Nature’s Valley - Plettenberg Bay, South Africa

Waves roll onto a long sandy beach at Nature's Valley, a tiny village on South Africa's Garden Route, while the calm Groot River lagoon curves behind the dunes and forested hills climb toward the Tsitsikamma Mountains.

The village is surrounded by the De Vasselot Nature Reserve, part of the Tsitsikamma section of Garden Route National Park. Powerboats and beach buggies aren't allowed on the lagoon, which is kept for canoeing and sailing.

Deep river gorges cut this coast off from east-west travel until Thomas Bain finished the Grootrivier Pass in 1880. The township was only declared in 1953, and in 2011 it had just 460 residents.

Did You Know? Nature's Valley marks the end of the Otter Trail, a five-day coastal hike from Storms River Mouth named after the Cape clawless otter that lives along this shore.

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