On top of the world at Bloukrans Hut

I don’t usually bother with showering on hikes when there’s plenty of swimming but some members of our group, Pastor Mark Scholtz and his boys, had fired up the donkey boiler, and I thought I had to try it out.

The pressure was very light but just the dribble of hot water felt like five-star luxury — a reminder once again that less is more.

Besides a built-in fireplace for braaiing in the Bloukrans lapa, there was also a communal gas stove which was a great help for boiling water for coffee and washing up dishes, especially as our own gas stove was running low.

Each hut along the Tsitsikamma Hiking Trail has bunks and mattresses and can accommodate a maximum of 24 people. We had 13 in our group including myself and my two sons and I was feeling a bit leery about this communal aspect. But we couldn’t have had a nicer bunch of people and it was fun for my boys, especially, having others along of the same age.

Night one at Kalander was a tight fit but newly renovated Bloukrans had heaps of extra space which made things easy. It was also interesting to see how the others managed their hike, what they’d remembered to bring which you hadn’t and vice versa.

We had taken condensed milk for our morning coffee, which would have been glorious, but although we had it in a secure-looking little tupperware, it somehow began leaking and had to be jettisoned. 

I was all too happy that my boys had left their phones behind but it is probably a good idea to take at least one per group for photos, to communicate with your shuttle driver from your rendezvous point if you need to, and for emergencies, although signal is limited to only certain spots. Remember to take a power pack as well.

The Tsitsikamma Hiking Trail is managed by forestry company MTO and it begins at SANParks’s De Vasselot rest camp in Nature’s Valley. It winds 62.3km through the mountains and finishes at Storms River Bridge. 

You can do the whole six days and five nights or exit earlier having pre-arranged with a shuttle driver to meet you and drive you back to your car.

We only had time for two nights on the trail so we had parked at De Vasselot and I had arranged with shuttle service operator, Nature’s Valley tourism lodge co-manager and Face Adrenalin Bloukrans Bungee manager Vernon Wagner, to pick us up at lunch time on the third day.

We set out in the late morning from Bloukrans and took two hours to walk out down the jeep track — avoiding the turn onto the path we had ascended by — to a point where the track intersected with the R102.

We learned from Vernon’s colleague Mervyn when he got to us that he had spent the day picking up a number of hikers who had been forced to exit earlier at various points down the trail because of the super-high temperature and humidity.

Doing the Tsitsikamma Hiking Trail in summer does up the ante and arguably it’s best suited for the cooler months. But if you love your mountain pools, then summer’s the best time to go.

If you have young children or less fit people in your group there’s also an option to slack pack where MTO will transport your heavy gear for you between the huts.

To book for the Tsitsikamma Hiking Trail phone 042-2811-712 or 087-158-2110 or email info@mtoecotourism.co.za