Tsitsikamma Forest

We went for a canopy tour in the Tsitsikamma forest which is a beautiful forest on the southern coast of the country. They call the area the garden route because it is so green relative to the rest of the country, but they are in the middle of a huge drought...like 10 years, with no signs of any changes. Thanks, climate change. Anyways, its no Oregon forest. But still pretty. This was the most organized anything we have dealt with in this country and they move a lot of people through this canopy tour. It's a bit more touristy than we wanted because you see lots of other people, but it was fun nonetheless. We were in a group with this couple in the picture and they were hilarious. The tour is a very ecofriendly way to see the forest because you don't walk through it, you just slide on cables. They are able to mount the cables without harming the trees at all--no screws or bolts. They use pressure to hold the cables on. You can see the pictures of the cables wrapped around the tree. They also have someone frequently check the root system of the trees to make sure they aren't being harmed.

We then went to Storm's River campsite in the Tsitsikamma which is where the two pictures of the water are taken. It is a great campsite with the exception of the millions of people that were there as well. The next night we moved onto Nature's Valley campsite in the forest and it was much more our pace. Less people and campsites more than 5 feet from each other. And lots of little Vervet monkeys. They are really cute, but they are the racoons of South Africa. We were told not to leave anything out or they will take it whether its food or not. We watched as about 7 monkeys totally ransacked another campsite. It was pretty hilarious...for us...probably not the people who owned all of the stuff.