Nature's Valley

Nature's Valley is a strip of houses between the Groot River lagoon and a long beach, entirely surrounded by the Garden Route National Park - which is why it never grew. There is a single small shop-restaurant, no petrol station, no development creeping outward, and the forest comes down to the back gardens. The lagoon is calm and warm enough to swim in, the beach runs several kilometres, and the surrounding forest carries walking paths, including the Kalanderkloof trail up a ravine of tall trees. It is the finishing point of the Otter Trail, so a steady trickle of hikers arrives at the beach having walked five days from Storms River. Access is down the Grootrivier Pass, a steep winding descent that keeps casual traffic away. In winter the village is nearly empty; over Christmas it fills with the same families who have come for generations.

History

Stone Age people lived in caves along this coast, and San hunter-gatherers were here from about 10,000 years ago. The valley became easy to reach only after Thomas Bain finished the Grootrivier Pass in 1880, a route he had first explored with Captain Christopher Harison in 1868, and the Forestry Department then proclaimed three lots in the valley (Wikipedia, Nature's Valley).

The landscape

• The village in a park - a village that cannot expand, surrounded by forest.
• The lagoon - calm warm water behind the beach, safer than the open sea.
• The Otter finish - hikers arriving off a five-day coastal trail.
• Kalanderkloof - a walking path up a ravine of tall indigenous trees.

When to go

October to April. A day, or stay. Christmas fills every bed and the rest of the year is quiet.

Practical notes

There is essentially no shopping, no fuel and limited signal - stock up in Plettenberg Bay. The pass down is steep and slow. The sea beach has rips and no lifeguards outside season. Accommodation is holiday rentals booked far ahead.

Nearby

Storms River Mouth is east in Tsitsikamma; Plettenberg Bay is west.

Key facts