Five days of the Otter Trail provided exceptional natural beauty, opportunity for fun and frolicking and challenges of body, mind and soul.

Five days of the Otter Trail provided exceptional natural beauty, opportunity for fun and frolicking and challenges of body, mind and soul.

South Africa's iconic trail started like a whirlwind of pent-up energy with nowhere to go, hovering and appearing mischievously in small details that set us back, made us anxious and delayed our start. We were still caught up in the drama of life and it would be days of walking in coastal forest and along a rocky coastline punctuated by inviting turquoise gullies before it would dissipate entirely and leave us washed clean.

The Otter Trail does that to you.

As the playful elves of fate would have it, the strap on my backpack sheared off on the first morning of the trail. My friend wasn't faring any better and, after parking our car and taking the shuttle from Nature's Valley to the start of the trail at Storms River, discovered that she'd left her obligatory medical certificate in the car, 30km away.

There was a bit of mad panic before a kindly hiker drove her to the nearest police station to sign an affidavit. The weigh-in of the packs didn't lighten our moods as they were...