The day after the excitement of Addo, Rich and I packed the car and headed to Natures Valley.
“You feel like you are living in the tree tops, with lush green views as far as the eye can see”
On our way we passed through Storms River and stretched our legs from the drive with a walk across the bridge to take in the views. Being further along the coast from Bloukrans River, Storms River was very similar although much smaller in scale.
Rich took the opportunity to ‘be more African’ and did the walk barefoot. After wincing at the pain of walking on shells and stones on the beach in Jeffreys Bay, Rich was determined to toughen up his feet. Having grown up on an island with beaches strewn with rocks and stones I felt no need to toughen up and so happily kept my flip flops on for the short walk.
Nestled in the Tsitsikamma Nature Reserve, the Wild Spirit Backpackers in Natures Valley served up the best view from any backpackers or hotel I’ve ever seen. The communal area is built on a platform that makes you feel like you are living in the tree tops, with lush green views as far as the eye can see. At £14 per night for both of us to stay at the backpackers, it certainly provided a great view for our money.
Wild Spirit was the perfect place for us relax and enjoy the great outdoors. It also had a yoga and meditation room, so whilst Rich worked on editing the video of our bungy jumps, I took some time to meditate with nothing but bird song to listen to. Bliss.
Our first full day at Natures Valley saw the heavens open and rain fall. It eased off late morning so we grabbed our rain coats and headed out for a hike that took us through a forest path and around the cliffs to the beach. Thankfully we didn’t need our raincoats to protect us from the rain but they did provide a nice warmth whilst walking through the shaded forest.
“Rich would probably have a better chance of winning in a fight”
Whilst there were signs telling us not to feed the baboons, thankfully we did not see any. We have been told many times whilst being in South Africa that baboons are vicious animals and I’d prefer not to meet one face to face. We have driven past a few wild baboons and they can grow to quite a size. I’m positive I’d lose in a head to head grudge match with one, Rich would probably have a better chance of winning in a fight with one but I’ve also been told that baboons are intelligent animals, so as soon as they realised that Rich is as ticklish as a baby, I’m sure they’d change tact from brut force fighting to tickling Rich into defeat. Lets hope I never see if that is in fact the case.
Our hike down to the beach allowed for spectacular viewing spots along the way and after two hours hiking we made it to a restaurant for a well deserved lunch. The walk back up to the backpackers winded around the coast at first and required us to do a bit of scrambling around the rocks until we made it to the mouth of Salt River. Here, we turned back inland and up the steep forest trail. The return route took us three hours to complete, slowed by the huge lunch we had eaten and the stops required to catch our breath on the ascent.
We made it back to the backpackers at around 6pm, just before it started to get dark and after a short half hour relax on the sofas it was competition time! We were invited to play scrabble with two other backpackers, John and Julia. Never one to say no to a competition, Rich signed us up.
I’ve never played scrabble against someone who uses English as their second language, but with only twenty minutes played, Julia from Sweden had a much higher score than me! English John had no trouble with attaining good scores either, utilising most of the triple word scores before Rich had a chance to, much to his dismay.
Two hours later the final scores were counted and John took the scrabble champion title, with Rich following in second, me in third and Julia in fourth. I have never been so glad not to be last whilst playing scrabble. Normally it would not bother me but to lose to someone who doesn’t use English as their first language would have been mortifying!
With scrabble over we headed out to the decking area, where a band were playing. With our toes tapping along to the music, we enjoyed listening to their own songs as well as covers, which included The Bear Necessities from the Jungle Book and later on, whilst we were getting ready to sleep, Britney Spears, Hit Me Baby One More Time played in the distance. For a band that looked and played like Mumford and Sons, these cover songs were strange to say the least.
Lambs on the loose 