Hiking to Tiger Falls – Royal Natal National Park

The Drakensberg is famous for the trails that crisscross her spine, meanders across her back, explore her valleys, marvel at her fabulous buttresses, enter her wooded vales, wade through her streams and end up at waterfalls flowing over her.  It's enough to want to throw your head back and shout in ecstasy.  Yes I know what that all sounded like, but heck, that mountain truly is sexy.  For our ten days of camping at Mahai in the Royal Natal National…

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Mahai Campsite – heaven in the Drakensberg

Nestled in a beautiful valley in the Royal Natal National Park of the Northern Drakensberg is a campsite that regularly makes lists of top campsites in South Africa. Six years ago we discovered Mahai Campsite for the first time and spend an unfortunate holiday there during major floods that hit the area that summer.  Even with all that it still counts as one of our favorite holidays and when we left that year we vowed to be back some time.…

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The Fynbos Trail after the December fire

In early December a huge fire swept through the bush on the Wildside in the Schoenmakerskop area.  One of the specific spots effected by the fire was the Fynbos Trail that starts next to Sappershoek in Schoenies.  I am the cache owner of the PE series of Geocaches that is located along the Fynbos Trail and last Friday Chaos Boy and I headed down to do the trail and some much needed maintenance replacing the caches damaged by the fire.The…

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Hogsback – a fairy wonderland of forests and waterfalls

Hogsback must be one of the most beautiful areas in the Eastern Cape and one of my favorite destinations in the province yet it's been a good decade and a half since I've last been there.  Every year the Damselfly and I threaten to go for a weekend but every time we end up going somewhere else.  Not that difficult with all the travel options the Eastern Cape has to offer.  But this time the decision would be carried through…

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The hog will lead the way

One of the most famous trail markers in South Africa must be the hogs marking all the hiking trails around the village of Hogsback in the Eastern Cape.  We slipped and slid around some of the trails in Hogsback over a wet weekend recently but as we say in Afrikaans, "Mooi bly maar mooi" meaning "beautiful will always be beautiful".  I'll post a full blog post as well as a couple of individual photos about our visit soon, just watch…

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A quick hike at Van Stadens

This afternoon we headed out to the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve for a quick walk to go and find the oldest Geocache in Port Elizabeth.  While the Damselfly waited in the car, Drama Princess and I headed down one of the trails in search of this very significant cache.  The Pincushion Proteas are stunning at the moment so I kept on falling behind. 

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The trail to Flat Rocks

The beachfront walkway continues beyond the lollipop beacon at the bottom of Admiralty Way all the way to Flat Rocks.  The section of the walk from the beacon is actually called the Humpback Dolphin Trail although you're probably more likely to see Bottlenose Dolphins swimming along the coast.  The walkway in picture is the last 100 meters with Flat Rocks to the left. 

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Setting off on a hike

A group of people setting off on the very popular Sacramento Tail between Schoenmakerskop and Sardinia Bay during the late afternoon.

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Van Stadens King Protea

The Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve must be one of the best places around to see Proteas and other Fynbos species growing in the wild.  Not just is it great to view wild flowers, but the reserve also has a number of excellent trails for you to go and stretch you legs along.  The trails range from short easy walks along the plateau to longer ones that require a bit more effort down into the surrounding gorge and valleys. 

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PE’s favorite walks and hiking trails

I was invited to participate in the #SharetheBay Port Elizabeth #Blogathon 2016 campaign in collaboration with Cheap Flights, Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism and Travel Concept Solution this week.  As one of eight bloggers taking part I decided not to do the usual "Things to do in PE" kind of blog but rather focused on my favorite nine walks and hiking trails around Port Elizabeth.  The post covered the beachfront boardwalk, Sacramento Trail, Coastal Fynbos Trail, Roseate Tern Trail in Cape Recice, the…

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