The Wild Coast
Three Hundred Kilometres Of Undeveloped Coast Where Green Hills Run Straight Into The Indian Ocean: Hole In The Wall, A Cliff The Sea Has Punched Through, Empty Beaches Between River Mouths, Mpondo And Xhosa Villages On The Hillsides, Nelson Mandela'S Birthplace At Mvezo And His Home At Qunu Inland, And The Hole In The Wall To Coffee Bay Hiking That Has No Road Alternative · Coffee Bay, Eastern Cape
Between East London and Port Edward, three hundred kilometres of the former Transkei coast have almost nothing built on them. Green hills covered in grass and aloes run straight down into the Indian Ocean, rivers cut through to the sea every few kilometres, and the beaches between them are empty. At Hole in the Wall the sea has punched a tunnel through a free-standing cliff and the noise of it carries up the valley. The hillsides are Mpondo and Xhosa country - round huts painted turquoise and white, cattle on the paths, no fences - and inland are Mvezo, where Nelson Mandela was born, and Qunu, where he grew up and is buried. This is also the least developed part of South Africa and the row will not pretend otherwise: the roads are bad and some need high clearance, services are thin, and there are stretches you should not drive after dark. People come for exactly that, and anybody wanting tarmac should not.
Along the former Transkei coast between East London and Port Edward, with Coffee Bay and Hole in the Wall at its centre, Coffee Bay, Eastern Cape, South Africa
A coast rather than a site, so there are no hours - the beaches, the headlands and Hole in the Wall are open ground. THE ROADS ARE THE CONSTRAINT: the N2 inland is tarred and fine, but the access roads down to Coffee Bay, Hole in the Wall, Bulungula and the other river mouths are long, potholed and in places need HIGH CLEARANCE, and WHETHER THEY ARE PASSABLE AFTER RAIN VARIES. Allow far more time than the distances suggest. The Nelson Mandela Museum at Qunu and the Mvezo birthplace keep their own hours and have each been CLOSED FOR PERIODS; Mvezo is a working village where access is by arrangement rather than by right. Accommodation is backpacker lodges and small hotels at the river mouths, booked ahead in South African holidays. The hiking between river mouths has no road alternative. Mthatha has the nearest airport.