View of Keurbos Hut
Link to detailed route page and map click on route title [route-snippet id=”252″ featured=”image”]Bloukrantz Hut to Keurbos Hut.
This ended up being one of the hardest days. Even though the official trail description says that after the second crossing at 5km of the Bloukrantz River at Waterwitelsgat “the rest of the day follows predominantly flat terrain through flower rich fynbos and relic forest” this was not entirely our experience! Not flat by any stretch of the imagination…
The beautiful sunshine of the previous evening was replaced by light drizzle today. Mike had smelt woodsmoke the previous evening so was happy for some rain. We later found there were fires in the area but none threatened us.
The walk down from the hut to the Bloukrantz river was the first proper test of my knee, did not get on with the knee support bandage (it did not get another outing for the rest of the trip!) but was very happy with how my knee coped. We started climbing and the waterproofs soon came off as I started to overheat. Bit of a quandary as my boots got drenched slapping through wet grass and vegetation on the side of the trail, wet socks resulted in a blister between my baby toes – not fun! Next time we will take gaiters. However Vaseline was put to good use stopping rubbing and more feet problems.
The trail description was very apt in saying “day 3 takes one deep into the Tsitsikamma mountains and forest. This is a wetter and more remote world where a true sense of isolation begins to take hold. Buffelbos (c.3km) is where the last buffalo of Tsitsikamma was shot and killed in 1886. In this eerie and enchanted patch of indigenous forest the trail begins its eastward course through the mountains”.
Stunning photo of indigenous forest by Jan Boshoff
We loved seeing the forest glistening with raindrops and it was a stunning hike along the ridge and down to Buffelbos then on to Waterwitelsgat where we sat on the bank of a large pool snacking on GORP and dried fruit. Mike reccied the river crossing and was a bit concerned I would find getting down to the river bank to cross tricky with my pack on. Proud that I managed it without slipping and getting even wetter feet!
The sun was out by now and we had good views as we climbed the far ridge looking back into the Bloukrantz river gully before turning sharp right and a very straight path below the face of Klein Benebos. The trail was harder than normal due to a lot of debris across the path as a result of the storms. We both got tired of moving branches and climbing over/ round debris.
We both opted out of visiting the rock pools “resembling natural jacuzzis at the TwinTubs” just before the hut as we were in need of a cup of tea and were not convinced that they would be that spectacular given how low the rivers were.
This was our least favourite hut, there was some rubbish which put us off a little, however it did not take long to tidy up. Had a great fire in the Lapa and managed to dry out my boots. We were able to heat up lots of hot water on the fire using the large kettles provided placed on iron trivets, for a welcome ‘luxury’ bird bath and some laundry.
