Nature's Valley

Nature's Valley is a little town, which is situated on the Garden Route of South Africa and is the only town that is completely surrounded by a Nature Reserve, the Tsitsikamma National Park. Its got the Indian Ocean on the one side, the foots of the Tsitsikamma mountains on the other, and is tucked between the Groot River lagoon and Saltwater estuary on its flancs.

About 10,000 years ago it was inhabited by the San hunter gatherers, but they got displaced later by the KhoiKhoi herders from the interior. After colonisation, the woodcutters of the Dutch East India company, in the late 1700's were the only ones in the area, causing devistation to the forests. In an attempt to stop the destruction, Sir Thomas Bain, a famous engineer responsible for constructing many passes in the area, by following the elephant trails through the mountains, constructed a road in 1880 to the coast which made Nature's Valley easily accessable.

Subsequently the forestry department made three lots of property available, two to themselves and the third to a puzzling character by the name of Hendrik Barnardo, who feverently protected the trees of the area, but ironically hunted out all the wildlife. In the 1940's a portion of his property got sold to a syndicate of ten buyers and also to  a Baron Ulrich Behr von Kurland, which the nearby town of Kurland is named after. Today it is a little holiday town with a small population, that increases about tenfold over holiday seasons.

Nature's Valley is just what the name implies, it is situated in prestine nature, with beautiful one day hikes through the forests, around the rivers and along the beach. It also marks the end of the famous Otter trail, a five day, 41 kilometer trail that starts in Storms River Mouth, which is regarded as one of the best hiking trails in the world. Bookings can be made through Sanparks and you can find a nice review done by the footprint hiking club and some good tips here, before embarking on this hike.