Path to Echo Valley

This weekend we went on another hike on the mountain above Kalk Bay. This time we parked on Boyes Drive, and entered the park at the sign for Echo Valley. The hike is a pretty easy walk, and its not long before you have some great views of Kalk Bay harbour.

Our aim for the day was to get to Boomslang cave, apparently its also known as Alladin’s cave, and is found above Kalk Bay, and overlooking Fish Hoek and Clovelly. We started the hike from the Kalk Bay side, so we would have to hike around the mountain to enter the cave from the entrance on the Fish Hoek side of the mountain, and exit into Echo Valley.

We took a leisurely walk up and around the mountain, taking time to snap some pictures of the great views of the coast, until we reached the entrance to Boomslang cave.

Boomslang cave goes right through the mountain, from the Clovelly side through to Echo valley on the other side, with a series of cool caverns and passages.

We donned our headlamps and entered the cave, which was a relief from the baking sun outside. Inside the cave it was considerably cooler, slightly damp, and ‘musty’ smelling. The cave is home to some bats, which are pretty noisy, and I was surprised to see a lot smaller population than I have seen in the past. Maybe the bulk of bats have moved to another more secluded part of the cave.

We made our way to the main cavern, where we rested and had some lunch by candle light and explored a few paths, before heading out on ‘all fours’ to Echo Valley. At the exit we tested the valley by shouting and listening for the echo’s back, its actually pretty good!

Instead of making our way back, we decided to go through Echo Valley towards the Amphitheater, where its possible to choose a variety of paths to follow. Again, walking through the moutains the views are excellent, and we took loads of pictures.

Once we reached the Amphitheater we decided to take the path towards Silvermine, to find a waterfall that one of us had heard about. That part of the hike took us over and around the mountain, before we decided the waterfall was not going to materialize, and we should start heading back. We took the path down to the Spes Bona Forest, which is a beautiful forest with board walks throughout, to protect the trees.

After walking through the forest, and trying to make our way back to the main path we came in on, we stumbled across Tartarus Cave, which we were hoping to find. Tartarus cave looks literally like a hole in the ground, and if you are walking past, you cant miss it.

We made our way into the cave, which starts with a large cavern with a passage way right in the back. We took the main passage way which gets quite narrow, and drops a meter or two before going on. At this stage we were quite a few meters into the passageway, before it got really narrow where we were walking, and I can only imagine that to continue further you have to climb up the passage wall and over the narrow passage to the other side. We didnt do this, and opted to turn around instead, happy just to have found the cave. Next time we will make a day of it, and start at Tartarus.

We left the cave and continued to make our way down to the car, all the while taking in the awesome views, and fybos.

All in all, we spent around 6 hours on the mountain, explored 2 caves and had a great day.

Kalk bay from Ou Kraal path

On Saturday we decided to go for a hike on the mountain above Kalk Bay. The path we chose was the Ou Kraal hiking path, which you can find on Boyes Drive above Kalk Bay.

The hike was very pretty, with great views of Kalk Bay, but the highlight was when we took the route that goes to the ‘spes bona forest’.

The forest is great because you walk under the canopy of loads of old trees on a wooden ‘boardwalk’ style path. It reminded me quite a lot of the ‘garden of eden’ near Knysna.

After passing through the forest, we continued on, exploring the paths, and taking pictures of the scenery, and turned around when we reached the Amphitheater.

From the Amphitheater there are about 5 different pathways going in different directions, which are all popular hiking paths. We decided to backtrack back through the Spes Bona forest, and head home.

We really enjoyed the hike, it was not too hectic a walk, and it really is pretty up there…definitely one I recommend to people.

There are quite a few caves in the area, and although we didnt explore any this trip, we will be back soon to visit Boomslang cave and Tartarus cave too, which are two of the most well known caves in the area.

Cheers for now