July 2026

Climbing over big rocks, dodging uprooted trees and crossing the river (twice) … all for a baby waterfall

As we showed you in last week’s post, we recently camped at the beautiful Dwarsberg Trout Hideaway (read here). A few weeks before our visit, we had read about a hiking trail that leads to a waterfall.

After we had breakfast at our campsite, we packed our water bottles and fruit into a backpack and drove the 7km/4.3 miles to the start of the hiking trail.

Somewhere around here is the hiking trail

There is parking for just a few cars (maybe five or six) where the hiking trail starts, but when we arrived, we were the only ones there. Later, on the way back, we came across a family of four and also another couple who were on their way to the waterfall. This meant that we were mostly on our own on the trail.

We are at the start of the hike to the waterfall

The trail goes through a gorge and runs along the river. At the start, it was pretty easy to follow the path, but as we went further into the gorge, it got harder and harder to follow or even find the trail.

There are a lot of green bushes and trees along the trail

It was wonderful to constantly hear the babbling of the water in the river. Most of the time we also walked right next to the river and could see how clear the water was.

The river’s water was crystal clear

It quickly became clear, however, that the recent storm had affected the hiking trail. In some places, the trail had simply disappeared, and then we had to make our way over large rocks and between uprooted trees. It did slow our pace down, but it also gave us time to look at the beautiful plant life and tiny colourful flowers – we are in a fynbos area after all.

Climbing over huge rocks to find the trail again

Lovely flora on the trail

Fynbos bushes

Intense green leaves

We saw route markers in the form of small stones stacked on top of big rocks. We were constantly looking out for them, but it seems that the river, with the storm, may have wiped out quite a few of these. In that case, we just kept following the river.

Route markers

On the trail again (we think)

Because the trail is in a gorge, the walk is in the shade. I believe it’s a blessing in the summer, but we did get quite cold being in the middle of winter. We could see sunlight higher up the mountains, but down here in the gorge we had to keep our jackets on.

Sunshine on the mountains and shade in the gorge

The deeper we stepped into the gorge, the more uprooted trees blocked the trail. We had to either try to find a detour (which wasn’t always possible) or figure out a way to get through it.

Uprooted trees

Finding our way over rocks again

Although the trail was quite challenging in some places, we still enjoyed it. The river is beautiful and created a calm mood.

Up and down the river

Beautiful scenes along the river

Towering rocks above us

At one point we saw the route markers on the other side of the river. We found a spot where we could step on rocks to cross to the other side without getting our feet wet. It did take a bit of balance, but luckily we had a walking stick (though, only one which we had to share between the two of us).

We had to cross the river here to get to the other side

From here on, however, the route got more difficult. There wasn’t really a trail anymore and we had to make our way through weird-looking branches and slippery rocks.

Tree branches in the way

Here we had to duck down to walk under the tree branch

There were a lot of ferns and moss on the rocks

After we walked for a bit on this side of the river, we saw the route markers now on the other side of the river. It was time to cross the river again.

Time to cross the river again

We had barely reached the other side of the river when we came across large rocks and washed-out tree branches. We walked a little further, but it seemed like it was the end of the trail.

A tricky spot on the trail

What we did see was a small waterfall – well, I suppose you could hardly call it a waterfall. But we decided it would have to do, since we couldn’t walk any further.

This was our waterfall for this hike

We had a few ‘naartjies’ (tangerines) and then sat back while listening to the babbling water. After Berto filled our water bottles with mountain water, it was time to head back.

Time for a snack and cold mountain water

The way back

Of course, we now had to cross the river twice again, and this time we each ended up with one foot in the water.

I’m still smiling (but just a little)

Almost out of the gorge, we took a few last photos of the river and then looked forward to stepping into some sunshine.

One last look at the river and happy about some sunshine

The hike to the so-called waterfall took us just over an hour, but we walked back in only 40 minutes. There might be two reasons for this:

  1. It was the second time we walked the trail and sort of knew where to go,
  2. Or maybe because we saw an unknown footprint in the sand

It wasn’t a human one, and we wondered what animal had walked here. I kind of hoped it was someone’s dog, but it could have been any other animal – maybe a baboon or something scarier? Who knows … but we didn’t want to stay too long to find out.

The unknown footprint

Despite the challenges on this hiking trail and the fact that we came back with a few bruises and scratches, we still had a wonderful time. We look forward to more walks in nature again—just maybe not so adventurous.