ALIKREUKEL TRAIL
The Southern Cape coast was not only a home for our ancestors, it also provided the creative spark for the world’s first abstract work of art. Thousands of years later, the coastline continues to inspire. Come hike the Alikreukel Trail, from Blombosch to
“A hike along the beach, through coastal fynbos, is my favourite. It’s a buffet for the senses. You smell the salt on the breeze, ripe kelp, fynbos herbs and the honeyed scent of white bristle bush.”
Walking is good for you. It’s even better when you can do it outside, and it’s best in an unspoilt environment – mountains, bushveld or desert. But a hike along the beach, through coastal fynbos, is my favourite.
It’s a buffet for the senses. You smell the salt on the breeze, ripe kelp, fynbos herbs and the honeyed scent of white bristle bush. Sand and shells crunch underfoot while seagulls struggle to make themselves heard above the crashing waves. It doesn’t take you long to fall behind your hiking partners as you take photos of every bit of beauty around you.
After a while, though, you forget about your camera as the sea air purifies your brain. The German philosopher-poet Friedrich Nietzsche said it best: “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”
And it’s on the ancient coastal paths of the four-day Alikreukel Trail where humans had their first truly great thoughts 70 000 years ago. Our group of 11 hikers from all over the country congregates at Seesig Chalets in Jongensfontein on a Friday afternoon in March. Our initial conversation is all about gear, food and the weather – as it always is when people get to know each other before a big hike.
Derek Odendaal, our guide and the man behind the Alikreukel Trail, assures us that tomorrow is going to be a perfect day for walking. “There are a few drops of rain predicted for Sunday,” he says. “But it’s not like we’re afraid of getting wet, are we?”
I see some worried glances. Let’s hope it drizzles rather than pours…
Derek explains our programme for the next few days: Tomorrow morning he and Clifton Donald, the other guide, will fetch our group in a minibus and transport us to Blombosch Private Nature Reserve, about a half-hour drive west of Jongensfontein. We’ll hike back to the village along the coast and spend another night at Seesig Chalets. On day two we’ll walk from Jongensfontein to Still Bay, and spend two nights there in the Still Life guesthouse. On day three we’ll paddle kayaks up the Goukou River, and on the last day we’ll hike east from Still Bay past some fossilised dunes called Geelkrans.
The guides will provide all our meals, including a packed lunch for our daypacks, and our heavy bags will be taken from one overnight stop to the next. It all seems very well organised. We hit the sack early – I’m grateful I don’t have to sleep in a cave like our ancestors did!
Blombosch to Jongensfontein: 17 km
Derek really knows the weather here, or he has a good weather app, because it’s a cracking morning as predicted when we disembark at the entrance to Blombosch: crisp blue skies without a hint of wind.
We rush through some group photos then walk roughly 500 m along a jeep track through dense bush, down towards the ocean. The hikers are chattering away, excited about what we’re going to experience today. (Introspection and silence only introduce themselves later in a hike.) Ahead of us, the coastline stretches out its arms: A long white beach goes off to the right, in the direction of Witsand at the mouth of the Breede River, but we turn left along a path through some rocks in front of a handful of beach cottages.
The cottages are the last signs of civilisation for the next few hours as the path winds up and along coastal cliffs for 3 km to the Blombos Arch, the Southern Cape’s own “Hole-in-the-Wall”. The hiking isn’t technical to get to this petrified dune and its arch, but you have to watch your step high up along the cliffs. It’s a good place to sit down in the shade and enjoy a sandwich and some water. Before long we’re ready for the next stretch. But we’ve only walked about 300 m when Derek halts the group and points towards a spot halfway up the cliff towering above. “That’s the famous Blombos Cave,” he says.
It must be quite a scramble to get there, I think to myself. I can see a locked green gate barring the entrance to this heritage site, which is off limits to most people.
Derek tells us that some of the world’s first modern humans lived in this cave between 70 000 and 100 000 years ago. The dunes that initially sealed the entrance and eventually eroded again, did an excellent job of preserving the contents of the cave through the centuries. Just before our hike, Norwegian archaeologists had been excavating the different layers of this historical treasure chest.
Razor-sharp stone tools (known in archaeology circles as Still Bay bifacial points), the first jewellery worn by humans (sea shells threaded onto necklaces) and the first abstract work of art (geometric drawings made with ochre powder) were discovered in this cave. (You can see some of the real stuff and replicas of the art at the Blombos Museum in Still Bay – check out hesva.org.za to find out more.) We listen attentively as Derek tells us about this fascinating time in the history of our ancestors. Back then, the inland region was a savannah: grasslands teeming with giraffe, elephant and eland. The mild climate, abundant game and a coastline rich with yummy pickings made this the perfect place for the first humans to find their feet.
We walk along the cliff paths, up and down through patches of green coastal fynbos where southern double-collared sunbirds flutter from one purple erica flower to the next.
At the 7 km mark, we descend from the cliffs onto the beach for the first time. This is Pletsen Bay, and it’s time for lunch. We shed our shoes, don our swimming costumes and cool off in the water of this secluded little bay. It’s the kind of place where you want to spend a lazy afternoon under a beach umbrella with a book, but we’ve still got 10 km ahead of us, even though the worst of the clambering is behind us, Clifton says reassuringly.
At 9 km, we approach a spring where we plan to fill our water bottles. Out of nowhere, a huge black-headed heron stutters into the air and gives us all a fright. Be still my beating heart! Dark clouds start to gather over the ocean. It’s the “few drops” predicted by Derek that are heading our way. We round a peninsula, and in the distance we spot beach cottages on the outskirts of Jongensfontein. There’s no stopping us now as the pace increases, like horses that have caught the scent of home. Or maybe it’s the thought of the fish and chips we’ll be devouring at the Drie Pikkewyne Restaurant tonight…
Jongensfontein to Still Bay: 13 km
All night long, rain clatters onto the roof of our chalet at Seesig, and it’s still dripping at 8 am when my wife Ronel and I hitch our backpacks and walk down to Drie Pikkewyne for breakfast. Derek is “carefully optimistic” that it’s going to clear up and deliver another day of excellent hiking weather, but he reckons we should pack a light rain jacket just in case. We head east, past
the Jongensfontein caravan park (jam-packed as usual on a weekend), past the enviable holiday homes on the beachfront and past orange, lichen-covered boulders where dassies bask in the sun. We walk along the beach, past anglers and people walking their dogs, until we get to the headland that marks the entrance to Jongensgat Private Nature Reserve.
The GPS on my watch indicates that we’ve already walked almost a quarter of today’s distance in what feels like no time. We’re walking quickly and easily, hugging the coast like we did yesterday, but today there are no cliffs or rocks to impede our progress. The rain stays away. It’s great hiking weather after all! We can spot Jongensgat itself from a distance – a giant square window in a wall of rock that’s plonked right in our path. I’m giving it a wide berth since Derek has warned us that the hole is home to a number of beehives. Bees don’t like me, and I’m allergic to their stings. The rest of the group clambers into the hole to take a look anyway.
Every now and then Derek dashes ahead to the rock pools to see if he can spot an octopus. He desperately wants to show us one of these remarkable creatures, but luck is not on his side today.
After 7 km we take a breather at a tiny and ancient single-room cottage, built in the middle of nowhere right on the coast. According to Derek, it used to belong to a land surveyor called Jurish who loved to fish, and was constructed for him decades ago by the people of the region.
The luxury, thatched-roof houses at Bosbokduin, only 3 km from here, might be more impressive, but old Jurish had privacy that today’s money simply can’t buy. Bosbokduin – and Skulpies Bay at the foot of the dune – are also world-renowned archaeological sites, home to an extensive network of fish traps built by Khoisan herders more than 2 000 years ago. The rock “kraals” trap fish at low tide. When the first European colonialists arrived in the 17th and 18 centuries, they extended the trap network even further. Large numbers of cob and elf were still harvested here as recently as the 1960s. These days, it’s a national heritage site.
We walk past the fish traps, up a dune and into Skulpies Bay Nature Reserve. It’s not long before we’re in a big milkwood forest – a completely different world to what we’ve experienced in the last two days. It soon becomes clear that the people of Still Bay take pride in this forest. The paths are well kept and clearly marked. We have a final picnic at a table in the shade of a giant milkwood before strolling into the town of Still Bay.
Goukou River: 3 km walk/ 4 km paddle
It’s not exactly a hiking day today, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to lie around and do nothing. After breakfast we walk from the Still Bay harbour along the beach and then along the banks of the Goukou River to De Jager House, the oldest residence in town. This historic house was built in 1814 and today it’s home to Still Bay Tourism and the Blombos Museum of Archaeology. The town’s famous freshwater eels can also be found in a fountain on the property. You’re welcome to come and watch staff feed them chicken livers every day (except Sundays) at 11 am. Yum!
Isak Venter, a member of the Hessequa Archaeological Society, shows us around the museum. We see the stone spear- and arrowheads that were made in Blombos Cave, and the shell necklaces and replicas of the art that so excites the world’s palaeoanthropologists. After this we’re at the mercy of Clifton, an enthusiastic paddler. We take a short minibus ride inland along the Goukou to the outskirts of town where six yellow double-seated kayaks await.
Clifton does his best to instil confidence in a group of hikers who have now traded boots for paddles. “These kayaks are so stable,” he says, full of excitement. “You’ve got the wind behind you. And the tide. You won’t even have to paddle!”
Clifton, originally from East London, clearly loves the water. As we’re paddling, he tells us it’s possible to go 13 km upstream, and that the mouth to the ocean never closes. The name Goukou is derived from two Khoi words: “gou”, which refers to the Gourits River – the biggest waterway in the region – and “kou” which means “before”. Thus, the Goukou is the last in a network of rivers before one reaches the Gourits.
We drift (rather than paddle) through a landscape that becomes increasingly hilly, and after half an hour on the water the slopes on the left bank are covered in olive trees. Our destination is near: Kransfontein Olive Estate. Three of the four farms that were joined to form Kransfontein in 2000 once belonged to the writer Wilbur Smith. Today, it’s a little Eden that produces a variety of olive oils and products. After 4 km on the water we’re famished. Thankfully our host Jacinda Steyn has prepared a feast. Of course the focus is on the olive in all its glory – oil, cured olives, tapenade, marmalade, green olives and black – but there’s also freshly baked bread, cheese and more. So delicious!
Blissfully sated, we stretch out under a pecan tree to wait for the minibus. This afternoon will be devoted to a nap.
Geelkrans: 12 km
We head out early in the minibus, across the bridge from Still Bay West to Still Bay East. We’re on our way to the Preekstoel rock formation and the start of the Geelkrans Hiking Trail through Still Bay East Nature Reserve. The first few kilometres of this trail snake inland through coastal fynbos before it veers back to the ocean. Today, however, we’re hiking all along the beach.
Ghostly sand formations and rocks hide in mist that has rolled in from the ocean, revealing themselves at the last moment. After half an hour the sun vanquishes the mist and we’re rewarded with views across the blue ocean towards the horizon.
It doesn’t take Carel and Charlotte van Wyk from Langebaan long to rid themselves of their hiking boots so they can feel the sand between their toes. The rest of us follow suit. Now it feels more like stroll along the beach, rather than a hike.
Along the way, we take time to examine hundreds of green sea urchin shells and intricate alikreukel shells (from a sea snail called a giant turban) that give this trail its name. Oystercatchers scatter out of our way, but the white-breasted cormorants that nest in the sea cliffs don’t seem too bothered by our presence.
As the hike progresses, the yellow cliffs become steeper, higher and more imposing.
They remind me of the sandstone cliffs you see in the Algarve in Portugal. Derek tells us how archaeologists and geologists “read” the different layers of the fossilised dunes like the pages of a history book – the dunes tell stories of climate change, the extinction of species and the development of humans.
After 6 km, at the end of Geelkrans, we stop for lunch. It’s possible to hike another
2 km to Rooikrans, and even further towards Gouritsmond. The temptation to keep on walking, as our ancestors did as they explored the region, is huge. But like they all did in the end, I too have to head home.