This trail is a short and sharp hike in the Montagu Mountain Reserve, some 2.4 km in length and 214 m in elevation gain. For relatively little effort it reveals panoramic vistas of the town of Montagu, Cogmanskloof and Bloupunt. From its highest point, the old English...
Central Karoo The Erdvark Trail is located roughly 45 km west of the Karoo National Park. It winds up and through the foothills, valleys and tablelands of the escarpment, where the Karoo’s Koup ramps up to the Hoogland Karoo, in a great circuit some 67.8 km in...
Once I wrote, a bit arrogantly, that life was too short to repeat a hiking trail. I have since broken this “rule” many times and this trail, the Cape of Good Hope Trail, is increasingly responsible for these “transgressions”. The trail is like...
The Pondo Trail, Pondoland Besides a previous Wild Coast hike from Port St Johns to Coffee Bay, Pondoland, The Wild Coast and the Transkei have constituted a gap in my outdoor experience of South Africa. The beauty and the undeveloped nature of the coast south of Port...
This is another loop along the Twelve Apostles, ascending via the Diagonal (up the kloof on the left, above) and descending via Oudekraalkloof to return along the Pipe Track – 12.9 km in total and climbing through 1039 m. Santie chose the route, which included a...
As South Africa emerged from the hard lockdown in mid-2020, I became desperate to escape to the outdoors. On the off-chance that the Whale Trail was open, I contacted Cape Nature and easily obtained a booking for the trail in January 2021. The hugely popular trail was...
Thank you for visiting my outdoor blog. RalphPina.com documents my experiences over many years of appreciating, and adventuring in, Nature. It celebrates visual beauty, advocates minimal impact, reflects on humans’ relationship with our ecosphere, spans the planet but focuses on the wild diversity of southern Africa. Photos, videos and GPS maps of hiking, cycling, kayaking, abseiling, canoeing and windsurfing..
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