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(December 07) The best story really is how this came about. The Otter Trail is so bl**** popular that there is no way of getting a spot (only 12 people allowed on the track each day) unless you book it ONE YEAR in advance. Yes, that's right! When I first heard about the Otter Trail I knew that I just HAD to do it. But that was about 2 months before I left for South Africa (and I was pretty sure I wasn't going to stay for 10 months). So when about 3 weeks before I was due to fly back home I heard that Tsitsikama National Park (the site of the Trail) got closed due to heavy rains my heart made a little but clearly noticeable jump and the flicker of a thought surfaced that was something like "oh maybe there'll be cancellations because of too much water in the rivers and the wimps will be to scared to swim". And guess what! Exactly that! When I called the National Park Office on a Thursday they told me that they were going to re-open the Park on the following Saturday and I could start the Track on that Sunday! WOW!
I even found a survival bag without driving any detours upon my first attempt (one bag left in the shop!!). And lucky me, boy, did we need it!!! There WAS a shit load of water in the streams, creeks and trickles (I'd just generally call them rivers since what - under normal circumstances - would be regarded as a creek or trickle had swollen to the extend that you could only call it a torrent). So first day was an easy one, it started off sunny and the rain held off until I reached the first hut (the other 8 guys that were sharing this trip with me got soaked...poor folks). There was another German couple and a group of 6 locals, mainly from Cape Town and Johannesburg. The other 3 spots were left "unmanned" due to further cancellations. All of us hit it off quite well straight away - that helps if you have to endure tough times...and we were going to!
The second day started off with drizzle and ended with drizzle....there was not much of a dry spot in between but at least being wet anyway made it quite easy to go for that first river
crossing. When I arrived at the site (I was ahead of every one) I was already soaked, and frankly, quite startled: This once used to be a quiet trickle according to a photograph I had seen...and now it resembled a torrential huge body of fast flowing water! Okay, let's be realistic....fast flowing, so fast that I had doubts that I could safely cross it but to my rescue it was only about 10 meters wide; so after assessing the situation for about half an hour and hoping that the others would catch up (which they didn't) I decided to jump in and get it over and done with quickly (since I had become freezing cold by then). I tied the pack up in my survival bag, put the bikini on (my clothes were actually still dry underneath my rain gear) and hopped in. It took me only a few strokes and I got out the other end - quite a distance downstream though...
It wasn't going to be the last crossing of that kind...I was starting to understand why people had canceled!
Anyway, our local friends had actually made the effort to carry can's of beer and since
it really sucks if some drink and some don't they were more than happy to share! Unreal! They had even brought FRESH veggies and tonnes of MEAT (for you non hikers - thing that puzzles me is - that stuff is freaking heavy!!). So even though the going was tough during the day we managed to make up for those hardships every night. And the weather actually meant it well with us too - it stayed dry for the rest of the trip!
So, we were going to face that legendary and super scary crossing of all river crossings in this universe on our 4th day. Everybody had warned us - the rangers at the park entrance, the shopkeepers in Nature's Valley, the receptionist of our hostel, the guy walking his dog, everybody. Apparently people have died there - and that not in small numbers. The night before we were due to tackle that bit, the ranger even came to see us and assess whether we had a sane plan of how and when to do it. When is a crucial question since the crossing is highly affect by the tides. At high tide it is practically impossible to
get to the other shore alive. Even mid tide was going to be tricky with all the extra water. So the ranger kinda talked us out of it - since the only chance to get there for low tide would have meant leaving at 3 am - and we weren't really keen to get up THAT early plus miss all the beautiful scenery??? Not really!!
So we decided to take the chance and try to be there for mid tide. The ranger briefed us in detail and also advised that we would have to take the escape route if we had any doubts - that meant another 6 k's - but the ranger assured us that some ranger would give us a lift for 3 of those extra k's.
Well, we were still quite confident that we could do it AND after all - the whole thing had the air of "if you make it across the Bloukrans" you succeeded but if not, never ever show up again, the embarrassment is going to stick with you for the rest of your life!
We could sense it from far away. Even though we couldn't see much in detail,
we kind of knew that we weren't going to cross when we got the first glances of the river mouth from up top of the cliff. Descending steeply we got closer quickly and it dawned on us that it might have been true what they've all been saying to us: If you want to kill yourself, here's one way of doing it. We even walked down all the way to the shore just to find out that, indeed, the swell was almost as rough as out on the open see. And on top - and that made it really daunting for me - the water was deep black (it actually is brown - permed by some organic matter - but due to the depth of it it appeared jet black. Brrr... ) We sat down for half an hour and kind of hoped that the water might recede. But of course it didn't. If anything, it got worse. So this was mid tide - hm.... I could hardly imagine it to be possible even at low tide - seeing this!
Well, the rest of the story is quickly told, we marched up that mountain again, took the escape route
First night's hut down in the bay
The 2nd day started with drizzle and ended with drizzle... (which was even steeper) got that lift, descended on the other side, and were relieved when we got to the camp. After all, we didn't mind too much that we didn't do it, really:-)
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Stephen Paul
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
finally
Fresh travelblogs from my favorite travelblogger! You always seem to visit the places that make me drool. Looks like this is also a must visit. Awesome pics!! So wild, with forest, rivers, ocean... what more could we ask for? Except an exceptionally dressed lady companion of course- you saved the best for last in the pictures huh? Great Post!