The minute we left Kwazulu-Natal (the province in which Durban is located and crossed into the Transkei (which is part of the Eastern Cape province), also called the Wild Cost, the roads became significantly worse: there were potholes along the entire route, wildlife was everywhere (we had to stop for crossing cows and donkeys), road-kill was abundant and there were many people walking or biking along the road. The drive through the Wild Coast was beautiful, complete with ocean views and a sprawling mountain landscape. The last two hours of the drive were extremely windy – thankfully neither of us is too prone to carsickness. Jessie did an impressive job with the manual transmission (our car didn’t have power steering, either), and we arrived at the hostel, Amapondo Backpackers, around 7pm. The drive was just over five hours.
When we arrived, we met with the Grahamstown LRC folk: Mae (Jessie’s friend from CLS), Anhil (another CLS student), Taytum (an American lawyer who was spending the year at the Grahamstown LRC), and Rufus (the Grahamstown LRC paralegal). Rufus is a native South African, so was pretty comfortable navigating the Transkei roads. We all piled into his car and went to a restaurant in the town, Port St Johns, called the Fish Eagle. The restaurant specialized in pizza, but I ordered the “Whole Grilled Sole,” which was pretty delicious. Lucky for me, everyone who had ordered a pizza had ordered too much, so there was plenty of that for me to eat as well. When we got back to Amapondo, the electricity, which had previously gone out, was back on and the bar/lounge area was in full swing. We spent a couple of hours there, mingling with all sorts of people, both residents of Amapondo and visitors as well. The crowd was a pretty old one for the type of place, I was definitely the youngest person there, there was a man old looking enough that we referred to him as “Santa” or “Papa Smurf.” After a while, I got pretty tired and went to bed. We were all staying in a dorm style room (incredibly cheap, R100/night, which is about $13).
I slept until around 8am. I got up, had some breakfast and went to the hammocks. I started reading for a little while, but fell back asleep for another hour or so. We left on a walk at 11am with a young couple from Cape Town and Nikki from the hostel, who is originally from London. Before officially getting started, we were offered the chance to swing on the hostel’s rope swing. I was originally hesitant, but after the two from Cape Town both did it, I decided it was worth a try. I was pretty scared before letting go, because I didn’t think I had positioned myself correctly in the rope, but Patrick, one of the owners of the hostel, assured me that I would be OK. The whole thing lasted under ten seconds, but it was extremely thrilling and lots of fun.
We walked for about half an hour until we reached a little waterfall, where we rested for about fifteen minutes. Colin, one half of the Cape Town couple, dared to jump off the cliff into the waterfall, which was about a ten meter jump. It doesn’t sound so intimidating, but, in reality, it was an extremely impressive jump. I hadn’t brought my bathing suit, so I blamed my failure to participate on that, but I doubt that I would have jumped had I been properly equipped. We took a different route back to the beach to the hostel; Nikki warned us that she might get a little lost because it had been a while since her last walk through the area but, luckily, we had one of the hostel’s dogs with us, who was rumoured to be a better guide than any of the human residence of the Hostels. We did indeed get stuck at one point, where the path we were walking along seemed to split in two, but the dog knew exactly where to go.
Before getting all the way back to the hostel, we (the five LRCers – Rufus stayed behind) and Nikki stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Delicious Monster. It was up a little hill, and had great views over the beach. I was surprised at the prices at the restaurant; I had expected it to be much cheaper, but they began to make sense when I thought about how few restaurants there were in the area, allowing them to charge not-so-cheap prices, and when I realized how good the food was. After the late lunch, we headed back to hostel. The Grahamstown LRCers had to head back to Grahamstown, so Jessie and I were left on our own for the last night. We went to the Port St John’s air strip with Nikki (who drove – she was much more comfortable with the car and roads) to watch the sunset. Before getting to the airstrip, Nikki had to go into town to get her cell phone fixed. While Jessie and I were waiting for her outside the store, I decided to take the opportunity to attempt to learn how to drive a manual. I was able to get the car started and drive about 50 feet. Thoroughly satisfied and convinced I could drive the whole way to the air strip, I still let Nikki take back the driver’s seat to take us to the air strip.
After the sunset, we went back to hostel and lounged for a little bit, before going to another restaurant in the neighborhood for dinner (the hostel’s menu was not very appealing). We went to a small restaurant, Wood’n’Spoon, which was absolutely delicious. I started out with a mussel soup, and then got the “traditional Swiss dish,” which was essentially a fancy version of mac’n’cheese with bacon and apple slices. Jessie got the “traditional Xhosa dish,” which had corn, spices and lots of other good things and then a brownie for dessert. When we got back to the hostel, Jessie was extremely tired, so she went straight to bed. I stayed up until 1am playing poker with employees of the hostel and an engineer from Australia. I came close to winning, but not close enough.
On Sunday, Jessie and I went on another walk, again with the couple from Cape Town, this time with someone from the hostel named Clint, to “3rd beach” and the nature reserve nearby. This walk was a little bit more challenging: it was hotter, there were patches of near-vertical climbs, I was not wearing the appropriate footwear, there were lots of sharp plants and I was wearing shorts. Over all though, the walk was a beautiful one and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We saw several whales in the ocean, which was pretty cool. The annual “Sardine Run” is happening right now along the Eastern Coast of South Africa: every year around this time, thousands of sardines move north along the coast. Following them, hungry, are all sorts of marine animals: sharks, whales, dolphins, etc. The time is said to be extremely cool for scuba divers, as they can dive without cages, since all the animals are more interested in eating the sardines than the divers. From above the water, one can still see whales jumping up and down, and many boats go out to sea to do some whale watching.
After our walk, we went back to Wood’n’Spoon (Delicious Monster was closed) for lunch, and then embarked on our return five-hour drive. The drive didn’t seem as bad as the first time around, and Jessie was more comfortable driving. We couldn’t find a decent radio station for a while, until getting closer to KZN. People often refer to the Wild Coast as the “real Africa,” which is a nickname I don’t particularly approve of. What they mean is that the Wild Coast isn’t full of big cities and modern technology, the roads aren’t paved, and you don’t see much development. The Transkei is also home to the Xhosa tribe (there are two main tribes in South Africa: the Zulu and the Xhosa), whose most notable members are Nelson Mandela (whose 92nd birthday was yesterday) and Desmond Tutu. I found people in the Transkei to be much friendlier than those I come across in Durban. That might be a result of the general differences between living in a city and in rural areas, but Nikki remarked that, throughout all her travels in South Africa (which were many), she always found the Xhosa people to be friendlier and more welcoming than the Zulu. I haven’t been in South Africa nearly long enough to make any kind of generalization between the two, but found it interesting that some people had. From my experiences thus far in the country, however, I found the least friendly people of all to be the Afrikaaners and the British-South Africans, who all shelter themselves behind their electric fences and huge walls, who refuse to integrate with both each other (the divides in South Africa go far beyond black and white) and all other residents of the country. Amapondo Backpackers felt like a nice break from all the separation and tension, as people from all over South Africa, and the world, were coming together and enjoying each other’s company, regardless of origin.
Now, I am back at work at the LRC, with more things to do than ever. I'm working on all sorts of projects for the LRC, mostly having to do with education (school funding, in particular), organizing future weekend trips as well as finalizing the plans for my trip to Zanzibar, andI'm also getting ready for my two-week trip to Beijing (!!!!!) for a Model UN "expo." I'm very, very excited for the trip; I've never been to China before, I have an irrational love for Model UN, and will be very happy to see friends from UChicago. I leave on Saturday.
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