South Africa 2023

Friday3November

Two hours drive after leaving Port Elizabeth, we arrive at the Storms River Mouth Restcamp where we set up our canvas home facing the sea. On this side of the campsite, we are spoiled for choice, all pitches are free. On the other side, there are a few motorhomes and caravans.

Quickly, we make two new friends...

The kelp gull (Larus dominicanus) and its red eye ring, sign of good health.

Short coastal walk starting directly from the campsite. We are already in the Tsitsikamma Natural Park.

Tsitsikamma is a narrow strip about 70 km long and 5 km wide between forest and rocky beaches overlooking the Indian Ocean.

The geological formations are visible to the naked eye. They are the results of millions of years of folding and erosion.

Scrambling between rocks and footbridges to go from cove to cove.

The "Guano cave", the guano cave...  

The walk ends where the Jerling river also ends its course by flowing into the ocean.

And hop, U-turn, back home by the same way!

Barbecue facing the ocean!  

Saturday4November

Sunny awakening. No one came to settle during the night.  

For this morning, a little physical exercise on the program. We are going to explore the surrounding woods by taking a little altitude because we will move by zip line from tree to tree.

And here we go for the harnessing of the small group.

We will be accompanied by five other cronies from Johannesburg! They are friends and their average age is 80!  

A small truck takes us to the starting point.

Let's go for an hour of aerial hiking. The "Tsitsikamma Canopy Tours" team will film everything with their small camera...

The zip lines are about thirty meters high.

Thumbs up for the octogenarians!  

End of the course, return on foot to the truck!

And here is the short summary video made by the Canopy tour team.

We take our car back to explore the surroundings. Crossing over the Storms River on the Paul Sauer Bridge and its 120 meters height.

Passage by the Big Tree, an 800-year-old Afrocarpus falcatus.;;

36 meters high and a trunk of 9 meters in circumference.

Back to the campsite. We will follow the path that joins the mouth of the Storms river. The path passes by a group of rock hyraxes (Procavia capensis).

They look dumbfounded at the hikers taking pictures of them...  

Two suspension bridges to reach a small pebble beach.

The Storms River which comes to join the Indian Ocean through this small canyon.

A whale bone and its spine.

The pebble beach accompanied by a dull cracking sound due to the clashing of pebbles with the flow and ebb of the ocean.

Back to the campsite where we are no longer alone. Just a neighboring tent and onlookers who came to enjoy the sunset. Not to mention our gull companion who found a red metallic rock.  

Barbecue and Sunset...  

and... a whale!   It is a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). We are in the front row but you have to scan the surface of the Ocean well to see them...