Hi Friends,
Let's take you to the most beautiful place I have seen in South Africa and a long walk to see the Storms River Mouth and the
suspension bridge above the same. It comes in the world-famous Garden Route which starts from
Port Elizabeth to
Cape Town and you drive all the way from one end to another and you are driving along the Indian Ocean throughout and will meet the Atlantic Ocean at
Cape Agulhas.
It starts when you enter the
Tsitsikamma National Park by taking a day visitor pass and as per your VISA/PR/SA ID status, you will be
charged accordingly. Once you are inside, you reach a point where you can park your car and enjoy the view and also can have lunch at the restaurant.
If you can get accommodation inside the Tsitsikamma National Park nothing like that as you can travel further than the suspension bridge to the top of the mountains as it will take half a day of trekking to reach there and come back.
The suspension bridge was built in 1969 by Jacky De Vos and repaired in 1996 by Haggie Rand and again rebuilt in 2006 by SAN Parks and Haggie Rand.
This is the first look of the bridge from the top and then you take the stairs downwards to reach the bridge. It's a 77m long bridge above the 7m height of the water and the river underneath is 9m deep and man this thing oscillates like anything.
You definitely have to take care while walking the bridge and the path to reach there is too tiring as you need to go down some 500 meters and then coming back up is a problem.
My parents who were on this journey with us just left the trail at the first stopover and returned to enjoy the Indian ocean views. The winds were really strong and I totally loved the Vitamin Sea as they say it.
You can also hire kayaks and come to this point and go back to the starting point saving you from all the walking stairs up and down. It was really tiring for me and my family to reach this spot.
This is a place I would definitely go back for its hikes and the view of the ocean and the mountains. I love to climb mountains and hopefully, I will be fit enough to reach the top of the Tsitsikamma Mountains.
In the end just to prove that I was there and my family too was there here are some of the photos taken during the journey to and fro from the bridge to the parking. The bridge was oscillating too heavily that I had to hold the wire as I had a great chance to fall as my legs were shaking too.
And while climbing up the stairs, my heartbeat went so high that I took a break and sat on the floor of the stairs and I was all wet in sweat. My wife who took the child on our first part of the journey told me that you have to carry him back to the parking and it was definitely tiring for me who doesn't do any kind of physical activity on a daily basis or is not a member of any gym whatsoever.
There were a lot of lessons learned from this trip that you shall always wear shorts, proper shoes, carry fewer things, carry water and leave kids behind if you can. But what is life without the family to even enjoy any view and I don't think I would be so happy if I would have come alone to this end of the bridge? All photos were taken by
Aashish Rai using the
Canon 77D DSLR camera
18-135mm USM kit lens at
Tsitsikamma National Park, South Africa.
Sawubona!
