Hi. Myself and a partner want to do the Swellendam 5 day trail, but the minimum group size is 3 for all overnight hiking. For safety reasons I understand this.
I imagine other hikers have encountered this limitation. Is there a way to join another group or see who else has booked this hike so we can join?
I spoke with cape nature reservations about this but they can not disclose any information about other groups. Joining another group has to be done independently they said.
Has anyone else had this problem and can suggest a work around? Thanks in advance!
I wonder how they enforce it though? Maybe it’s just a case of paying for a third person that doesn’t pitch, and when you arrive to do the actual hike the people at the gate doesn’t bother checking if you really are three people …
My wife and I would be keen to a multi day trek though. Do you sleep in huts on this route or do you have to camp?
Cape Nature’s presence is mostly absent. They hardly enforce or maintain. If you got to places like Krom river, during summer there will be well over 100 people here. No-one pays, mostly full of trash and bottles. If they don’t enforce their own rules, no real need to bend over backwards to follow them. Cape Nature is much like SanParks. Organizations designed to just pay salaries for people who never see the reserves which they are “managing”.
I had this issue after being told 2 people are fine. They did let us on the trail eventually, and we were the only people on the trail.
Had to speak to the manager to convince him that we are very experienced ect ect. Took about an extra hour to sit there and convince him though, and day 1 is pretty long in addition to the drive so make sure you give yourself enough time to make it to the hut.
Get an email stating that you are allowed to do it, you might need to furnish some proof that you arnt a newbie, and specifically ask if any other groups are on the trail and which dates so you could move your booking to dates where there are other people on the trail.
I will say having gone there twice the majority of the staff are AFK, dont know the trail and are generally not helpful. So get it in writing.
