Discovering the Eastern Cape

For hun­dreds of years, the Eastern Cape has been the ances­tral strong­hold of the Xhosa people and while in many ways it has become west­ern­ised, rem­nants of this tri­bal his­tory remain in the people and some of the unspoilt areas of the province.

On enter­ing the Eastern Cape on the N2 high­way one crosses the Bloukrans Bridge, the bound­ary between the Eastern and Western Cape. The very first attrac­tion one is greeted with is the world’s highest com­mer­cial bun­gee jump, at 216 meters. This is a good indic­a­tion of what is to come.

The Eastern Cape is an exhil­ar­at­ing exper­i­ence for vis­it­ors from the bust­ling port cit­ies of Port Elizabeth and East London with the blue flag beaches of the Eastern Cape such as Kings Beach, to the rural tran­quil­ity of the Transkei. Despite the cos­mo­pol­itan feel­ing in some of the urban centres, there is always an ele­ment of the untamed, just below the surface.

Luckily access­ing it is easy, with excel­lent game reserves like the Addo Elephant Park within easy driv­ing dis­tance of Port Elizabeth. This 360 000 ha park con­tains five of the seven nat­ural bio­mes in South Africa and is home to one of the densest ele­phant pop­u­la­tions in the world.

Also close to Port Elizabeth lies the town of Jeffreys Bay. For most of the year it is a sleepy sea­side vil­lage but in the spring it erupts into a frenzy of extreme sports, play­ing host to the inter­na­tional Billabong Surf com­pet­i­tion and offer­ing some of the best waves in the coun­try for surfers.

East London, while a smal­ler city, is well equipped for trav­el­ers with a host of accom­mod­a­tion options and many things to see and do. The museum here is worth a visit for those inter­ested in the his­tory of the region. Venturing out of East London and head­ing up the east coast, one crosses the Kei River mouth into a seem­ingly dif­fer­ent world. Endless green hills dot­ted with tri­bal kraals and count­less aloes are the hall­mark of the Transkei, a former homeland.

The cap­ital of this area is Umtata, a rel­at­ively large city and is an ideal base from which to explore the aptly named Wild Coast. And wild it is. Towns like Port St Johns seem to barely keep the sur­round­ing lush, sub trop­ical rain­forests at bay and the sight­ing of Zambezi and shark speices in the waters of this coast­line is common.

The fam­ous wild coast offers end­less activ­ity options, with five star hotels, lux­ury self-catering accom­mod­a­tion, gues­t­houses and even fully-serviced camp­sites on offer for those that want to rough it.

The activ­it­ies are all nature-oriented, with hik­ing, snorkel­ing, swim­ming and other water sports being pop­u­lar choices, along with tours of genu­ine Xhosa cul­tural vil­lages where one can sample local food, beer and take part in vil­lage life. The Wild Coast offers a true escape and simply relax­ing and soak­ing up the atmo­sphere, is some­thing that all vis­it­ors can­not seem to help doing.

Useful Links:
For fur­ther inform­a­tion or to make a book­ing for your Eastern Cape hol­i­day, please visit:

• Eastern Cape Attractions
• Things to Do in Eastern Cape
• Eastern Cape Accommodation
• Eastern Cape Hotels