Slackpacking in the KZN Midlands

When backpacking trails were first conceived of in South Africa, in the 1970s, the old government overestimated the ability of the people it hoped would use the National Hikingway Trails that it installed. For that reason, the daily distances of those first forestry trails – like the Soutpansberg and the Outeniqua trails – were generally 20-30 km.

Perhaps in the Calvinist conception, the suffering that hiking such distances with a 12-20kg backpack was virtuous; perhaps in fact, if you could do that, it would give support to their conception of a superior race.

But the reality was that hikers mostly came nowhere close to master-race abilities. Frequent emergencies with exhausted hikers as well as negative feedback eventually prompted the authorities to revise their notions and shorten the daily distances for existing and new trails.

Slackpacking through the scenic forests and rolling hills of the KZN Midlands.

We may deride these early conceptions, but we can nonetheless thank the early government trail designers for originating the concept of hut-to-hut hiking in South Africa.

And South Africa, in its variety, turned out to be a country hugely suited to hiking trails of all sorts – in fact better than the beautiful, but relatively unvaried, trails of New Zealand.

Eventually, Mao’s equivalent of letting one hundred schools of thought contend occurred in the South African hiking sector. Farmers and others began offering all kinds of trails of all kinds of lengths and with all kinds of attractions for all kinds of people. The previously-puritanical proposition that you had to carry your backpack into the wild became just one option as operators began offering slackpacking options in which hikers’ bags were carried for them between night stops.

The lush mist belt forests of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands – perfect slackpacking terrain.

An advanced form of this is the glamorous type of slackpacking which is offered by operators like Spekboom Tours in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. That formula offers stunning surroundings via a hard hike (15-20km per day), but also a soft bed and delicious food. In other words, doing hard physical exercise doesn’t mean you cannot also have the finer, hedonistic things in life.

KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, and particularly the Mist Belt, is particularly well-suited to this. It variously trousers stunning moist indigenous forests dominated by yellowwoods and lemonwoods, to open upland grasslands rich with veld flowers, to luscious forestry and dairy farmland. A good trail organiser like Spekboom Tours offers a balance of all of these as well as interesting events along the way.

A classic Midlands scene – misty forests meeting bright open grasslands.

On a 3-day Falls2Falls trail in the Karkloof area north of Howick, the first night was spent at Shawswood Farm in rooms beautifully decked out as glamorous stables. The weekend started with drinks and snacks and then dinner provided by one of the leading local caterers. No pot noodles in sight. And the stable theme was not an indicator that we would be carrying heavy packs because every day our bags were transported to the next destination.

The trail to Grey Mare Falls – a highlight of the Falls2Falls route.

At the top of the escarpment, the forest fell abruptly away, replaced by a vast treeless light-green grassland sprinkled with everlastings (flowers) in pink, red, yellow and mauve – set against lichen-blotched grey rocks. We got to view Grey Mare Falls, falling 100 metres from the grassland area, against dolerite columns, into the deep forest below.

Grey Mare Falls – one of the KZN Midlands’ most beautiful natural landmarks.

Julia Colvin, founder of Spekboom Tours, also does separate fundraising hikes to support the conservancy. This uninhabited upland area has game of various descriptions – zebra, wildebeest, you name it – some of which we saw. But the pristineness and silence was the real appeal.

Thistledown House – a tranquil overnight stop surrounded by lush gardens.

After passing the impressive Karkloof Falls (105m), we are transported to our second night stop at Amber Avenue guesthouse. On the third day, the trail leads towards Howick along the edge of the gorge formed below the Howick Falls (95m). We descend abruptly from the edge into the valley created by the Umgeni River, below Howick Falls.

Walking through the rolling farmlands and wetlands of the Midlands region.

Spekboom Tours: www.spekboomtours.co.za

A memorable Midlands adventure – where luxury meets wilderness.