The Wonderful Wild Coast

The Wild Coast

What most people don’t real­ise about the Wild Coast is that it only spreads across 300 kilo­met­ers of coast­line between Port Edward and Port Elizabeth. You don’t have to be a cham­pion rock climber to have a great time here; take time to see things at a laid-back pace, you won’t be bored for a moment. That being said, the Wild Coast is not the place to go if you want to be indoors because out­doors is where everything is happening.

The best way to exper­i­ence as much as you can pack into your time on the Wild Coast is to pick your base and work your way out­wards from there. From my point of the view, the place to dig your­self in is at Coffee Bay or slightly fur­ther north at Port St John. From Coffee Bay or Port St John you fan out and decide which of the seven nature reserves you want to visit, depend­ing on how much driv­ing you want to do.

My favor­ite is Silaka Nature Reserve just south of Port St John; this is a small coastal reserve with everything. This reserve lets you see all the anim­als in their nat­ural hab­itat and bird­watch­ers flock here as well, but my spe­cial places are the tidal pools and watch­ing the otters play­ing while some indulge in some of the best fish­ing avail­able. Don’t for­get the car­dinal rule; there are not many tarred roads, the only stretch you can travel by nor­mal vehicle eas­ily is between Port St John and Coffee Bay, for the rest you bet­ter make sure you have a reli­able 4x4.

Hole in the Wall

You can spend your entire hol­i­day simply wan­der­ing around the hik­ing trails and forests totally immersed in the beauty of the nat­ural world. Most people who have spent time on the Wild Coast will tell you they truly don’t care where they sleep after a day spent swim­ming, fish­ing, canoe­ing and being totally absorbed in the nat­ural sur­round­ings. For those of who have energy left after the day, Coffee Bay has some of the most quaint bars and eat­er­ies as well as open-air lounges where you do your ‘thing’ beach­comber style.

The die-hards amongst the back­pack­ers will argue that there is only one way to exper­i­ence the Wild Coast and that is to pack up everything you will pos­sibly need and start at the top of the region and make your way stead­ily down the coast over a period of two weeks

For those want­ing to do this but who are not quite so gung-ho and prefer a bed and some of the niceties of mod­ern liv­ing; you can break down your hikes or horse­back for­ays into man­age­able chunks as there are many day-hikes and trails to choose from with the Pondoland Trails being at the top of the list. You can stay in overnight rest camps or you can take the option of spend­ing nights in one of the local villages.

Useful Link:
Find more inform­a­tion at:
Wild Coast Accommodation
Wild Coast Self Catering
Wild Coast Attractions
Things to do in Wild Coast