Martin and Janet Stern are shown in a South African hospital after they were mugged and stabbed during a morning hike Tuesday. (Michael Walker/Cape Times)

A Canadian husband and wife who were stabbed while hiking in South Africa have been discharged from hospital.

Toronto residents Martin Stern, 59, and Janet Stern, 57, were found Tuesday bound, beaten and bleeding from stab wounds in the Fernkloof Nature Reserve, about 150 kilometres from Cape Town.

The couple had been out hiking on a mountain trail near the town of Hermanus when the attack occurred. A sign recently went up warning hikers to use the trails at the own risk following other recent assaults.

Before their release from hospital, the Sterns gave interviews to South African reporters from their beds.

'I don't want anyone else to be killed.'—Martin Stern

Martin Stern called the attack "completely senseless," and said he suspected their attackers were possibly on drugs.

"They were vicious," he told eNews Channel. "They were brutal."

He added that the clothes he was wearing at the time were left covered in blood.

"The people who discovered us must have been horrified."

He said his wife got the bulk of the beating, but Janet Stern said her husband was in more pain.

Martin Stern said they agreed to be interviewed "because I don't want anyone else to be killed."

Originally from South Africa, the Sterns moved to Canada more than 20 years ago.

Born in Cape Town, Martin Stern is a vice-president and financial adviser at CIBC Wood Gundy.

The couple had been returning to the Cape Town area annually since 1994.

One of the couple's three daughters told the Globe and Mail that her parents had no plans to change their travel arrangements in South Africa despite the attack