscle in my legs to pull myself up and descend those steep hills with slippery rocks and roots. 

The trip began with an early morning flight to George from O.R. Tambo. A transport then took us to Storms River and after a briefing and weighing our backpacks, we set off into the national park and five days of wilderness. The first day was short, only 6 km, but it was already a struggle with the slippery boulders and our heavy backpacks. My intention was to not exceed 11 kg, but finally it was 14 kg when we set off. When we stumbled over the first night's two huts, we were amazed at the location by the sea, the high quality log huts with clean bunk beds, an outdoor shower and a beautiful covered lapa with braai and firewood. This is something South African's do so well!

The beautiful Blue beach.

Day two was probably the most beautiful day, although the scenery was breathtaking all the time. We hiked quite a bit in the dense forest with glimpses of the blue sea. We saw dolphins, whales and dassies, a small mammal, along the way. A short detour took us to the lovely Blue beach, an amazing beach between the sharp rocks where we could have lazed for longer, but wanted to get to the next hut well ahead of darkness so we didn't stay too long. For dinner we barbequed steaks and veggies. 

Lottering River turned out to be an easy crossing.

On day three we had a very early start in the darkness with headlamps on as we knew we had a few river crossings ahead of us, especially one big, the Lottering River, which we needed to hit during low tide at 8.30. When we finally arrived at the big river crossing, it was not more than a few rocks to hop over, the water was so low, so we stayed on the river banks for a few hours to soak up some sun and enjoy the sandy beach. It was not far to the third night's huts and since we had started the day so early, we had the entire afternoon to chill and enjoy the beautiful scenery, the whales and the famous otters swimming in front of us, as well as each other's company. 

Bloukrans river from above, tide moving in.

Day four however, was the day that we all both dreaded and looked forward to, with the crossing of Bloukrans river. Low tide was at 9.09 and we had 10 km to hike and climb before that, so we agreed to get going at 4.15 in the morning. Bright and early we all lined up with our headlamps and off we went. The moon was almost full and shining nicely to light up the path, but after an hour the clouds moved to cover the moon and it became pitch dark. At times we walked on a narrow path on the cliff side with a sheer drop right down so we had to take care not to step to the side.

When we finally arrived to the river crossing, we saw that the tide was already moving in and that the waves were actually quite big. In a few minutes we had stuffed our clothes in our backpacks, put the pack inside a huge plastic survival bag, closed it up with cable ties, and went off into the water. I kept my bag floating in front of me and jumped up with the waves until I couldn't reach anymore and had to start swimming with the bag in front of me. It was hectic and the waves strong, but I managed to find the right spot on the other side and swam in between the rocks, with only a few bruises on my legs. After securing my bag on the shore, I went to help the others. All of us were not as lucky, some bags started to leak water, some tore on the rocks, so a few had to climb the steep mountain side, which was not the safest way to cross. But we all managed safely over without major injuries. We found a nice pebble beach after our adventure where we stayed to dry up our stuff and make coffee and tea, before the final 4 km to the last night's huts. 



The final day of our hike was longer but with a little bit easier terrain, only a few steep ups and downs but mostly flat walking on top of the hill with sea views all day. A final river crossing and we arrived in Nature's Valley and the end of Otter Trail - wow, we did it! The sense of achievement was huge and the cold beers and burgers for lunch tasted like heaven.  

Nature's Valley beach, almost done (5 km left).

Each camp had two six-bed huts we slept in.

Lapa with braai and firewood for cooking dinner.

The setting of the huts were all amazing by the beach.

Part of my hiking buddies, we were 12 ladies in total, 7 nationalities.

First river crossing.

Five days of meditation with this scenery.

This is were we came up after Bloukrans river crossing.

The otter mark to follow along the route.

My partner Anita and I on the last morning of the hike.

Yes, we did it!

They served me well!

Day six after a good night's sleep in a hotel bed before returning home.

Moving in

Just before our trip to Malawi, we moved house. We still stay in the same area, but have much nicer neighbours. So April and May have been busy with work, end of the school year and settling in. First of May was celebrated at home with family, but soon after we had an impromptu moving in party before the weather turned colder. Today winter has officially begun in South Africa, but it has actually been quite chilly already some weeks. 

More from Malawi

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world. There is not much industry and people live of agriculture and fishing in a very traditional way. Corn, tobacco and tea are important crops but seven years of drought have not made life easy. School classes gather under huge baobab trees and up to one hundred children for one teacher is common. Life expectancy has in fifteen years risen from about 40 years to over 50, according to an article I read.

We arrive in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. Immigration formalities try our patience but finally we are able to enter the country. Our rented car turns out to be a very much used Toyota Corolla, but we comfort ourselves with thinking that spare parts will be widely available in case of problems. The roads are not too bad although potholes have to be avoided all the time, and suspensions are terribly worn out on our Sputnik car. Police stops are frequent, but the police men are always polite and not looking for bribes. Malawi is a safe country to travel in with very little criminality. 

We stay one night in Monkey Bay before heading out to Mumbo Island (see previous post). After wonderful, relaxing days at Mumbo, we drive south to Satemwa tea estate, which is one of the big tea estates in the country. We get huge, colonial rooms in the beautiful, old mansion and are treated to a fancy dinner in the dining room with silver candelabras. After breakfast with local tea and coffee, we drive to the city of Blantyre and jump on the plane back to Johannesburg. Driving home from O.R. Tambo airport, we realise just how much more developed South Africa is from the rest of this continent.