I’m writing this post with quite a bit of nostalgia because this trip is certainly one for the books and absolutely needs some detailed recording.
You’re welcome to visit my blog to see the previous posts on the trip thus far from Cape Town to East London, but today we bid farewell to our friends and got back on the road headed for a part of the South African Coastline that we have never visited before - the Wild Coast!
This area was previously a homeland for the Xhosa tribes and was known as the Transkei (over the Kei River). But post apartheid it became an official part of the Eastern Cape Province and is now affectionately known as the Wild Coast. It’s definitely wild and lives up to it’s name.
Our destination for this short leg was Coffee Bay. It’s a surfing and hiking destination for those willing to live a little rougher and do without some of the luxuries (electricity is intermittent). But the surroundings are incredibly beautiful and highlight the “wild” in the Wild Coast.
We bid farewell to our home for the last 3 days at Driftwood Studios (loved this and you can see more in my previous post) and got on the road for a last chat with our mates at Queensbury, only 15 minutes drive away.
But a coffee at Chintsa wasn’t out of the question so “Hello” Chintsa Deli. It was so worth it and this little village is really sweet. It’s worth popping by these smaller spots because you just never know what you’re going to find hidden away behind the trees. It’s also home to a pretty cool Clay cafe for those aspiring ceramicists out there.
The sun came out as we drove the highway headed for a refuel in Butterworth. It’s a busy little town about 4 kilometres in length, but luckily due to it being New Years Day the roads were clear and we passed through quickly. My son filled up with a Chicken pie and Coke.
The environment had already started changing as the rolling green hills spread out in front of us and our awareness of livestock crossing the road heightened. The broken Coffee Bay sign came into view after about 2 hours of driving and we hung a right, leaving the N2 highway for the only road that leads to Coffee Bay.
We still had 60 kilometres to go but the map said 1 ½ hours!!!! That gives you an indication of the quality of the potholed road ahead. The first 30 kilometres weren’t too bad, but the invisible speed bumps were a jolt to the system. The next 30 kilometres were slow and tedious. Between the cows, sheep, goats and pigs, we crawled along dodging holes in the road trying not to get a flat tire.
Along the way I did my best to capture the rondawel dwellings (round huts with thatch roof s) but the constant bumping made it a little difficult.
Finally we made the final approach into Coffee Bay around 11am on New Years Day. We had been appropriately scared to death by a friend who warned us about being in the area on the 1st Jan because the parties, noise and broken glass in the streets would be too horrendous to negotiate, but to our surprise we had arrived before the hoards had reached the beach and it was a bit like the calm before the storm. Police were out in force blockading roads ahead of the revellers and prevented us from getting to a neighbouring hotel for lunch.
We parked in the shade under the Frangipani trees at our BnB and we had enough snacks to keep us going. We headed to a secluded beach instead.
This beach was more secluded from the general public and surrounded by green hills, cliffs and a river separating it from the main beach.
It was also our first sighting of cows on the beach! We had heard about it from various friends but it’s quite something to see the cows wading through the mouth of the river and resting on the white sand of the beach along with the human visitors.
The water is warm (much warmer than Cape Town’s oceans) so we jumped in and played in the waves for a while. We happened to meet our friends walking along the beach and had a quick chat about the upcoming hike.
We sat and chatted and took in our beautiful surroundings.
From lunch time onwards we holed up in our self catering accommodation hiding from the hoards of people that had begun arriving. We could hear the music and partying from our room, and did our best to read a book and rest before the next few days began.
We had no idea what lay ahead and it’s probably a good thing too.
Here a map of our route from East London to Coffee Bay:
Join me tomorrow for another instalment of the Summer Road trip when we transferred in a hair raising fashion from Coffee Bay to Port St Johns.