Kei Fever

Coffee Bay

The anti­cip­a­tion of a new des­tin­a­tion punc­tu­ated the air with laughter. None of us had been to the Wild Coast before and our minds con­jured images stolen from budget travel guides and well-thumbed back­packer manu­als. Still in Hogsback, in the midst of a bit­terly cold winter, we shared stor­ies gleaned from oth­ers, of the abund­ance of oysters and warm waters for night swim­ming, sun-kissed bod­ies, per­fect surf and end­less sum­mers. We exhausted the cock­tail menu that night, already pre­par­ing for the next chapter of our already poetic getaway.

Morning finally broke and we bundled ourselves into our cars and headed towards Cintsa, in the Transkei. Leaving everything we knew behind, the land­scape began to change rap­idly, giv­ing way to rolling green and golden hills and cows roam­ing freely in the roads. Completely un-littered with ugly build­ings and struc­tures, the open plains were only peppered with clay huts and rural scenes. My eyes drank in the wild land­scapes, like I’d dis­covered a new land ... Continued

So much to do in Mbotyi on the Wild Coast

Mbotyi, Wild Coast

Whether you’re look­ing for an adven­tur­ous hol­i­day or just a peace­ful break from every­day life, Mbotyi River Lodge can do both. In the Eastern Cape on the Wild Coast, the lodge is 26 km from Lusikisiki, on the Mbotyi river mouth. Snuggled between the undu­lat­ing hills of Pondoland, sur­roun­ded by flour­ish­ing indi­gen­ous forestry, this pic­tur­esque val­ley is the ideal loc­a­tion for any­one look­ing to exper­i­ence South Africa’s true beauty.

This pop­u­lar fam­ily resort, in the midst of Pondoland, is renowned for its friendly Pondo people, whose intriguing cul­ture has cap­tured the hearts of many and ensures their return time and time again. Be sure to exper­i­ence the true cul­ture of the Pondo people and take a walk in the vil­lage with a local guide. If you’re feel­ing adven­tur­ous visit a san­goma or have a drink at a she­been ... Continued

Wash day in the Transkei (photographs)

In the lush hills of the Transkei, these women sway to an African rhythm in a burst of col­our as they return from a day at the stream where they share stor­ies and song mak­ing the chore of laun­dry more pleas­ur­able as well as pleas­ing to the eye of the onlooker. The brightly dressed women leave the river, bal­an­cing wash bas­kets on their heads in the tra­di­tional man­ner. Big smiles belie the dif­fi­culty of accom­plish­ing this fre­quent errand and con­trib­ute to the wel­com­ing nature of the Xhosa home­lands ... Continued

Mbotyi, Wild Coast — photographs one of the best hidden secrets in the Eastern Cape

If you're after des­ol­ate beaches, rolling hills, the odd appear­ance of oxen pulling carts, and not much else, then Mbotyi is pos­sibly one of the best hid­den secrets in the Eastern Cape's Pondoland. The coast south of Port Edward is wild, and life here has not yet caught up with the west­ern world's clam­our for devel­op­ment and the acquir­ing of things ... Isn't it beau­ti­ful? Continued

Give a Soccer Ball ...

Give a Soccer Ball ...

Now before you skim right past this, we’re not ask­ing for a lot … just a soc­cer ball or two for the young­sters in the Transkei. That’s a R45 dona­tion to put a smile onto the face of a young soccer-wannabe ...

We’ve been fol­low­ing Ruan’s epic jour­ney across South Africa and this week he’s in the Transkei on the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape. Yesterday he came across a group of boys play­ing soc­cer in the vil­lage of Lusikisiki and star­ted talk­ing with one of the boys who told him about his dreams of being a soc­cer player. These kids don't have real balls to play with, so ... they make their own soc­cer balls from melted plastic. These "balls" are obvi­ously not really round, you can’t fill them with air or even really kick them because they are filled with plastic. Nonetheless, they play enthu­si­ast­ic­ally with these balls and con­tinue to dream ... dreams of grow­ing up to play the beau­ti­ful game for their beau­ti­ful Country! Continued

The Transkei

Wild Coast

When driv­ing towards the Transkei, par­tic­u­larly between East London and the Kei River cross­ing, it almost seems as if you are enter­ing another coun­try. This, you can tell, is wild, untamed coun­try. Whereas en route to Transkei you will travel through towns and cit­ies much like any other in South Africa, when you get there these bas­tions of civil­iz­a­tion are few and far between, with miles and miles of lush, unspoilt green fields and count­less aloes lin­ing the hills and val­leys of this beau­ti­ful area instead.

Having been an inde­pend­ent home­land, the tra­di­tional Xhosa strong­hold for many years the Transkei retains a sense of dif­fer­ence and oth­er­ness, des­pite its rein­teg­ra­tion into South Africa. Still dot­ted here and there with tra­di­tional Xhosa ron­davel kraals perched pre­cari­ously on the slopes of the per­petu­ally misty moun­tains and herds­man still to be seen watch­ing the herds of cattle that sym­bol­ize wealth here, the Transkei can seem like a land lost in time. Continued