The Tsitsikamma is the last stretch of the Garden Route before the Eastern Cape, and it is the densest concentration of good things on the whole drive. Forest, gorges, a river mouth, a coastline of rock and surf, and the highest bungy jump in Africa, all within about 30 kilometres of each other.

Most people pass through it in an hour. Here is how to do it properly in a single day.

The short version

• Morning: Bloukrans Bridge
• Midday: Storms River Mouth and the suspension bridge
• Afternoon: the forest, or the village of Storms River
• Late afternoon: Nature’s Valley on the old pass, if you have the light

Morning: Bloukrans Bridge

Start here, and start early. Conditions on the bridge are usually calmest in the morning, the light in the gorge is better, and getting the biggest thing of the day done first means the rest of it is unhurried.

The bridge carries the N2 216 metres above the Bloukrans River. Three things happen from it. The bungy, the SkyWalk out along a catwalk beneath the arch, and the Zipline 200 metres back across the gorge. The Full Adventure Package combines all three and is what most visitors book.

Allow two to three hours including check in, briefing and the walk out. If nobody in your group is jumping, the SkyWalk on its own still justifies the stop, and there is a deck at the top with a view down the gorge.

Directions and GPS are on the getting here page.

Midday: Storms River Mouth

About 40 minutes east of the bridge, then a winding descent down to the sea. Storms River Mouth is the coastal section of the Garden Route National Park, and it is the single most photographed spot in the Tsitsikamma.

The main walk is a boardwalk and path of roughly a kilometre each way from the rest camp to the suspension bridges over the river mouth. It takes about 45 minutes return at a gentle pace and it is worth every step. There is a restaurant at the camp if you want to eat with the view.

This is also where the Otter Trail begins, though that is a five day commitment rather than an afternoon one. Conservation fees apply at the gate.

Afternoon: the forest

Back up on the plateau, the village of Storms River is the base for most of the area’s guided activities. Canopy tours through the indigenous forest are the best known, running on cables between platforms built into the trees, and they are a completely different register to the bridge. Calm, green, and mostly about the forest rather than the adrenaline.

If you would rather be on your own two feet, there are short marked trails through the forest that need nothing more than decent shoes.

Late afternoon: Nature’s Valley

Head back west and take the old Groot River Pass off the N2. It drops through dense forest into a single small village sitting between a lagoon, the forest and a long empty beach.

There is very little to do in Nature’s Valley, which is precisely the point after a day that started with a 216 metre drop. It is the correct place to end.

Practical notes

• Distances are short but the roads are slow. Passes, bends and roadworks. Add more time than the map suggests.
• Fuel up in Plettenberg Bay or Storms River. There is not much in between.
• Bring a jacket regardless of season. The Tsitsikamma makes its own weather and the gorge is breezy.
• Book the bridge in advance in December, January and over Easter.
• Signal is patchy once you drop into the river mouth. Download your maps.

If you only have half a day

Bloukrans in the morning and Storms River Mouth after lunch. That is the Tsitsikamma at its two extremes, the built and the wild, and they are 40 minutes apart.

Ready to book the bridge? Start with the Full Adventure Package, or read what to expect first.