Today, again, the weather was awful. As I ate my breakfast I could see the clouds rolling in over the mountains and as I stepped out to the car it started to rain. I thought South Africa was supposed to have better weather than the UK but it seems we are on an even keel.
I drove to Tsitsikamma National Park and when I got to the bottom of the long winding road both car parks were packed and both the restaurant and shop was full. Obviously a popular destination! I decided to do the walk across the suspension bridge over Storms River mouth, first although the route was extremely crowded. I have to admit that on a nice day the view of the rocks, the gorge and the sea must look stunning. On the other side of the suspension bridge I took the hike route up to “View Point” which was hard going but it was worth all the delayering and sweat. The decline back down was worse than the climb up though. I took the second suspension bridge round the cliff face and spotted a load of activity in the crags of the cliffs. A herd of hyraxes were running around in and out of the crevices. I had never seen one in the wild before until today. They are very cool little creatures.
It was another tough climb after the second bridge but I felt a lot better for the exercise so decided to do the start of the famous “Otter Trail” to the waterfall. The hike was supposed to be a three hour round trip but was a lot more difficult because of the wind and rain. I had to climb over huge boulders and broken rock faces on the beach at times. The sea was a bit rough because of the weather and after a while it did get a bit scary so I turned back after an hour but it was probably a sensible thing to do. On the way back to the car though I nearly walked into a bushbuck on the pathway. Completely undeterred by me it just carried on walking in front until it found a spot to graze on. It was amazing to be so close.
It was about half four before I started to drive on to Knysna. I stopped at Plettenberg Bay to have a look. Although the beach looked lovely the weather didn’t do it justice so I carried on but again, there were lots of matric students milling around. The place I have found in Knysna, Lagoon Lodge, is only R300 a night. It’s fairly small, but clean. The only annoying thing is the sound of the N2.
The Storms River Mouth Suspension Bridge.
The view up at "View Point".
The herd of hyraxes.
The shore along the start of the "Otter Trail".
These one of the obstacles I had to climb over.
The bushbuck.
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