Tsitsikamma Forest Trail Part 3: Up the old pass

The first part of our walk through the Plaatbos Nature Reserve took us on various trails through the forest before taking a halfway break next to the Storms River by the old low water bridge.  This left us with the walk back up to the village on the Storms River Pass.

 

In 1879 the famous pass builder Thomas Bain was busy surveying the area east of Plettenberg Bay and found it to consist of almost impenetrable forests and deep river gorges.  To get through the imposing Storms River gorge, Bain followed the ancient elephant trails which took the easiest and most gradual way down towards the river and built the road along those contoars.  The pass was built by convicts and completed in 1884.  Travelling down the pass some of those ancient trails can still be spotted next to the road. 

A kilometer or so before the end we crossed another stream and couldn't help stopping again for a break.  The Kidz had their shoes off immediately to enjoy the fresh forest stream.

I took the opportunity to trek up and down the stream a bit for a couple of pictures capturing one of my favorite things - a forest stream.

The end was in sight and nobody was complaining.  It was an awesome morning out and we topped it off with ice cream sundaes at Marilyns Diner in the village.

Tsitsikamma Forest Trail Part 1: Plaatbos Nature Reserve

I find forests to have some kind of therapeutic effect on me, hence the fact that I will find any excuse to go and spend some time around forests.  It's no surprise then that I found myself and Family Firefly on a family outing in Storms River Village in the Tsitsikamma.  Three days around the forest for me is probably comparable to somebody from Gauteng spending a week at the beach.  I did make it clear to the family that I wanted to spend at least (part of) one day doing a short hike in the forest and we decided on some of the trails through the Plaatbos Nature Reserve adjacent to the village.

Plaatbos Nature Reserve falls within the Tsitsikamma National Park and has various hiking and mountain bike trails throughout, most branching off the old Storms River Pass.  Heading into the forest we decided to take the very first one on the left as you enter the gate and  disappeared into the forest.  I'm very fortunate that my family loves the outdoors and don't mind going hiking, so as soon as we hit the trail Chaos Boy was off in the lead with the rest of us trailing after.

The trail through Plaatbos is a typical forest trail with very little disruption around other than the path itself.  The initial plan was to just do a short loop but on two occasions we got to a fork and opted to keep going rather than head back towards the village.  Most of the first part of the walk was spent right inside the indigenous forest and quite a few times I stopped to photograph something interesting.  One of the things that always catch my eye is bracket fungus and on this walk there were no shortage of it.  See Bracket fungus, Brown Bracket and Orange bracket fungus which I have already posted since our trip.
 

In the end we spent about 4 hours in the forest covering what I guess was probably in the region of about 11 or 12 kilometers. But I'm getting ahead of myself.  I decided to split the walk into three posts so that each covers a different part of our outing. I also didn't want to make it a too long a post cause there are many people like me out there who gets bored very quickly if one has to read too much. *smile* In the next post we head down to the historic Storms River low water bridge at the bottom of the pass.

Tranquil forest stream

I can't imagine myself a more tranquil scene than one of the Tsitsikamma's whiskey coloured streams flowing through the thick indigenous forest

Tsitsikamma forest cascade

One of my favorite photos taken in the last little while combining a couple of my favorite things.  Forest, stream, waterfall and the Tsitsikamma.

Bracket Fungus

Usually you spot bracket fungus on the forest floor but after seeing two lots of brackets in the Tsitsikamma looking down (see here and here) I nearly walked right by this bunch of bracket at eye level growing on an upright dead tree stump.

Brown bracket

Although orange bracket fungus are easily spotted in the indigenous forests of the Tsitsikamma there are a number of less brightly coloured bracket fungus that can be spotted growing on mostly dead trees as well.  In this case I found this branch full of a light brown bracket.  Its because of things like these that I should just be left to walk through the forest on my own to explore and take photos without being rushed by the rest of the Pride.

Orange bracket fungus

Walking through the Tsitsikamma forest you see shades of green, brown and grey, but every now and then there is a bright flash. The red from under the wing of a Knysna Loerie gliding from branch to branch, a tiny colourful flower or an orange bracket fungus growing on a piece of dead wood.    

Pink ferns in the forest

If I could go for a walk in an indigenous forest every day I would.  I love the beauty and peacefulness of it and don't think I'll ever be able to get enough for it.  One of the thing that I always find very interesting are the young fern leaves that's coloured pink, something I saw quite a lot of in the Tsitsikamma last week.  I asked somebody in the area once why the young leaves are pink before turning green and the answer that I got was that they grow so quickly that the photosynthesis only kicks in afterwards.

Knysna forest roads

The are two ways of exploring the indigenous forests around Knysna, by car and on foot. 

Several forest roads take one all over the forests surrounding Knysna from down by the Knysna River up to Gouna, across to Millwood and over the Prince Alfred Pass.  The road in the picture is called Kom se Pad.

The best way to really connect with the forest is by going on one of the many hiking trails criss crossing throughout the forest. This is the only way to get close to nature and smell the forest. The Terblanche Trail is just one of them.