Hiking the Otter Trail - Day Three and part of Day Four

I posted days one and two yesterday and so we pick up at the start of day three. This is rated as the toughest day with some serious climbing to do, but supposedly no major river crossings

Yours truly outside the hut ready to set off, having not had a good night’s sleep.

Take note of how rough the sea is behind us. We were doing the trail during Neap tides

About an hour’s walk, and we came across the Elandsbos (Eland Bush) River. There is no reference to this river as a problem spot… but due to the aforementioned Neap tide we had to ford a river mouth next to the ocean waist deep.

While wading through the river mouth I got struck by a submerged log being swept back out to sea. I struggled to release my leg and as I did so, I got hit by a big wave which knocked me over… very thankfully onto my back, otherwise I would not be here today. I got smashed into the rocks, cutting my head and scraping my ribs and thighs. The others rushed over to help and managed to grab hold of me as I was being swept out towards the ocean again

As we were in a hurry to make the Lottering River at low tide, the others set out without me and my partner as I had to unpack and try dry out all my stuff. I am happy to say that despite starting more than an hour behind the others we caught up, but I was very shaky and still in a bit of shock, not looking forward to another river crossing.

One can see the overnight huts on the left (in the above pictures)

Pretty high up ….

Start of day four.. that was the climb

Resting halfway up…

And happy to be on the upper contour …mist hiding the surf.

Stunning rock pools high up on the mountain

An idea of the height we have climbed.. in the distance one can see the path we have been walking

And the start of the decline with the Bloukrans River crossing waiting for us !!

I think that is enough for now… I will cover what happened on the way there… and why we were reduced in number from 8 to 5 before the river crossing

Thanks for reading.