I never planned on going to the Tsitsikamma. Bent on spending a week far removed from civilisation and immersed in natural beauty, I had first looked to more exotic island destinations such as the archipelagos off Mozambique's coast where one is confronted with transparent blue oceans and pink sunsets on a daily basis, or idylls located on Madagascar's rugged coastline.
And, like most tourists with a limited budget but a taste for the finer things in life, we also fancied staying in a top-notch establishment with all the five-star trimmings for a snip of the price.
Unable to find posh accommodation for affordable prices in Mozambique and Madagascar, I started to look closer to home.
When I found The Fernery on the Internet, I couldn't wait to pack my bags. This Tsitsikamma destination looked as if it was situated in heaven; perched on the edge of a rough cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean and surrounded by a thick forest and offering all the comforts of urban living, it promised to be my ultimate getaway.
Foolishly, we decided to drive, travelling from Johannesburg, through KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape before finally making our way through to the Garden Route.
With a few overnight stops, it was a hellishly long trip - about two days of solid driving. All the travelling made us just that more eager to set eyes on the Tsitsikamma but it was late at night as we wound our way along a bumpy rural road towards The Fernery, enveloped by an impenetrable blackness.
Although it would take us the next three or four days to fully grasp the Tsitsikamma's magnificence, the next morning, as I looked at the vista from our balcony, spying clumps of coarse fynbos and the violent Indian ocean smashing against the impenetrable craggy rocks below, I started to get an idea of what was in store for us.
The Tsitsikamma's natural beauty isn't subtle - wherever one looks one is inundated with the bright purple and yellow fynbos and the thick green forests are also hard to miss as is the presence of the bulky rock that flanks its coastline and imparts character to its mountain ranges.
One of the Tsitsikamma's distinguishing characteristics is the rivers that cut through its rugged landscape, finally meeting the sea. Studying the map I counted eight rivers. Coupled with the sea that hugs the Tsitsikamma's coastline, you ultimately find yourself surrounded by water - which is not a bad thing if you first had your heart set on an island holiday.
The Tsitsikamma's proximity to water didn't go unnoticed by its early dwellers, the ancient Khoisan people who dubbed the lush area "Sietsiekamma", meaning "the place of clear water".
Indigenous forests also characterise the Tsitsikamma. For me it was Dalene Matthee's Kringe in 'n Bos (Circles in a Forest) that planted a dark, mysterious and foreboding picture of the Tsitsikamma's forests in my imagination. The book takes its cue from a long line of tales that weave mystery into this natural phenomenon. What is it about forests that inspires such terror and enchantment?
As we strode off to explore the Fernery's extensive property (over 100ha), which includes a good many wooded areas, I hoped to put my finger on this long-standing love/hate affair that has existed between humankind and forests.
Unfortunately, I encountered a less intriguing but equally prominent relationship that humankind has shared with wooded areas; the compulsion to grow trees en masse before chopping them down. While the Tsitsikamma is famous for its forests, much of its indigenous woodland has been destroyed. And, at The Fernery, we only managed to find a small pocket of the indigenous forest still intact.
Aside from catering for tourists, The Fernery grows and exports ferns and other foliage products to Europe, which explained the fern forests that were interspersed with patches of barren land dotted with protruding tree stumps.
The other less attractive aspect about a man-made forest is that the trees are planted in rows and at an equal distance from each other. This somehow dissipates the sense of mystery and wonder that one associates with wild forests; forests should be disordered configurations with hidden paths and unexpected openings.
That said, the fern forests still possessed some charm. From the beds of luminous green fern leaves that line the base of the forest to the pleasing tranquillity of its symmetric wooded aisles, it is easy to see why forests have held such fascination. Trees might not wield much of a physical presence on their own but, en masse, they crowd your senses.
I might not have stumbled across any fairies, goblins or unicorns that supposedly make forests their homes, but I did encounter obscure insect and animal life that I have not seen elsewhere, like bright orange-coloured beetles and little luminous green reptiles that quickly slithered out of my path. This all makes the Tsitsikamma the ideal destination for lengthy walks.
There is so much to discover and, when you finally emerge from the forest to see the ocean, rock and fynbos, it is hard to believe that such a beautiful place exists.
Although we had selected The Fernery for its remoteness, after a day or two of wandering around the property, we were itching to see more of the Tsitsikamma. The Fernery may be flanked by the Indian Ocean but there is no beach below, only a mass of rock. So, desperate to feel salt water lapping over our feet, we headed towards Nature's Valley, about 20km from The Fernery. With a bumpy, pot-holed and muddy rural road to negotiate before we could get back on the main road, it took us more than half-an-hour to reach our destination. But it was worth it.
Nature's Valley is painfully exquisite. Aside from the indigenous forest that you drive through to reach the beach, there is a tranquil lagoon framed by a rugged mountain that leads into the sea. Most of the Tsitsikamma's coastline is protected from greedy property developers and hoteliers, which has ensured that the seashore has remained mostly untouched by civilisation.
Nature's Valley consists of a little suburb that flanks the coast but most of the wooden abodes are sympathetic to the environment and are camouflaged by a contiguous canopy of trees and natural foliage, leaving the beach's beauty intact. I quickly developed a (healthy) addiction for Nature's Valley, feeling that a day at the Tsitsikamma was incomplete without a walk along its pristine beach. My almost daily pilgrimage to Nature's Valley did, however, include visits to other prominent attractions.
A humungous yellowwood, the Big Tree, as it is called, was one such pit stop. As its uninventive sobriquet suggests, it is one of the largest and oldest trees in the area. I can't recall its exact proportions, but suffice to say it would take about four people with their arms stretched to the hilt to hug its circumference. Although the tree is situated in a lush, indigenous forest, the busy N2 highway is a little too close to it - you can hear the traffic from the forest - to feel as if you are at one with nature.
Storm's River Mouth, which is situated in the Tsitsikamma National Park, might be a little overpopulated with cabins and overrun with German tourists that crowd the tourist shop and restaurant, but the natural surroundings, a deep river gorge that cuts a path through the rugged mountain range to the sea, provides quite a memorable encounter with nature.
The bridge over Storm's River - apparently the main attraction - was closed the day we visited but the short walks along the river mouth and up the mountain that we were able to do offered a profusion of Kodak moments.
The Tsitsikamma really is tailor-made for nature lovers. Whether it's taking a tour through the forest, bungee jumping into its deepest valleys or hopping along tree tops, most activities are nature-related. There are no real cultural attractions - unless you count an imitation Khoisan village fashioned from concrete that no doubt offers cringeworthy, idealised representations of the Khoi.
One really is quite divorced from urban living in the Tsitsikamma. There is no real town centre. Storms River village is probably the closest it gets to a main thoroughfare and it is hardly a bustling hub of activity. On the day that we pulled into this half-a-horse town, we were the only folk wandering along its main drag, if you could call a short stretch of road lined with a hodgepodge of touristy shops flogging forest tours or stereotypical "African" knick-knacks, a small ANC office and a minuscule police station a town.
City slickers will find staying in the Tsitsikamma challenging. Aside from looking at natural wonders, there is little else to do. There is no shopping to be had and there are no bona fide restaurants as such, just a few B&Bs offering modest meals that do little to tantalise the taste buds. The Tsitsikamma is clearly no place for foodies.
Although we found delicious snacks at the Fynboshoek Cheese Farm, where you can nibble on delectable cakes and cheese platters in a quaint farm setting, most of the meals we had were really quite ghastly. A lasagne at the Tsitsikamma Restaurant at Storms River Mouth will no doubt go down as the worst lasagne to have ever passed my lips.
Fortunately, we were a hop, skip and jump from Plettenberg Bay (about 30 minutes away) and Knysna (about an hour), where you can track down a decent meal and get a bit of an urban fix.
Desperate for a bit of seafood and retail therapy, we drove up to Plettenberg Bay for the day, where we bought some overpriced beach gear and tucked into the first scrumptious meal of the holiday.
However, although we enjoyed our day in Plettenberg Bay, it didn't leave us wishing we were holidaying there instead. Replete with shops and an excess of restaurants, it felt too much like home. After all, we had come to the Tsitsikamma to immerse ourselves in a lifestyle and environment quite unlike our own.
And the Tsitsikamma's setting really is unique; although one can find fynbos, rugged cliffs, forests, stunning gorges and azure oceans elsewhere, it is rare to find all of these natural wonders concentrated in one small area.
No doubt, we would have enjoyed sunning ourselves on a Mozambican island, but we might have had to settle for great seascapes instead of all the infinite natural pleasures the Tsitsikamma offers.
- The Fernery, phone 042-280-3588, www.forestferns.co.za
- Tsitsikamma National Park, phone 042-281-1607, www.sanparks.org