The hike is linked by three major reserves - the Garden Route National Park, Baviaanskloof World Heritage Site, and the Addo Elephant National Park; effectively creating a 400km seamless, protected and biodiverse conservation corridor.
"We have a national treasure that competes with the best hikes worldwide," says Joan Berning, CEO of Eden to Addo.
Besides breathtaking mountain scenery, hikers experience five biomes (fynbos, forest, thicket, succulent karoo and nama karoo) and some of the wildest areas in South Africa. In just one of the biomes, the fynbos consists of 9,000 species, of which 6,192 are found nowhere else.
Professor of Botany at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Richard Cowling, is thrilled by the diversity of the area. "Nowhere else in the world would you find such a diversity of biomes in such a small area, and nowhere would you find such high phylogenetic diversity of plants, crudely indicated by the large number of genera. In this spectacular area one can find growing side by side, a cycad - whose origin goes back hundreds of millions years - and a minute, succulent haworthia still in the throes of speciation."
The hike explores remote areas where the last truly free elephants, black rhino, buck, leopard and buffalo still roam without fences to hamper their movements. The hike is establishing conservation corridors between the parks to enable the free migration of many species.
"I have a dream that perhaps one day the secretive Garden of Eden elephants may once again connect with their kin in the Addo Elephant National Park, and our hikers are part of that dream, walking on paths where thousands of elephants once trod just 200 years ago," says Berning. "Man has destroyed large herds of not only elephants, but also buffalo, eland, zebra the cape lion and more in this special area and still continues to do so by slaughtering the leopard, jackal, black eagle and more. We are using the hike to raise awareness about conservation issues."
Since its inception, the Eden to Addo Corridor Initiative has achieved incredible conservation milestones. "We are working with farmers and conservation bodies to create vital conservation corridors and we have raised funds to transform the Keurbooms River Catchment, within the Keurbooms Corridor, back to its natural state by clearing thousands of hectares of invasive alien plants," Berning says. All funds raised through the hikes go towards these crucial conservation projects.
Besides the 400km Eden to Addo Great Corridor Hike, there are several shorter six-day hikes that cover part of the route.
For more, go to www.edentoaddo.co.za
