Hi All
Welcome back to the Transkei. Today is our last day here in Coffee Bay and it seems like the time has just flown by!
On Tuesday we began the day with a few exercises on the land to work on turning and stance. What has now become known as the infamous “stones-drill” is an exercise that works all the muscles used in a turn. Each rider balances on a pair of stones set at shoulder-width apart. Once in position, one has to use the upper part of the body to generate speed by twisting into the turn. While the upper body twists, the legs rise in order to maintain balance. It’s pretty much like being a human corkscrew. It’s a lot harder that it looks but it’s a great way to work on the technique required to get your board moving on the waves.
After the session on the beach we joined the rest of the guys from the hostel on a hike to the Mapuzi cliffs and caves. This walk takes you over the hills and along the coast via a series of goat trails. It’s an unbelievably beautiful walk with views of both the magnificent coastline as well as the rural Xhosa villages. The cliffs themselves are quite a sight. Hidden away behind the hills, if you didn’t know they were there, you would walk right past them. Our guys opted to go for the cliff jump into the sea. No one really wanted to be the first to go, but once one guy goes, everyone else follows. From the cliffs we started the journey back to Coffee Bay making it back in time for one last surf before the sun went down.
On Wednesday a big swell hit making conditions in Coffee Bay quite difficult. I decided that this could be a perfect opportunity for our guys to get to see some of the other surf spots in the area. We all piled into the van and headed down the dirt tracks towards my 2 favourite spots on the Wild Coast. This trip was typical of what surfing in the Transkei is all about – a proper mission to get to the waves. If you can negotiate the animals and crazy drivers and manage to pick the right path through a maze of unnamed roads, you might find yourself on a narrow dirt track that meanders into the hills. After a while the road ends at the foot of a hill, which looks exactly like a million other hills in the area. If you’re at the right hill, you only have another 30 minute walk ahead of you before you get to a steep climb down the other side. Once on the other side, it’s a short scramble over the rocks before you get to the sea. If you’ve successfully picked the right route and managed to make it through all the Herculean challenges along the way, you’re most likely standing at a spot called Lwandile. This fabled point break has produced some of the best waves in the country. The swell comes straight out of the deep and cascades over a shallow rock shelf as it powers its way along the point until eventually closing out on the beach. This was the scene that I was hoping for but unfortunately the wind was a little on-shore so, while I did try for a surf, there was nothing really to write home about. If the waves had been a slight disappointment, the sheer beauty of the setting more than compensated for our tough journey to get there. Everything from the rivers to the rock formations seemed like something out of a fairytale. We ended up having lunch on the rocks and hanging out in the sun before we made our way a little further west to another of my favourite spots, Mdumbe. From the hills we looked over the point and got a good view of the setup. The banks at Mdumbe haven’t been so good lately so the waves weren’t as classic as they normally are, but even so, it’s always great just being there.
On Thursday the swell dropped off a little and gave us a chance to get out into the water again at Coffee Bay Point. I let the group head out on their own and opted to watch from the rocks just to see how the guys would get on without any supervision. While I still had to shout a few instructions just to keep the guys from drifting off, everyone managed to do really well for their first solo session. It was good to see that the guys had remembered all the lessons they’d learnt from Sheldon, John, Donna and Ettiene. They’re starting to look like real surfers now!
Yesterday we tried for another surf in the morning, but the swell had picked up again and the point was a little too messy so it wasn’t a long session. We decided rather to go and visit the Hole-in-the-Wall. The wall stands between the river and the sea with the hole acting like a gateway between the two. Pierce opted to do the hike with a few of the guys from the hostel while the rest of the guys hopped back into the van to drive there. The tide was nice and low when we arrived so we were able to walk out to the wall and peek down the hole. We spent most of the afternoon there, swimming in the river and chatting on the banks. It was another classic day in the Transkei, which was topped of with a braai back at the hostel.
Unfortunately the swell is still quite messy from yesterday and it looks like it’s dropping quite a bit so our prospects aren’t looking too good. We’ll probably spend the day exploring a few more of the spots around the area and getting ready for our final push towards Durban and Ballito tomorrow.
Till next time…
Take care,
Bevan