The Wild Coast is a very special part of South Africa’s east coast, for us heading up from Cape Town it marks a turning point in landscape and scenery and it signifies a change, from the Africa that surprises you with its western structure to more of the Africa you might have expected to find before landing in the beautiful City of Cape Town. It is the starting point of something more raw, more rural, and it’s beauty is something I encourage you to come and experience for yourself.
The private pathway that leads from our accommodation down to a big empty beach
Just outside of East London we made our home at what is arguably the most beautiful backpackers on the coast; Buccaneers in Chinsta East. This is an area of large estates and open land filled with bush and wildlife. The element of space and its ‘wild’ feel leaves you thinking you’re miles away any real civilisation when actually you’re just a half hour drive from the nearby city. We’d often drive past Giraffe and other game on our way to Town, it really is quite surreal. With so much space and beauty around us at our accommodation and being only a short walk away from the beach where we did our surfing we all had plenty of time to wander about and appreciate the significance of where we were and imagine what it must be like to live in a place of such beauty.
In the water we were luckier than we had been on any of my 4 previous stops there over the past two years. We had it breaking consistently over our stay with it providing enough of challenge to push for progression without being too daunting and we managed plenty of hours in the water both during lessons and free surfs.
The girls loved surfing in Chinsta
The Wild Coast is exactly that, WILD! This often means there’s lots of water moving (rip current), powerful waves and lot more work than the spots we’d been surfing previously, although this time that wasn’t the case. All this hard work is not without reward though, more power means more speed to burn, and over here there is plenty of wave face to burn it on. Every stop we visit provides a different challenge surf-wise and unknowingly you start developing so many different skills with having been exposed to all the different line-ups and wave types on the trip. After 10 weeks on this coast you go home a well experienced, well rounded surfer.
Buccaneers Backpacker supports a nearby rural school and we were invited to go and support a sing and dance rehearsal before the school leaves for a cultural tour of Cape Town, we got to listen to traditional song and dance whilst interacting with other kids in classroom.
Everybody knows the saying “boys will be boys”, well.. It’s kinda true and 3 of the darker haired boys decided they couldn’t wait any longer to go blonde and in an effort to fit the stereotypical surfer image and just for a bit of fun really they decided to dye their hair. This was all good and well in theory but by the end of it they were wearing the face of regret and instead of the blonde they were hoping for they ended up ginger.. The Ron Weasley Trio
Though mothers are cringing, friends are laughing and the essence of an almost tangible shame still lingers in the air, this very funny and unfortunate event is not what I wish to leave you with. Instead I’d prefer you watch this short clip and try and imagine how incredible our daily journey down to the beach must of been
http:/https://youtu.be/tZ0TLXYLkQY
sending you all some stoke from South Africa!
cheers,
Luke