Whale Trail

The Whale Trail, the most sought after slackpacking route in South Africa. What could be better than five days of whales and loads of good meals, no carrying your food or booze and lots of friends to keep you company? How about all of the above with no rain!!! (bear in mind that peak whale season is often peak rain season!).

Well, after surviving (and loving) the Otter Trail last year we all agreed that the Whale Trail was next! Our trusty organizer, Tam, managed to book us prime whale season (a year in advance) so last week saw us doing a massive shop for the trip and frantically trying to remember what we swore on the otter trail we’d remember for our next hike (in my instance a waterproof raincoat!).

You arrive to spend the first night of the trail at Potberg hut. This is where they give you a big container to try squash all your stuff in. Here you are also introduced to the fantastic fire places in the kitchen and the gas showers with their “Water is precious. Please don’t shower for longer than three minutes sign”. It’s also where you get to find out who the snorers in the group are!

The following morning the group set off for the highest point of the trail, with the bark of baboons echoing across the valley. It’s a great hike up through some lovely fynbos, and at the top you are rewarded with a fantastic panorama of the Overberg with the Breede River snaking through it. Above this amazing view the Endangered Cape Vultures soared and had us envious of their stately glide free in the sky.

The second hut, Cupidoskraal, is spotted from the top of a short rise, with a glittering jewel like dam alongside it. Being October it was still a little chilly to swim so a few of us braved a rotting canoe and paddled out with some makeshift paddles. It has to be one of the clearest dams I’ve seen, you could see the bottom in the middle!

By the time I hit the showers that evening I realized that I’d left my soap and face wash behind at the first hut (at the first hut I’d realized I’d forgotten my toothpaste and deodorant at home!), and that set the tone for the rest of my trip!

The skies that night put on a beautiful show of billions of stars, something that never fails to make me appreciate being away from the city!

Day 2 dawned bright and beautiful again with the added promise of reaching the sea at the end of the day. We set off at a good pace (luckily those in the back couldn’t catch up in order to complain about my march) and soon crested the (much lower) high point of the day. We followed the trail through a forest of flowering leucodendron. We stopped to try spot some whales through the binoculars, but the excitement of a distant splash of white against the azure blue sea didn’t last long (although a bit longer for the Americans) so we anxiously pushed on. We were keeping an eye out for a good lunchtime spot and soon came across a cleared patch with some wooden logs for seating at the foot of the hill. Jimmy and I were happy with the spot and promptly whipped out lunch. Before the others got there a little field mouse appeared. Clearly he cleaned up after the hikers quite often and was out looking for some tidbits. Jimmy offered an open hand to the mouse and he crept quickly closer “It won’t bite will it Lou?” “Nah Jimmy, I doubt it’ll even come close enough to bite” “ow! It bit me!” hehe, sneaky mouse! Wonder if Jimmy should’ve got a tetanus shot?! SO hikers beware, this mouse’s bite is bigger than itself!

After a satisfying lunch we walked through the burnt remains of a recent controlled burn. It had an elegant kind of beauty to it- blackened twigs with bursts of spring flowers inbetween, growing on slabs of rock. A troop of baboons feeding in the fynbos gave us a skrik but before long we turned a corner and were on a cliff edge with a mother Southern Right and white calf enjoying themselves in the waves. While we struggled to drag ourselves away we consoled ourselves with the fact that our next hut was at the end of a rocky cove, at the bottom of the cliff. This hut had a little viewing/braaing area that made a great spot for whale watching.

We all rushed in to have a quick (3 minute) shower and ducked off to the viewspot feeling refreshed and relaxed. All except me that is- as it turned out I had an open box of milk in my container which I hadn’t realized was open. Needless to say it had seeped through a number of layers f clothes and I spent some time trying to wash milk out (rather unsuccessfully I will admit). But I still managed to get some whale watching in and we were treated to the white calf breaching over and over again like a playful child in the pool.

Another mouse appeared that evening but it was much larger and caused a number of screams in the kitchen- the guest book was full of warnings about what all the mouse could chew through-milk boxes, rubbish bags, plastic containers, almost anything from the sound of things!

The third day dawned in the same style as the previous two- bright skies and a light breeze. This was where the going got really easy and we only had 10 or so km’s to cover, with our steepest hill the one we had walked down the day before to the huts. Some spectacular scenery ensued, with steepdrop offs and crashing waves below. Needless to say the sea was littered with whales which we periodically stopped to watch.

The surprise of my day was finding myself at a standstill on the path, with my arms out blocking the way so the others couldn’t step around me. It was a few split seconds before my brain actually processed the pattern that I was seeing as puffadder! It really impressed me how I had stopped before realizing what it was I was looking at! Needless to say the medium szed puffy (a bit over 2 foot) quickly slithered into the bushes before I could get my camera out!

A great detour this day was a swimming spot called Stilgat- a few steps down a wooden ladder led you onto a rocky beach with lots and lots of drift wood and some beautiful rockpools. Unfortunately the water was cold (read freezing) and the breeze a bit on the cool side. But most of the others braved it and it looked like a lot of fun (if a bit chilly!). James and I perused the smaller rockpools poking at all the living things in the water. The next moment there was a splash and my camera drifted to the bottom of the pool. Oh dear. I guess its time to save for an upgrade. Luckily my pictures didn’t sustain any damage but the smoky smell let me know that there was little hope of the electronics surviving!

The day ended on a beautiful strip of desolate beach, with our house peaking out behind a dune. This was my favourite hut of all- a lovely balcony upstairs, a massive kitchen, an open plan upstairs with a door that led out back, all with a fantastic beach feel to it. A few brave souls decided to sleep under the elements which seemed like a great idea when the sky was all starry above. However, shortly after dawn a light drizzle set in and everyone quietly crept back inside a little damp but none the worse for wear.

Day four didn’t dawn so bright but the moist air quickly burnt off and we started our 3.5 km long walk along the beach. While this may sound pleasant it sooned turned into one of the longest slogs of the trip- I reckon I burned off a lot of calories that day! Soft sand is not ideal and pretty soon everyone was walking in each others footprints to try save a little energy. Needless to say I refused to give up my position up front and did most of the slogging while others took the easier route behind me (or Jimmy who was leading the other pack). One of the most amusing things of the day was watching Jimmy trying to beat a wave washing up a bit of cut out dune. Unfortunately he choose to compete against the biggest wave that came through, the only one that made it up the cut edge of the dune, enough to completely soak the bottom half of Jimmy who was frantically trying to do a long jump impression up the dune (unsuccessfully of course)!

We stopped for lunch in the shelter of a rock that day- shade was not plentiful and Warren and Jimmy braved the cold water and crashing waves. Not soon after we arrived at our fifth and last hut. Quite a cosy place, and we were all very excited that we had saved the best for last-two massive fillets, mushrooms and loads of other goodies. This was the last night so there was no holding back on the food! We started off the evening with a bt of poker where I finally starting learning the rules of the game- looked like quite a lot of fun actually (provided you were winning of course- which I wasn’t). Anyway, many laughs later we settled in to bed. The wind had been steadily picking up and around midnight the storm broke! And what a perfect spot to be in for a storm- on the clifftop with massive crashing waves around you! The whole house shook under the thunder and I was hoping the thatch wouldn’t start to leak as I was sleeping in the attic!

Day five dawned, well, you wouldn’t have known it had dawned! It was still pouring with rain and a number of us realized we had left our shoes outside. I wasn’t one of the unlucky ones but as I had a wave wash over my feet the day before I was in the same, well, shoes as the rest! I must admit I was feeling grumpy- everyone else had good raincoats and there was me with my flimsy little windbreaker (having once again made the decision for a long hike to save on space instead of taking a real raincoat!). Someone (Warren I’m thinking) insisted we build a human pyramid and naturally there was a number of takes before we got a good enough pic. Luckily for me by the time we were finished the rain had stopped. It turned into one of those warm wet days, perfect, in my mind, for a good walk. While everyone was not quite enthused by my pace there wasn’t much chance of staring into the rock pools that are meant to make this last stretch so spectacular. But it was a good walk (all 1.75 hours of it). It was a bit sad to come the to the end, and find some tourists on the beach. No longer could we pretend this place was only ours to explore and play in…