The Otter Trail is a 42km, 5 day hike along the Garden Route in the Eastern Cape. It mostly hugs the coast and we spent a lot of time around the beach, but it also goes along cliffs and up and down hills that are so steep I almost called them mountains. Only 12 hikers are allowed on the trail every day. My friend Nick wanted to hike it in celebration of his 30th birthday (the second day of the hike) so we started planning a year in advance. We flew down to George on August 5th and stayed at a guesthouse in Storm's River. The trees in Storm's River were so soft that punching them as hard as we could didn't injure us at all. That probably should have told us something about the amount of rain we could expect on the trail.
The first day of the hike we checked in at Tsitsikamma National Park (apparently tsitsikamma means place of many waters- another unheeded sign of what we'd signed up for) and hung around the start while Nick dropped the rental car off at the finish point. There were monkeys near the start but I didn't see any on the actual trail.
From the left it's Garrick, Louise, Nick, Shoal, Alfreida and Phil.
I remember thinking these steps were pretty steep. With a 17kg backpack even the smallest steps are hard on your knees. These ended up being the least-steep steps of the entire trail. The Otter Trail is not for wimps.
I spotted the ocean first and my hair responded to the salt water immediately.
Our first break was on this beach so we could explore the cave. We went in quite far- we had to use headlamps to see where we were going. Eventually we got to a wide pond that looked too deep to cross so we turned back. 
We took a lunch break at the waterfall. It had been too flooded to cross the day before (said the hikers at our guesthouse the night before) and there was one spot where we had to jump about 5ft across the waterfall created by this pond emptying into the ocean. It was our first tiny water crossing and it's responsible for the new scars on my shins from where I wiped out after jumping with my pack and scrambled up the rocks to avoid taking myself and Nick for an impromptu swim in the Indian Ocean.
This was one of the two cabins for the first night. It was about a 3 minute walk from the beach. The weather on the first day was pretty nice so we hung out at the beach for an hour or so.
This is Phil at the first look out point of day 2 (the hardest day). The little strip of sand next to his left hand is where our first night cabins were. It was pretty much a straight-up climb.
Some crawling was required.
I notice the ominous clouds now, but they didn't mean much to me at the time.
I wiped out while crossing this river. It was our first real river crossing. Nick went first but said that my legs were too short to make it across where he'd gone. I tried going up river and made it halfway across before the rock I was standing on shifted and I plunged waist-deep into the very, very cold water. I just barely managed to keep my pack out of the water. I was soaked from the waist down. By the time I got out of the water the skies opened up and drenched me and my bag completely. I didn't have time to get out the rain gear. I figured since I was already soaked I could make it to the cabins without the rain gear. I thought at my pace they would only be an hour, maybe an hour and a half away. 
Three and a half hours later, after non-stop rain in the most difficult terrain the Otter Trail has to offer (STEEP up & down hills, no flat ground), I finally made it to the cabins and collapsed on the bunk bed. I didn't get up for 2 more hours. This is a pic from outside the window of our cabin- another river feeding out into the Indian Ocean.
The third morning wasn't so bad. It was still raining but I had all my rain gear ready. Everyone was sore but we knew the hardest day was behind us. And the picture above is a view of where I brushed my teeth that morning. 
This was the Elandsbos River- our first big river crossing of day 3. If I'd turned around and taken another picture you'd see it emptying into the ocean. The tide was going out so the water only came up to just under my waist, but the current was strong in some places so we had to be careful. This was the first river where everyone took their shoes off to cross. It was the widest and deepest river (if you got off the rocks) we'd come across. And we immediately had to hike up the "hill" you can see on the other side. 
This is a view of where we hiked from the cabins' side of the river. We came around that bend and could see the cabins but we could also see the tide crashing into the flooded river, and we could see impromptu waterfalls across the hiking trail. Two days of heavy rain made this river crossing look hectic. We ended up going further upstream than I expected so the river crossing wasn't so bad.
The trail led us up and down, up and down. At one point I could see we were walking above the cabins, past them, and then we were going to have to walk back down. I was having none of that. I sat down and slid through the trees down the hill to the cabins. Then I washed my pants in the shower (which had no door but had a lovely view) to get all the mud off.
The third night cabins were my favorites. This was a view out the front door from my bunk bed. Garrick spotted dolphins just before sunset. There were so many- we watched them for about 15 minutes. They were in groups of 6 - 10 and every time one group passed another one was right behind. There were also genets around the camp, but not as many as there were at the second night cabins. We never did see any otters, but few people ever do.
We had boot fires every night from the second night onward. Our boots were never entirely dry after the second day, but this was better than nothing.
I didn't take any pictures on the 4th day. My camera was in triple waterproofing because I knew what was in store for that day.
We had to wake up early to hike 3 hours to the Bloukrans River mouth. We had a one-hour opportunity to cross at neep tide. The Bloukrans is dangerous- people have died crossing it, so we wanted to be very sure to get there in time, especially because I can't swim all that well. The trick with the Bloukrans crossing is that you can't just swim across from the little beach on the starting side. There's no way to get up the rocks. You have to swim towards the ocean and then quickly get into an inlet. And you have to do it with a 15kg backpack floating behind you. And you can't let the pack get smashed on the rocks.
Oh, and it's the nesting grounds of notoriously aggressive bull sharks.
I was close to crying when I saw how wide and deep the Bloukrans was. The epic rains we had made it even more scary. There was no way I was going to chicken out, though. The Otter Trail IS the Bloukrans River crossing. I went down to the beach, put my floaty arm bands on and got my pack in its waterproof bag.
Nick was WONDERFUL and offered to swim across with his bag, my bag, and Phil's bag. Then he would leave the bags with Phil on the other side and come back to swim across with me so I wouldn't drown or get swept out to sea or get eaten by a shark. It took about an hour for Nick to get back across to get me. The tide was stronger than he originally thought and it was tiring to pull the bags across and get them on dry land. Unfortunately our bags hit the rocks and got waterlogged, so they were about twice as heavy when Nick and Phil pulled them up on the other side.
Nick swam me almost straight across, holding my hand the whole way so I wouldn't freak out. He helped me up on the rocks on the other side so I didn't have to swim to the inlet and worry about the tide pulling me out. Then he swam back across to help Louise and Alfreida. Garrick swam with them, so Nick continued to the other side. Then, about halfway across, Garrick got swept towards the inlet with his and Louise's bags. Louise and Alfreida, who had been swimming towards the rocks where I was, got swept out towards the river mouth where there were point-ier, more dangerous rocks.
That was frightening for me because I could see Louise start to panic and go under water. She was screaming whenever she broke the surface of the water and I couldn't get to her to help because she'd been swept out past me. I scrambled over the mollusks on the rocks with bare feet trying to reach them. Luckily Louise caught the edge of a rock and Alfreida was able to swim over to her. They made it up on the rocks about 15 feet ahead of me.
That was frightening for me because I could see Louise start to panic and go under water. She was screaming whenever she broke the surface of the water and I couldn't get to her to help because she'd been swept out past me. I scrambled over the mollusks on the rocks with bare feet trying to reach them. Luckily Louise caught the edge of a rock and Alfreida was able to swim over to her. They made it up on the rocks about 15 feet ahead of me.
I picked my way across to the inlet very slowly. My feet were bleeding and everything was covered in salt water, but there was nothing I could do about the pain besides get to the inlet where my backpack and shoes awaited. So I shut the pain out and kept going. At one point I found a nasty old flip flop up on the rocks. Just the one. I put it on my worst-cut-up foot and continued on.
It was an immense relief to be across the Bloukrans. Some of our group had opted not to cross and took the emergency exit up to the road where they phoned a park ranger and were driven to the trail about half a kilometer from the cabins. We thought the extra 6km hike up to the road would slow them down enough so we could get to the cabins first. That didn't happen. Immediately after crossing the Bloukrans we realized the trail had pretty much disappeared. Then we saw a piece of rope hanging from a sheer rock cliff face. I'd heard that some parts of the Otter Trail you do walking on the very edge of a cliff holding on to a rope. I thought that had been overexaggeration.
Not so. The truth of it is that the cliff isn't terribly high, but it's not something you'd want to fall off (about 20 feet at its highest point) and the edge you walk on is slightly less narrow than my foot. The rope is an absolute necessity. We were confounded by having to do really difficult hiking after the physically and emotionally draining Bloukrans crossing. But we did it anyway. And then we made a massive fire at the camp and paid a park ranger to deliver braai packs, beer and wine coolers. We had a massive celebration for crossing the Bloukrans successfully and almost being done with the Otter Trail.
This was the view from the cabin on the morning of day 5, our last day of hiking. Of course the weather was beautiful.
This is the typical steep incline from the cabins we became accustomed to on the trail. That's an almost entirely vertical climb.
But it's such a nice view from the top.
I hiked most of the Otter Trail without the group. I stayed just close enough to be safe, but far enough away that it felt like I was the only person that had ever walked the trail.
The last day was only about 7km (8 if you count walking to the car), so this marker was pretty exciting.
The end is in sight! That's the last river crossing on the beach! It was actually pretty deep with a strong current. I had been hoping for a water bridge- that's what they put up for the marathon. (Sidenote: Some truly crazy people run this thing in a few hours.)
Almost there!
Last river crossing!
It was a tad disappointing to note that there is no "official" finish line for the Otter Trail. We had to make one ourselves. 
There was a shoe tree outside the pub for all of the hikers that never wanted to hike again after having finished the Otter Trail. See that yellow and green flip flop on the left side? It's the twin of the one I found on the Bloukrans rocks. I thought that to be hilarious.
I think I would do the Otter Trail again. I definitely underestimated the difficulty of it and I'm impressed with myself for finishing and never taking an emergency exit out of convenience, especially since my foot ended up being infected and gross from the Bloukrans rocks.
The people at the pub told us that 2 weeks before we did the trail the park rangers had to cut through the forest to rescue a group because it was too flooded to continue. And since then some of the groups had given up and been evacuated just because it was too difficult. After all the rain we had that week they were wondering when the park rangers would cut us out. I'm glad we were able to finish it.
I had some of my best experiences in South Africa on the Otter Trail. I also had some of the most frightening experiences. I'm still debating whether or not I should make Nick do something crazy to celebrate my birthday after all we did to celebrate his. I'm glad he only turns 30 once. :)
