Eden To Addo Great Corridor Hike

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Eden To Addo is a conservation group based on the Garden Route in South Africa and their main focus is Biodiversity Conservation. Their long term plan is to create biodiversity corridors that link the Garden Route National Park, the Baviaans Mega Reserve and the Addo Elephant National Park together.

Once a year in September Eden To Addo hosts the Eden To Addo Great Corridor Hike. This is a 400 km mega hike that starts in the Harkerville Forest on the coast and ends 18 days later at Addo Elephant National Park. I was extremely lucky to be invited to help on this years hike as a learner guide with a view to guide and lead future hikes.

Sunset Over The Outeniqua Mountains

The longest hike I had ever done previously was a 12 day hike in the Cederberg Mountains as a Boy Scout so it was with a bit of trepidation that I agreed to do the walk. The fact that the hike was to raise awareness regarding biodiversity and the establishment of correct land use practices was a major reason why I signed on.

Biodiversity Corridors are a relatively new field in conservation and the idea is that by creating continuous paths or corridors of indigenous vegetation you maintain the biodiversity of a region. Alien vegetation and bad land use practices often cause a barrier that some birds, insects and animals won’t cross. This leads to a decrease in biodiversity in an area as gene pools get smaller due to the lack of movement of animals, birds, insects and plants into the area from other regions. Biodiversity Corridors conserve viable populations of threatened and endemic species and cover enough of an area to sustain natural processes such as Carbon and nutrient cycling, seed dispersal, pollination and water cycles.

The hike was one of the best walking experinces I have ever had. Over the 18 days we walked through 5 different plant biomes – Afromontane Forest, Fynbos, Succulent Karoo, Savanna Grassland and Namib Karoo. The numbers of different plant species along the route numbered in a staggering 12 000 species and no as a guide I don’t know them all, yet. We crossed mountain ranges, rivers, fences and enjoyed some of the most splendid views and vistas each day.

Beautiful Vista of Valley's and Mountains

The hike was superbly organised and lead by Galeo Saintz, the pioneer who planned and scouted the route originally. Each day we walked from camp after a hearty breakfast at 08H00 after doing some warm up exercises. To cover the distance we had to walk on average about 20 km per day. What I really enjoyed about the structure of the hike was that each day we had a contemplation to think about and then we would walk in silence for about 1 hour. The contemplations worked with the terrain we walked through and it was great food for thought. Each night as we sat around the camp fire enjoying dinner we would discuss the day, what we liked and didn’t like and our thoughts on the contemplation.

Logistically we had a superb support crew, Bhejane 4×4 Adventures, who put up our tents, cooked all our meals, gave us hot water for bucket showers, dug the latrines and ensured we were well looked after. They were fantastic and nothing was too much for them. All we had to carry each day was a small backpack with our lunch, water and wet weather gear.

I found the hike was a great challenge and personal journey, walking 8 hours each day gives you a lot of time for thinking. I’m already eagerly looking forward to next years hike and highly recommend it to all nature lovers and walkers.

The Eden To Addo Corridor Hike Team