Blinkwater, New Hanover, 27 March,2022
Author: Dusty Shaw
Approx. hiking distance 12km
Grade 3+
The Blinkwater trail is one of those trails that started well in the 1980’s and over the many years has slowly started to fade with the odd hike now and again but it never has taken off again. With the presence of COVID and the lifting of most of the rules hiking in general has seen a boom and hopefully will continue. With this in mind the Blinkwater committee have made a big effort in restoring the trail to its former self but still needs a lot of work to be done.
This hike was to show off a bit and get hikers excited about wanting to experience a trail literally on their doorstep, by no means is it a walk in the park as some of our hikers soon found out.
We all met at the turn off before you enter Newhanover town, 7:30 sharp we formed a convoy and travelled through the Mondi plantation until we reached the Douglas Smith cottage(1). The cottage was established in 1905, many of the trees around the cottage were planted by the Smith family and the avenues of London planes trees were planted the same time as those in the Pietermaritzburg Botanical Garden which may make them over 100 years old.(2)
After a short walk around the cottage, 14 eager hikers started the slow walk up the hill with a few stops to catch our breath(3) until finally we popped out of the plantation after being harassed by the horse flies that followed us out. In the grasslands we followed an old jeep track still gaining altitude we came across “old man’s chair” which Dave(4) had the luxury of plonking himself on and admiring Albert falls dam in the far distance. A little bit further up the track we veered off right into the grassland itself marked by a blue bent arrow.
We walked passed Dassie rock where the hike leader was instructed by the many to stand on and look important, or tried to. The trail had been recently brush cut and was very easy to follow and also helped was the blue markers throughout the trail, but one had to be observant for hidden rocks as we made our way down to the intersection from Mountain falls hut. At this intersection which comes from the SAPPI plantation there is a beautiful patch of cool indigenous forest with a stream from a spring cutting through the middle with little waterfalls (5) in and a good place to fill up with water and have a quick snack.
Once everyone was rested we continued through the grassland admiring the various plants such as the everlasting, ferns, wild dagga(6) and some with botanical names I dare not say without sounding like a mad man. Almost before reaching our spot for lunch I heard a shout from behind from Hettie pointing at Dave who was the back marker saying they need to go back to the snack spot as Dave had dropped his water bottle therefore doing one whole kilometre more than everyone else in the group. Luckily we could keep an eye on them as they made their way there and back safely as we continued to the top of the hill for lunch.
What a view, the day had started with mist and it had lifted by the time we settled for lunch, we could see Newhanover town, smoke from Noodsberg mill right across to Albert falls dam. Once we all had a rest, a good chin wag and stretched the legs we were ready for the second half of the hike into the indigenous forest. We took a short cut down to join up with the trail again and it wasn’t long when I heard don’t move, well I jumped three steps forward as David Hockley shouted snake.(7) I had stepped over a berg adder of about 30cm which luckily had no interest in me. So after a quick photo we continued down into the forest with nerves on edge as the previous weekend we had seen a puff adder with another group of hikers.
Entering into the ingenious forest brought coolness as the day started to heat up which was a welcome change of temperature.(8) Due to all the rain we have had recently, the sun has not been able to dry out the path and you had to be careful not to slip especially over some of the more technical areas of the trail. A very rare big, tall cabbage tree was seen growing next to the path as well as a few yellow wood trees. Many of the original yellowwoods were harvested after the war by soldiers returning home to York near New Hanover town in which they formed a company to harvest them for commercial purposes. Along the trail we came across a saw pit and what looks like a camp area near a stream where the logging took place.
The trail took us passed beautiful rock kranses (9) with moss and orchards growing on them, at one place you can here water thundering below your feet as it makes its way through a hidden tunnel below the trail to emerge out further down the hill. One of the hikers decide to take a well deserved rest (10) in the moss whist we waited for the tail enders to catch up. Going through a rock arch we continued in awe of the little wild flowers, figs and many interesting coloured spiders and webs that crossed the path.
Winding our way downward and crossing some beautiful streams, bum sliding here and there we finally joined the contour path(11). This was once a railway line that helped to move the timber that was harvested back to the Douglas Smith cottage for further processing. I believe some hikers were relieved to have some flat ground back as the knees were starting to become a bit creaky.
The indigenous forest walk ended (11) and we emerged back into grassland for a short while before going into the plantation of gum trees and some soggy areas. Sharon nearly left her shoe behind when she stepped onto some solid looking ground that took her to her ankle in mud and with a yelp she managed to jump out. Not very long after that we made our way through an old cattle kraal skilfully built without any mortar, another 100m further we arrived safely back at the cottage.
I heard one of the hikers saying “what an adventure, it was not what I expected at all” we had started at 8:00 and finished at 15:30 a good days hike with lots of surprises. We had gone through 3 different biomes being plantation, grassland and indigenous forest each one with its own unique habitat. Unfortunately no animals were seen although there were lots of evidence of buck, bush pig and porcupine.
Should anyone like to do their own walk with family and friends or stay overnight at the cottage which can sleep 12 people it can be booked via the Blinkwater site at blinkwatertrails.wixsite.com
