Natures Valley, Garden Route

Nature's Valley, and the surrounding Coastline, was occupied by Old Stone Age or Paleolithic, 1 Million Years ago. Paleolithic man lived in the Area in caves and under overhangs, collecting food in the tidal zone and hunting for a rich variety of wildlife. Various glacial periods interrupted this coastal occupation, San hunter-gatherers lived in this Area from about 10,000 years ago until they were displaced by Khoikhoi herders from the interior about 400 years ago the Qua and later the Houteniqua (Strandloper) peoples lived here. After the completion of the Groot River pass by Thomas Bain in the 1880’s, three families settled in the Valley. Later, Hendrik Barnardo became the sole owner of all the Land, which he then farmed. He allowed the first holiday shack to be erected in 1918 and in 1936 sold about 250,000 square metres to a syndicate of nine families. A Township was declared in 1953. Electricity was connected only in 1986. Today the Village comprises the original 426 erven with 397 houses, the majority being wooden structures. The nearest other small Community is in Covie, on the beautiful fynbos covered Plateau 8km to the East, where about one hundred live. Natures Valley is flanked by an escarpment on one side and the Indian ocean on the other side and it forms part of the Tsitsikamma National Park and the Mouth of the Groot River at the bottom of the Groot River Pass.