The Strandloper Hiking Trail
28 to 31 December 2011
By Betsie Smit and Tonie Lazarus
Participants: Tonie (co-author) and Bertha Lazarus (Leaders), Lesley van Vuuren, Elaine Deyzel, Stuart Simpson, Carina Schwarz, Sean Nel, Eddie Grant, Amanda Jordaan, Piet van Heerden, John Meyer and Betsie Smit (author)
The Strandloper Trail running from Kei Mouth (Cape Morgan Eco Tourism Centre) to Gonubie is a truly spectacular trail. Between silver beaches and pit-stop hotels, there are some natural challenges like numerous river crossings, rocks and lots of soft sand! The trail is designed to take four days with a distance of just under 60 km.
We all arrived at the Eco Centre on the 27th and settled into our respective sleeping areas. We ended the evening with a braai and some drinks and went to bed looking forward to the start of the hike.
Day 1: 28 December
We had an early morning briefing regarding the route, tides and some general tips to keep us going. There were some scary jokes about sending the shortest people across the rivers first in order to check the depth! We eventually set off at 08h15 for our first day which was from Kei Mouth to Double Mouth.
The weather was overcast and we set off at a brisk pace and did 4km in the first hour, passing patches of beautiful veld flowers of different shapes and sizes. We arrived early at the pumphouse (part of an old titanium mine) and did some exploring. The pumphouse is no longer used as a sleepover as it was severely damaged during a storm, and looking at the damage done to it at its elevation, it must have been a mother of a storm!
The walk towards Morgan Bay covers fairly rough grass and boulders until you reach a sandy beach where you see the Morgan Bay Cliff rising out of the sea to a height of 57m.
We arrived at the Mitford Restaurant at about 11h00 but to our dismay (and hungry bodies) the restaurant was only opening at 12h30!! We backtracked a little and went back to The Morgan Bay Hotel’s ‘The Deck’ restaurant. Unfortunately, they had just closed for breakfast and would only re-open at 12h00!!! for lunch servings, and would not budge from this rule. We all sat down anyway and ordered coffee and tea. The waitress then proceeded to throw some more disappoints at us: they had no coffee beans, so no coffee could be made, they ran out of pizzas, someone had eaten all the brown bread, no bananas, no straws and we were not allowed to order take-aways! (as they had no doggy bag boxes?) Eventually we left having had only cold tea. A very sad group of hikers hit the road to do the next stretch to Double Mouth.
We started the steep Morgan Bay Cliffs climb and quickly gained in height, with beautiful views over the ocean. We saw why no ships were in sight, as the rocky coast was quite rough. After crossing over the cliffs, we climbed down to the beaches below, and the trail now led us over some rocky areas, but we were lucky to see two schools of dolphins. They looked much happier than us!! Just before arriving at the Double Mouth caravan site, the coast became sheer cliffs, and we had to do a steep climb up, to get over the ridge, and then climb down to the caravan park.
We arrived at the Double Mouth hut at about 14h30. It is quite a spacious elevated log cabin situated right on the beach with a lovely porch overlooking the beach. We were able to use the ablution facilities at the nearby camping site and we all enjoyed a shower. Although the water was very muddy and brown, it was bliss to be clean!!
As we weren’t able to shop (or eat) during the day, we were starving and dinner was shared amongst everyone. (Stuart chose to sleep in the bunk bed above Betsie). Overall, it was an excellent day with good hiking weather and we covered 13.5 km.
Day 2 – 29 December
We woke up to a truly beautiful sunny morning and everyone was awake and having coffee and breakfast by 05h00. Today’s hike was going to take us from Double Mouth to Cape Henderson.
We left the hut before 7am, and at 07h15 we arrived at the spot where the very wide and deep Quko River and another nameless river, come together, hence the Double Mouth River. While we were still trying to contemplate ways of crossing the river, our little girl scout, Carina, spotted a canoe hidden in the trees. We decided to quickly load all the backpacks in the canoe and that we would then swim across. All the guys jumped in with their ropes and made sure the canoe was pulled across safely – a few crossings had to be made before all our packs were on the other side of the river. What excitement!
The crossing only took us about 30 minutes and it was time for boots and clothes on again. Now there was a different spirit in the group. The hike had become an adventure. Once again, we walked along beautiful beaches and enjoyed the lovely scenery, passing Bead Beach, Black Rock, Barracuda (where we had a snack break), Shell Beach and Marsh Strand, before reaching Haga Haga. We were quite anxious to discover whether we were to encounter the same lunch time problems as yesterday. On arriving at the Sandiwana at about 11h45, we were taken by surprise at the friendliness of the management and staff, who went out of their way to accommodate us. We then had an excellent lunch and some of us enjoyed very cold beers! After lunch we hit the little Haga Haga shop for supplies. Some were very enthusiastic about their shopping, but more of that later.
Day 2 had now become very hot – and both the sandy and rocky beaches didn’t seem to want to end. We walked, walked and then walked some more!!
We eventually arrived at the Cape Henderson hut just past 16h00. It had been a long day. Disaster: there was no shower, and the toilet …… well, don’t want to conjure up those memories again!! This was definitely not a comfortable hut, but luckily there were lots of bushes around - you are free to use your own imagination at this point!
There was one highlight though: Derek and Gretta were on holiday at Bosbokstrand, a camp site next to our hut and we awaited their arrival with great anticipation as they were bringing us drinks!! Lesley and I downed our ice cold beers quickly to replenish all the lost body fluids! It was SO good. Elaine was not a happy hiker: for the first time in her hiking career, she had developed a blister! Eddy was also not doing so well and his ankle was giving him trouble, after hurting it on day one after about two kilometers into the hike. He refused to turn back then and persevered right to the end of the hike.
Whilst preparing our dinner, Carina and Sean surprised everyone by pulling a lettuce out of her backpack! It even came with its own water supply: a little plastic bag tied at the bottom to keep the roots moist! That was most definitely the best item bought at the Haga Haga shop!!
Although the hut wasn’t very comfortable, we all went to bed early and had a good night’s rest. (Stuart, once again, slept in the bunk bed above Betsie) On this day, we had covered 17.1km.
Day 3: 30 December
Today’s hike took us from Cape Henderson to Beacon Valley and has the most river crossings. After breakfast we left at about 07h30 and it was already quite hot for so early in the morning! As we had to cross Bosbok Strand after only going for a few meters from the hut, we started off in our strops and after the crossing, quickly put on our boots, except Eddie, who continued on in his sandals.
We crossed a few rivers during the morning:
- Nyarha, crossed without packs on back;
- Kwenxura, also shallow;
- Chefane, bit deeper and had to carry packs on heads;
- Omntsa, shallow one again
Today’s walking was quite strenuous as the long stretches of beach consisted of very soft sand. I tried to step into other people’s footprints, but alas, shorter legs can only stretch so far!!
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At Chintsa East, we had a long break, with some of the hikers taking a swim with the holidaymakers, who kept staring at us. They most probably thought we looked scruffy, and smelt bad, but after all the refreshing hiking that we have done up to that point, we didn’t care. We arrived at the Chintsa West Pub and had a beautiful and well deserved lunch. The service was excellent and we had lots of fun and once again some of us enjoyed some very nice cold beers. After some negotiations, Tonie and I each purchased a bottle of wine to keep us company for the evening. Stuart was so kind to buy the ice!!
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After lunch, it was a short walk past Reef Point and the Oyster Catcher breeding nests to our hut, and we arrived at the Beacon Valley hut at about 14h00.
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Very nice surprise considering the previous hut we slept in: it was a spacious 3 roomed hut with a shower and built braai place. Only downfall for us females: another dreaded long-drop toilet ……
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Some of us now started to show strain: Elaine’s blister grew bigger, Eddy was still battling with legs and also developed blisters; Amanda had a problem with her eye and I had one very sore calf muscle.
Good news was: the lettuce survived and still looked fresh and crunchy!!
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Piet, Amanda, Sean and Carina were still full of energy and went off snorkeling, swimming and exploring. They were such good team players: came back with more ice!
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John decided to walk back to the restaurant for some sundowners. (Stuart surprised us all, when he asked Lesley – ‘Do you mind if I sleep on top of you tonight’ (on the bunk bed above her. She said fine and Betsie was not even jealous). Goes to show what good and sharing friends they are. We had a very nice relaxing afternoon and evening after completing 13km. We went to bed looking forward to the last stretch.
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Day 4: 31 December
Today’s trail took us from Beacon Valley to the finish line at Gonubie, and with the two biggest river crossings to be breached. Once again, we hit the beach early, passing Glen Muir, Queensberry Bay, Glen Eden and Glengariff quickly, arriving at the Bulura River about 20 minutes later. It wasn’t too deep and we were able to wade through with our packs on our heads.
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Just to surprise us, we had to endure lots more soft beach sand at the start and then rocky stretches of beach towards the end.
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When we reached the Kwelera River, two and a half hours before low tide, we were very lucky to meet a guy who took our backpacks over in his canoe and we were able to swim across knowing our packs were safe. John and I (Tonie) decided to try crossing closer to the sea, where there was a causeway/jetty on the other side. We had almost crossed the river, but had to swim the last ten meters. John got assistance from a surfer, but I swam across, and made it, by grabbing on to the rocks at the side of the river. We had underestimated the pull of the current, and for nearly 30 minutes, I could not use my arms, as the effort had left them quite limp. Have to mention, however, that there was no danger involved, as I was just trying to swim too fast!
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After this crossing, we started seeing Gonubie in the distance, and thought the end was near – wrong! The worst stretch was waiting for us: a stretch of boulders with no sand in sight! The sounds of the rocks rolling around in the waves were amazing though. After this stretch we eventually arrived at the river mouth and, once again, we were lucky: a good Samaritan took us and our backpacks across in his canoe!! Eventually we were all across and for the first time, we encountered real rain, or rather a heavy drizzle.
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With the end in sight we all had a burst of energy and walked the last stretch to the restaurant where a table was reserved for us, and from where we had to catch our shuttle back to the Eco Centre. We had a wonderful lunch, cold drinks and lots of laughter and jokes.
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On the way back to Kei Mouth, we stopped at the local shop to get our last supplies for Old Year’s eve. On arrival back at the Eco Centre we had our first hot shower and proper toilets in 4 days – was very enjoyable!!
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We all pitched in to make snacks, etc. for the evening and had an enjoyable evening discussing the highs and lows of the hike. Boy, was the weather good to us, but as Tonie always says: ‘We are the East Rand Hiking Club – weather is always good to us!!’
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Overall it was an amazing experience – one I would certainly want to do again. A special thanks to our hike leaders, Tonie and Bertha, who anticipated, and being aware of the tides at all times, ensured we had safe river crossings: Thank y
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