“The doctor can't write a prescription for this,” the fisherman said, flashing a smile. It was just the pick-up we needed. We were tired, having laboured for 4 km along a cambered, soft-sand beach. We put down our heavy overnight packs and looked back along the path. The sun was shining, golden sand stretched as far as we could see, the ocean was that seductive turquoise that you see on billboards advertising tropical holidays, and this fisherman was the first person we'd seen since starting the trail earlier.
We were hiking the Damara Trail, a new two-day route managed by CapeNature, which runs from De Mond Nature Reserve to Arniston in the Southern Cape. From the trailhead the previous afternoon, we'd followed a boardwalk along the Heuningnes River, scanning the…
