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Otter Trail

Hiking trail along the Garden Route coast, South Africa

Summary

Hiking trail along the Garden Route coast, South Africa

Field	Value
name	Otter Trail
photo	Otter Trail03.jpg
caption	View from Skilderkrans across Bloubaai-Wes
location	Garden Route, South Africa
length_km	41
trailheads	Storms River Mouth
Nature's Valley
use	Hiking
map

Nature's Valley The Otter Trail is a hiking trail along the Garden Route coast of South Africa and is named for the Cape clawless otter which occurs in this region. This trail is widely regarded as one of the finest in the world and stretches from Storms River Mouth in the east to Nature's Valley in the west, is 26 km long as the crow flies and 44 km as the hiker walks. Walking the trail takes 5 days, and the 4 nights are spent in comfortable huts with superb views. The route is located entirely within the Tsitsikamma National Park, which protects an 80 km long strip of coastal mountains, forest and beaches.

The trail traverses a very scenic landscape, never straying far from the shoreline, but often climbing steeply and then descending to the beach or a river crossing. Vegetation along the way is either fynbos, dense gallery forest or open, rocky sections near the sea with an abundance of wildflowers.

Trail landmarks

Storms River Mouth
Ngubu huts
Oakhurst huts
Scott hut
André huts
Grootrivier, Nature's Valley

Trail stages

Day 1 - 4.8 km (± 2 hours) Storms River Mouth - Ngubu
Day 2 - 7.9 km (± 4 hours) Ngubu - Scott
Day 3 - 7.7 km (± 4 hours) Scott - Oakhurst
Day 4 - 13.8 km (± 6 hours) Oakhurst - André
Day 5 - 9.8 km (previously 6.8 km) (± 3 hours) Vasselot - Nature's Valley
Total distance 44 km

Elevation distances - vertical climb and descent

Day 1 - 561 m total vertical - Climb 188 m - Descent -373 m
Day 2 - 1480 m total vertical - Climb 746 m - Descent -734 m
Day 3 - 1257 m total vertical - Climb 623 m - Descent -634 m
Day 4 - 1905 m total vertical - Climb 945 m - Descent -960 m
Day 5 - 926 m total vertical - Climb 466 m - Descent -460 m
Total elevation gain: 2 968m

Gallery

Otter Trail00.jpg|Tidal pools at Ngubu huts Otter Trail01.jpg|Oakhurst huts at Lottering estuary Otter Trail02.jpg|Sunset at André huts, Kliprivier Bloukrans river mouth on the Otter trail 2017 during high tide.jpg|Bloukrans river mouth

References

Official site at South African National Parks
General Information on the Otter Trail

References

"South Africa Yearbook 2007/08". South African Government Communication and Information System.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

hiking-trails-in-south-africa

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