Willis's Walkabouts Rather Older Picture Galleries

These are a selection of rather older galleries that have not yet been updated, but why miss out on them completely just because they are not quite as shiny as the new ones?
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Amatola Trail Photo Gallery

Please be patient while the photos load. Click the photos to see enlarged versions. Click your back button to return to this page. Hold your mouse pointer on the photos to see captions. The Amatola Trail takes its name from the Amatola Mountain range in the Eastern Cape. The six-day route alternates between beautiful indigenous forest, grasslands and patches of pine plantations and passes through an area rich in history; Outanding features of the trail are the numerous waterfalls and inviting swimmingpools tucked away in the enchanting forest. Although there are some strenuous climbs, efforts are always well rewarded with stupendous views. There is also a choice of two circular two-day trails and two day walks. The photos below were taken on days 3 to 5.

From where we leave the vehicle, a relatively short walk brings us to the first waterfall, shown at right. From there we climb a short distance and the first of our mountain views. The two photos below show the view and a rather colourful wild creature we found there.

After descending back off the hill, we stopped for lunch in the forest, African trees to begin with before passing through a pine plantation.

We had afternoon tea at the waterfall shown at left. Not much further we arrived at the hut shown below. The two views show the whole hut and one of the bedrooms. Not only were the beds comfortable, there were even two gas powered hot showers.

On the next day, we headed up and we headed down.
We headed back up and down once again. After all, it is a mountain trail.
Down in the forest once more, we had a number of creek crossings. Ladders made it easy to negotiate the steepest sections.
We spotted a good example of the smaller African wildlife before rinally reaching the hut where we spent the second night on the trail.
The following morning we headed for the sky -- or at least the highest pass on the walk. if you look carefully at the photo below left, you can see the track snaking up toward the pass just to the right of top centre. On a climb like this, it made a lot of sense to stop and enjoy the flowers.
We even had a bit of the local wildlife come and visit us at our lunch spot. Most of the group had a swim, refreshing after the long climbs.

It was a long day, but we managed to arrive early enough to enjoy a magnificent hut. The photo at right shows our dining area as we fired up the boiler for hot showers. It was only a short walk out to the road but the hut and its surrounds were much too nice to think about moving on.

Here's the link to the Amatola Trail web page which has more information about the trail as well as links to other pages about the area. Click here to return to the main South Africa page. Want more information? Please click the link below to download a PDF file of the detailed trip notes. South Africa Trip Notes Alternatively, click the link below to send us an email asking for more information. South Africa Information