At the beginning of August, I decided to explore my own country a bit and visit the Eastern Cape. It's about 1 250km drive from Cape Town where I live but since I was only able to take off 5 days from work, I decided to fly up to be able to make the most of my time there.
For the first 3 nights I stayed in a town called Coffee Bay. The town is named after the hundreds of coffee trees which grew from beans either scattered by a shipwreck or by plunderers. When you walk on the beach, you find the coffee beans all over!
The town itself is very very rural. There are hardly any paved roads with farm animals and stray dogs on every single road and around every corner. Being a huge animal lover, it was quite upsetting to see and I had a hard time convincing myself that it's nature and it's how these animals have been living for thousands of years in the Eastern Cape. I did however go buy a big bag of dog food and fed a few dogs along the way for what it's worth!
I did quite a bit of sightseeing and the most impressive site I visited was Hole in the Wall. It's a huge rock about 50m from the coastline and there's a hole right in the middle at the bottom and the waves keep on crashing through. It's a very big tourist attraction in the Eastern Cape. The Xhosa tribes have a very cute love story story on how this rock formed.
"The local Xhosa inhabitants call it esiKhaleni or 'Place of Noise'. According to a Xhosa legend a beautiful maiden who lived in a village on the shores of a coastal lagoon separated from the sea by a sheer cliff, fell in love with a man of the legendary sea-people. On hearing of the unnatural liaison, her angry father forbade her to see her lover or leave the village. One night her lover came to the cliff with his people and rammed a gaping hole through the cliff using the head of an enormous fish. Through this breach they streamed to the village singing and shouting; all the villagers hid, except the maiden, who rushed into the arms of her lover. She was never heard of again. Under certain conditions the waves slap the rocks with a resounding crack, and the hole roars during storms. Tribesmen believe that these are the sounds of the sea-people singing and shouting, hence the name of the place, esiKhaleni." Source: Wikipedia.
After 3 nights of staying at Coffee Bay, drove 1 hour West to go stay at a new town called Cintsa (some spell it Chintsa). This town is a bit less rural and there are more shops for tourists to visit and I would describe it as more of a holiday destination. As I'm a very active person, I tried to go on as many hikes as possible and beach walks. The nice thing about the Eastern Cape is that on the coast side, there aren't many people so it almost felt like I had the whole beach to myself. It's just kilometers and kilometers of never-ending sand and ocean. There are also many caves along the way and being a curious person, I obviously had to go check them out. ;)
Coming from a busy city and very demanding and fast-paced job, I would go back to the Eastern Cape in a heartbeat. I have visited many countries all over the world but nothing quite compares to the quietness and peacefulness that you experience in the Eastern Cape. There's nothing quite like it.
Please drop a comment below if you have any questions about the Eastern Cape or if you have ever been there! I would love to know. :)
Tina xo
*All photos taken by me.