While visiting South Africa, you’ll possibily not get around the famous Garden Route and probably cross the Tsitsikamma National Park!
Located between the Western & Eastern Cape it offers a diverse vegetation because of the warm streams from the indian ocean. We went through a trail in the jungle, climbed around razorsharp rocks and crossed gorgeous bridges.
Next cities: Plettenberg Bay / Knysna
Entrance Fee: 216R
Highlights: Waterfall Trail / Storms River Bridge
Opening hours: 07:00 – 22:00
How much time to spend: Day trip or Multi Day Hike
We went there by midday in October and came from Knysna. Be prepared for spontaneous rains & storms, it hit us by surprise and we had to flee into the woods to be protected.
Exploring the area of Tsitsikamma
The special thing is that we also got into a jungle with huge & beautiful trees.
Storms River Bridge
Talking of bridges: One of our highlights was the 77m long Storms River Bridge, a Suspension Bridge which loves to wiggle if the wind is shaky enough. You can get there really easily by foot from the Storms River camp. (About 20min) It’s also possible to get on a kayak and paddle through the cliffs!
Hiking
In terms of hiking there are a variety of routes you can do in the national park. Don’t forget to grab some comfortable hiking shoes!
A really famous hike is the otter trail, a 5 day hike aross the coast. We only did the beginning of that which is called „waterfall trail“ which is about 6km long and takes 3 hours to finish it.
The trails got really steep and you had to be careful where to put you foot. Any slip and we would hurt ourselves pretty badly!
After thousands of steps we finally made it to the waterfall! From here there’s only the way back where we came from. So try to be back before the sun goes down. Else it’s getting a bit dangerous!
The Tsitsikamma National Park is a perfect way to spend one or even multiple days (if you’re tough enough for the Otter Trail) and get some nice shots while exploring the coast area of the Garden Route! We really loved the diversity which Tsitsikamma provides and it’s been a lot of fun to hike through the forest/cliffs.
For more about South Africa, follow our South Africa: Hiking Journeys on YouTube
