Transkei - Cintsa, Bulungula, Mdumbi & Hole in the Wall

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We left Port Alfred early to get through to East London for some shopping before heading on to Cintsa in the Ciskei (Cis meaning “this side of”, Trans meaning “across”, the Kei river). We got our supplies and got to Buccaneers Backpackers late afternoon where we checked into a Safari tent for the night. The next day we walked along the beach and almost went for a kayak. Almost, because by the time we got down to the beach with the paddles it was a bit too windy & chilly to head out on the water. The following night we switched to camping and had a braai, which we actually preferred to the safari tent.

We were on the road again the next day fairly early and it wasn’t long before we crossed the Kei River into the Transkei. For those not from South Africa the Transkei is an area within South Africa that during apartheid was allocated to indigenous people and isolated from the rest of the country to a point that it was not recognised by government as part of SA (according to Wikipedia). It was only reconnected with SA in 1994 when the apartheid ended and it became part of the Eastern Cape. So in short, it’s still pretty much an undeveloped uninfluenced paradise. The main N2 highway running from Cape Town to Durban running through the Transkei is pretty good, and so is most of the road down to Coffee Bay. But where we turned off between the N2 and Coffee Bay is where it got quite bad. Thus our 320km trip took us 7 odd hours and we arrived just as it was getting dark to what appeared to be the middle of a rural village.

We were directed by a sign to park in one place and walk over a hill to the backpackers. A bit nervous to be leaving our car there and walk past cows, goats and traditional mud huts to where the backpackers was supposed to be, we grabbed essentials and made haste to go check in and see if we could park any closer. Our main concern was how we would get everything we need from our car to the backpackers - at this stage we didn't have any bags, only boxes in the van! We had to just deal with it and relax as we were told our things are safe and we could go with the backpacker 4x4 to collect some of the things we needed later. So we sat down and braai'd at the backpacker fire and hung out until later when I got a lift to get some things. We struggled to get the Land Cruiser out the parking and after stalling a few times the guy asked if I could drive it...good thing we didn't try take our car down there, the road was bad and definitely only suited to high clearance 4x4's! All in all, we got our things, not that it made a difference as there are no locks on the huts. Welcome to the Transkei 😊

The next day at Bulungula we did a village tour, Cristina had a massage and I went to watch the local football league match from the natural stadium. It's a great place, still quite untouched by tourism and we learnt a lot about local life, seeing the headman's house, drinking beer in the shebeen (and breaking a bottle on the floor / getting into the local ways...) and eating samp and beans with the witch-doctor. Having relaxed to the ways of the Transkei we were much more comfortable walking around the village, leaving our valuables in our unlocked hut, our car in a distant parking space. Such a good special place, it's pity the rest of Africa has been over-developed and abused.

The next day we packed up (it was quite a task to carry our boxes back over the hill without vehicular help!), and headed off to Mdumbi. This was also a 6h or so day due to the bad roads out of Bulungula, the Caddy has been a real trooper managing them all in its stride. We arrived at Mdumbi in the late afternoon and set up camp for 3 nights before taking a quick walk to see sea from the hill top. We had a good lentil soup provided by the backpackers and the next morning we were up with the sun. Some crayfish presented themselves to us via some locals in the morning, and we got 4 for R60 which we smashed for lunch. The rest of that day was pretty chilled and we just did some caddy repacking and some organising. The next day we went kayaking up the river where we saw a legovaan and chowed some fresh oysters and decided we needed 4 nights in this awesome place. While at Mdumbi we made some nice food (Spanish potato salad), ate some good backpackers food and met a few very interesting characters. We also spent lots of time just chilling on the beach, walking along the coast, swimming in the waves and Cristina cut my hair on the rocks (see pics).

We left Mdumbi for the Hole In The Wall (HitW) mid morning and stopped for lunch in Coffee bay and at the closest shop (17km away) before making our way across to HitW where we met up with Frank & Nicola, and Chris & Jo plus all their offspring. Over the next few days with them we went beach braai'ing & snorkelling at the HitW river, playing beach soccer & cricket, swimming, surfing, spear-fishing, braai'ing, potjie'ing and ate a lot of seafood in-between I also went for a run-around with my camera and snapped some shots. All in all a very cool, relaxed time at the Hole in the Wall!!

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