Trans Gamtoos Slackpacking

• Patensie Baviaanskloof East

Slackpacking through over and across the Gamtoos Valley. This special valley with the Gamtoos river that slices through it all the way to the Gamtoosmond where it runs into the ocean is one of the most fertile areas in the Eastern Cape. 

The Valley is famous for it’s Citrus all over the world, grows the best potatoes and other vegetables. Therefore it is often called the “pantry” of the Eastern Cape.

Trans Gamtoos Slackpacking offers a hike of 70 km over three days through this wonderful valley.

We start off in Cambria, the mouth and southern entrance of the UNESCO world heritage site, the Baviaanskloof. The route takes you past the meeting point of the Groot and Kouga River, where the Gamtoos River is formed, all the way to the heartbeat of not only this farming community, but also the greater Nelson Mandela Metropole, the Kouga Dam.

From there we hike through farmland and veld up to a hight of about 1400 m above sea level and down again. This will give you an amazing 360° view of the valley as far as the eye can see.

On the last day we hike all the way to the famous window in the mountain and the Phillips tunnel.