Driving between Wilderness and George along the back roads

Last Thursday morning I did a presentation at a tourism stakeholder workshop in the Tsitsikamma and after lunch moved on to George for a weekend exhibit.  Having had some time on my hands I decided to veer off the main road and pick up a few Geocaches along Bo-Langvlei Road, the dirt road running behind the lakes between Sedgefield and Wilderness.  The plan wasn't to do the whole road but only the last section of it starting between Bo-Langvlei and Island Lake.  My plan was just to Geocache and explore a bit so my camera was securely packed away in the boot of the Polo and I was just snapping pics with my phone along the way.  

Turning off the N2 I hit the first stretch of dirt road which was nice and smooth with only a few bumps to negotiate.  The second cache on my list was located at the old Duiwerivier Railway Station.  It's really sad to see how the railway infrastructure along the line has deteriorated over the ten years since it was closed due to flooding.  It's going to take a bit more than just cutting back a few bushes and pulling out some weeds to get the train running along this track again.

Leaving the station I started heading west and the next cache located at the back of Island Lake.  Standing on top of a beacon next to the road the view across the lake was stunning and although I could probably have spent a lot more time there it was time to get moving again.

I passed the Hoekwil Road turnoff and proceeded along Waterside Road at the back of the Serpentine section of the river.  The next stop was at the bridge over the Touw River, one of the only bridges in the country that is shared by both the road and the railway line.  The bridge is located inside the Wilderness National Park with both the Ebb and Flow campsites located to the left and right of it.  While I was searching for the cache under the bridge a number of holiday makers passed by in canoes on the river.  I've still gotta do that.  The beautiful surroundings just reminded me again that Ebb and Flow is still on our list of campsites we want to stay at in future.

At this stage my plans changed slightly and I decided to backtrack a kilometer or two and take the Hoekwil Road.  This tar road took me way up the hill from where I could see the lakes district below, past the community of Hoekwil and onto the Seven Passes Road.  I'm kinda embarrassed to say that I've never driven the Seven Passes Road although I've heard how scenic it was.  The Seven Passes Road is the old road between Knysna and George and traverses, yes you guessed it, seven passes along the way.  The majority of the road was tar with bits of very good dirt road in between.  Along the top between river valleys were mostly open areas with farms while the valleys are covered in pockets of indigenous forest. 

The first pass I drove through led down to the Touw River with an old steel bridge spanning the whiskey brown water that is so typical of the rivers and streams of the Garden Route.

The whiskey coloured Touw River with it's surrounding forest

The second pass took me down to the Silwer River...

... and by now I was well and truly convinced that I had discovered one of the lesser known but truly worth discovering gems of the Garden Route.

The last pass took me down to the Kaaimans River, well known for the pass on the N2 between Wilderness and George as well as the railway bridge spanning the river mouth.  But here I was away from the hustle and bustle rush of the N2.  The sun was about to go under although it was getting dark very quickly at the bottom of the valley.   

I parked just past the old bridge built in 1904 and followed a path down the river for about 50 meters or so towards the last of the caches for the day.  After a bit of a tough search I found what I was looking for with the help of my phone torch and on my way back to the car I just realised again how often Geocaching can take one off the beaten track and to places like this.  Places that you would often not have seen if it wasn't for a cache being located in the area. 

At the top of the pass the road spit me out close to the Saasveld Campus just outside of George with the silhouette of the Outenique Mountains beyond the town as my horizon.  It had been a very interesting and, frankly, relaxing afternoon and in my opinion a much better option that if I had just barreled along the N2 and sat around the guesthouse for the rest of the afternoon waiting to go and get dinner.  All thanks to a few containers forming part of a global treasure hunt game hidden along the way.

A Labyrinth is not a Maze

What is the difference between a maze and a labyrinth.  Although the two terms are basically synonymous, there is a difference.  In this case a maze refers to a complex branching multicursal puzzle with choices of path and direction, while a unicursal labyrinth has only a single path to the center. A labyrinth in this sense has an unambiguous route to the center and back and is not difficult to navigate.

The difference between the two meant the KidZ learned something during our summer holiday in the Overberg region of the Western Cape.  We drove to the town of Napier and I told them that we were going to make a stop to do a cache at a labyrinth.  They wanted to know what a labyrinth was and I told them it was like a maze.  That was where I made the mistake.  They had done the big maze at the Plett Puzzle Park before and in their minds there was going to be something similar.  When we got to The Red Windmill outside Napier and dashed off to go and find the maze only to be met by a "wall-less" labyrinth.  Oh the disappointment.  The ran off to the middle though following the path round and round, kinda defeating the purpose of this labyrinth being one of meditation and contemplation.  They had fun regardless.  While they were following the route to the middle I retrieved the cache from its hiding place and signed the log, adding another smiley to my Geocaching map. 

Shefetswe goes crawling for a cache

I love to road trip, doesn't matter if it is for work or pleasure, solo, with friends or family.  Road tripping takes me to places, allows me to sightsee, discover things, give me photo opportunities and... Geocache.  It's amazing how one can actually plan your whole road trip and all your stops around Geocaching.  It was no different on a recent Cape Town road trip with friends and fellow travel peeps and Geocachers Erenei and Shefetswe.  On the way back we stopped at a picnic spot next to a little waterfall outside Caledon in the Overberg to stretch our legs a bit and to allow Shefetswe to find a cache Erenei and I had done on a previous trip.

While I was having something to snack on and taking a few photos, Erenei and Shefetswe did a bit of mountain climbing towards ground zero. 

Size wasn't on the big guy's side as you have to get right down low to find this container and it was quite funny watching him crawl around.  Yeah, yeah, it's always funny if somebody other than yourself is doing it.  He did come up with the cache successfully shortly after I snapped this last pic. Log signed and it was time for us to hit the road again.

Takazi Waterfall - hidden on the Wild Coast

One of the first things I did when I knew I was getting to explore the Wild Coast a little bit was to check if there will be any Geocaches on the route I was going to follow.  Although there weren't a whole lot I made sure I saved those I would be able to do on my phone before hitting the road.  Driving along the gravel road to Wavecrest Hotel I had a look to see where the closest cache was and to my surprise it showed about 3 km down the road.  A short while later I turned off the main road to my right and followed that road for a kilometer.  I parked next to a stream flowing over the road and hopped out.  From here a path took me around the small gorge that opened up in front of me to a view point from where the Takazi Waterfall was visible.   

The Takazi Waterfall may not be one of the Eastern Cape's big and well known waterfalls, but it still was a sight to behold.  I could also imagine what it must look like after good rains.  My point though is that I would never have known about this waterfall if I wasn't a Geocacher.  There was no sign at the turnoff nor where I parked.  The waterfall isn't even marked on a map.  I would have driven past it barely a kilometer away if there wasn't a Geocache placed there.  A Geocache which, I have to add, I unfortunately couldn't find. But that could be a very good excuse to return some time in the future for another look.  A would love to revisit Wavecrest again anyways.

Coastal hiking at St Francis Bay

The St Francis Bay / Cape St Francis area has a number of hiking options and with such a stunning coastline how can it not?  Most of the walks are shorter hikes and include coastal walks like the Blowhole Walk, Bay to Bay Walk, Shark Point Walk, Wild Side Meander and the Two Harbours Walk.  There are also walks through the Irma Booysen Flower Reserve and up into the dune fields at the Sand River.  If you really want to experience the best hikes the area has to offer then the four day slack packing Chokka Trail is just for you.  We unfortunately only had one full day during our St Francis breakaway weekend so decided on two of the shorter walks.

 

The weather on the Saturday morning was cool which meant perfect conditions for a walk.  Our first walk was along the Blowhole Trail which was a nice and easy 5km return trip.  As we were about the set off from the parking lot at Cape St Francis' Wild Side, another car pulled up and hooted at us.  Turned out to be a couple of Geocachers from Port Elizabeth spending the day doing caches in the area and also on their way to the blowhole to do the cache over there.  Suddenly our little part of four became a party of seven with two Jack Russells.

The trail is a nice and easy one with beautiful views of the rugged coastline and surrounding Fynbos.  On the way we passed the wreck of "The Osprey".  Not that there is much left of this wreck dating back to 1867.  Most of the ship was built of wood which means that it has all but disappeared.  All that remains are a couple of small twisted pieces of metal.  It seemed that the ship just steamed straight into the land with no attempt to stop.  One sailor died in the wreck.  The Captain, Navigation Officer and another Lieutenant were all court-marshalled.

A short distance later we got to ground zero and the geocache (called Blowhole) was quickly found and the log signed by everybody.  But where is the actual blowhole and why couldn't we see it?  We fanned out over the rocks and it wasn't long before one of our party spotted it.  A hole in the rocks connected to an cave underneath.  Problem was out timing sucked and it was low tide. Darn!  At high tide the water washes into the cave and gets forced up through the hole with a bang.  Apparently quite impressive if the sea is quite high... which it obviously wasn't today.  Oh well, we'll have to come back at some other stage to come and experience it.

For our second walk we decided on the one to Shark Point.  The deciding factor?  Another Geocache of cause.  We decided not to make a too long a walk and approached it from a parking spot at the end of St Francis Drive as you come from the St Francis Bay side.  Other spots to start from is Port St Francis or the Cape St Francis side.  We went for the shortest walk we could find which meant about 2 km return.  This time our view was into St Francis Bay itself with the village of St Francis Bay, Paradise Beach and, further away, Jeffreys Bay visible.  The coastline was also slightly different from the rugged coast on the other side with more boulders than actual rocks. 

Shark Point is the second point you find as you come into St Francis Bay from the west.  The main point where you will find the lighthouse is Seal Point and it was this second point that led to the demise of the Genesis, a racing yacht that ran aground here in 1994.  The shattered mid section of the hull can still be seen at the point.  At our turning point we found what we were looking for.  The oldest active Geocache in the Eastern Cape, Port Elizabeth - St Francis, placed in 2001.

St Francis Bay is the perfect destination for somebody who loves the ocean, loves exploring the coastline and loves walking and going on short hikes. Do make a plan to visit and #ExperienceEastCape.