Port Saint John, South Africa - Day 310

An hour from Jeffreys Bay back to Pt. Elizabeth, then a good 3 hours east to East London (plus another half hour to Chintsa). Not far after PE is the start of the “Wild Coast” which is legendary for its miles and miles of untouched/unspoiled beaches, beautiful rolling hills dotted with tiny villages everywhere… one last taste of being back in the “real” Africa. Past through Grahamstown which was a very pretty little colonial-style town filled with really neat old buildings… could have stayed a night! Stayed at “Bucaneers” which is said to be THE best backpackers in SA (in fact we likely wouldn’t have gone to Chintsa had we not heard this)… it was a decent enough place but after staying here (as well as the next place), it’s rather obvious to us that we’re not your typical backpacker anymore (perhaps we’re “medium-low” budget). The place WAS great for organizing events and getting people excited to do stuff (they donated a box of wine to the volleyball court every night, after all!)

Next morning Jen and I picked a strip of sand running from the top of a cliff down into the rolling sea, around 3/4 as far as the eye could see – decided this would be as far as we would walk (you can actually do hikes that are 5, 6 or more days down the beach!). Turns out the eye can see further than I thought (probably took 4 hours roundtrip??) Passed maybe 5 people in total on the walk, big waves crashing in, sandunes on the other side, beautiful sun shining down – a real taste of the Wild Coast. Got back to the hostel, enjoying a beverage on the patio, 3 whales pulled into the harbour, one obviously calving judging by the breathing and splashing around! Somehow put everything into perspective, really… One last night hanging out with drunk 18 year old “vollies” as they refer to themselves (ie. teenage volunteers from England on a mission to cuturally enrich themselves), off to Coffee Bay the next morning to stay at the other best Backpackers in SA…

Got to the turnoff for Coffee Bay (which is a good 80kms from the coast still), just as the clouds rolled in and opened up on us (not to mention the hundreds, or thousands of people walking down the sides of the road!). We were warned to not drive on this stretch of road at night due to all the potholes and animals on it which was certainly not an overstatement. Some of the holes were deep enough you could climb in like Mr. Lube to change your oil! And why do all the goats, sheep cows, etc hang around the road with all these grass-filled hills around? Lucky the roads aren’t made out of strawberries or something (although maybe the potholes wouldn’t get so big then)…

Coffee Bay is a slightly rough little town with little to see or do (but then I guess that’s the point of coming to the Wild Coast)… the surrounding area does have some beautiful walks however. Pulled into town and foraged around until we stumbled on the Coffee Shack which was (as I said) the other place to be in SA; the staff were exceptionally nice, but the place (like the town) had some excessive scruff about it we thought, and lacked a thing or two such as somewhere indoor to hangout on those cold, South African winter nights (plus it was full of drunk 18 year olds again). I feel like I’m making myself sound old or something, but when someone says this is the best place to stay in the country, or possibly the continent, it kinda sets a certain standard for me. Hung around for the evening, ended up chatting with another “old” couple whose feelings sounded similar to ours about it all…

Made the decision to leave the next morning, but not before we did another walk up the coast. Hopped in the hostel’s truck with “Lindanny” at the wheel (the bartender, and guide for the day), drove east maybe a half hour, stopped when we could go no further due to the mouth of a river being in our way. I’m not sure how these multi-day hikes work because there are rivers all up the coast, and many are teeming with crocs and Zambezi sharks. Perhaps they go to points where they know there’s a boat waiting for them?

Spent close to 3 hours hiking back, mostly enjoying the stunning views from high up on the cliff tops, sometimes wandering through villages, sometimes down on the beach. At one point Lindanny stopped to show us a big, rectangular flat bit of grass, out in the middle of absolutely nowhere… turns out there actually used to be a golf course there, close in 1976 when all the whites had to leave so the blacks could be segregated into the area… CRAZY! So happy we went on our walk at Coffee Bay… ended up leaving on a much higher note than we though we would!

About an hour down the highway past Coffee Bay, entered the rather large and busy town of Mthatha to gas up… turns out the place is where Nelson Mandela was born (other than it being the start of what they call the “Transkei” region, there’s little other reason to mention it, at least from a tourist’s perspective). Pulled into Port Saint John about an hour later to find pretty much exactly what we wanted: a great place to stay for a change (called “Jungle Monkey”) with one last go at another very African feeling town, surrounded by dense, lush, green, tropical forest, a nice beach, and many nice hikes to do. Have I mentioned we leave Africa in less than a week?? Holy crap…

Signed up for a hike the next morning with Richard – one of the guides working out of the hostel. Took us across the town golf course (which is soon to be torn up and developed… looking at some of the development around town and the way the place is setup – Port Saint John is ready to explode with tourism), headed up to the lighthouse out on the point. Wandered back to town (which is about 4×4 square blacks in size); all feeling like “real” Africa once more – people sitting at their stalls selling anything and everything, minibus station at the centre, stray dogs running everywhere… people seemed quite happy we were there. After town, hiked up to the top of “Eagle’s Nest” which gives a nice view of town, the beach and the rest of the surrounding area! Hike took maybe 4 hours, headed back to our place for a few hours rest (did I mention I managed to talk Jen into spending MORE money to stay in a tent, instead of a room!? Boys 1, girls nothing…).

Out for dinner at the Fish ‘n Chips shop in town: sitting right on the side of the river with tables overlooking the bank, they only have the “fish of the day” when… the husband who’s standing there next to you fishing, manages to catch something for you to eat! Ended up having a very interesting conversation with the couple that ran the place, as well as an Indian guy sitting there that they seemed to know (funny how every conversation in SA ALWAYS eventually turns political… or maybe it’s the questions I ask??) The couple were quite liberal minded and seemed happy enough that the blacks have taken over in government (most whites we meet don’t generally say that to us)… they attributed any problems the country is having to “necessary growing pains”; they seemed very proud to live in a “rainbow country” as they call it. There’s this Affirmative Action happening all over the country where companies are required by law to have a certain number of blacks working for them (reminds me a little of our police force at home)… I think everyone in the room agreed this had its pros and cons (although can you believe that next year, even the SA Springboks (the national rugby team) will require a certain number of blacks to play?? Not sure… perhaps the plan has swung too far the other way…). What stuck out the most to me though was the guy telling us he fealt “honoured” that the blacks let them live there to run their business (Port Saint John is part of the Transkei which back in the day was a blacks only area). That’s pretty cool.

One last thing: they told us a story about how a few weeks prior, an incident happened where 2 local kids went knocking on a white couple’s door to sell a couple pigeons they had bound together (presumably for food)… instead of giving the kids money, then telling them this wasn’t right and setting the birds free, they seized the birds and brought them to the police to report it. Well this made them in possession of stolen property, one thing led to another… the couple eventually left town because people were threatening to burn their house down (at least that was the story we got). Just amazing how delicate everything can still be in these parts!

Decided on staying one more day… our last day on the coast! Signed up for another hike with Richard, this time through the jungle to some waterfalls, then to the beach, out to the point to see the “blowhole”, then up the mountain to have a drink at a “shebeen” (basically a local’s bar, but I’m still not totally sure what the official definition would be…). Richard’s a bit of a story teller and gets quite chatty at times… as great of a guy that he was, I think that second day was all we could take!

*sigh* …with the days ticking away like crazy, it was time to leave to do one more thing before departing for England out of big, bad Jo’burg…