The Eastern Cape in South Africa is a beautiful, vast place, and is for the most part still quite rural but with a couple major Towns and Cities. We got to enjoy the best of both worlds during our travels there. The collective area along the coast is commonly known as the ‘Wild Coast’ because that is exactly what it is with miles of almost untouched coastline boasting an abundance of marine life and drawing in raw deep ocean swells that batter the coastline with many hidden gems to be found, It’s exactly what draws many surfers to the area on surf trips and the region has bred many South African surfing Champions like Nikita Robb and Greg Emslie. Our stay in the Eastern Cape had two major stops, the first of which being Cinsta, a few kilometers outside of East London.
Cinsta
We stayed at the amazing Buccaneers backpackers in Cinsta, There was plenty going on there with daily Volleyball at their beach volleyball court, a pool and bathing area, vibey bar with world cup Rugby being broadcast and an incredible walk down to what almost feels like the worlds biggest private beach (it’s not private but it feels like we had it all to ourselves). Our walks down to go surfing were an adventure on their own.
East London
We’d make day trips into the nearby city of East London to get some swim training done in preparation for the ISA Level 1 instructor course we’d be doing in Durban. We’d also go to try and find a wave at the very popular Nahoon and visit the local coastline museum which had plenty interesting information on the area and the importance it has in the history of South African surfing. Nahoon Reef itself is also rather infamous due to the amount of large fish that frequent the area and we got to learn a bit more about that as well. We also went and spent an afternoon at a Lion park and ended up seeing a lot more than just Lions with an array of different animals around for us to not only see but also interact with, the monkeys were a definite favourite amongst the group.
Areena
A couple minutes drive from our Backpackers is the Areena resort which hosts a bunch or ridiculously fun activities ranging from Zip-Lining, Canooing, Rafting, Game drives, Ab-seiling and more. We opted to go Quad biking though in search of the reserves very popular ‘tame’ Giraffe. We didn’t manage to find it but we did see a couple of other wild animals and had an incredible time on the quad bike safari.
Coffee Bay
Our second major stop was in Coffee Bay, a regular favourite amongst Ticket to Ride groups. It is the most rural of the rural and the cultural experience alone is overwhelming. Other things that make this stop so incredible is the region itself, with miles of untouched coastline and the scenery rivals any other major international destination. You could get lost in the beauty of Coffee bay, our hosts (the Coffee Shack Backpackers) took us on a few guided hikes to learn more about the history of the area, the landscapes and scenery were mind blowing. We did an 8km 3 hour long hike to the famous Hole in the Wall which is becoming increasingly popular thanks to coverage in movies like ‘Blue Crush 2’ with surfers and travellers alike trying to get a picture next to the iconic figure. We went one better though and got a few pictures of Becca actually surfing the Hole in the Wall.
Surfing in Coffee Bay is sensational, the view in the water of the surrounding bay with steep cliffs, a sandy beach, a river mouth and the local’s mud huts on the hills is the icing on the cake to a great surfing wave. Every morning we’d take the short walk over the hill that overlooks the Bay in the hope of finding great conditions. When the conditions are good in Coffee Bay you’re in for a treat as a few of the crew discovered with one day in particular having multiple claims for ‘best wave’ and ‘best session’ of my life.
On one of the evenings the whole Backpackers was invited to watch the full moon rise from up top one of the nearby hills over looking the coast, we enjoyed a few free sundowners with muscles and oysters that had been freshly caught that day that the Coffee Shack provided. Once the sun had set and the moon had risen we took the party back to the backpackers where local drummers set the mood by the fire pit. Coffee Bay is a truly spectacular place.
Our time on the Wild Coast of South Africa was amazing and a lot of memories were made, here is a video clip I’ve put together of a few bits and pieces of our time in the Eastern Cape.
Till next time
Luke