What a long day. I packed up early and went exploring Morgan Bay before hitting the road. A few people had mentioned a lookout point, which in my head looked like a bench on the side of a hill with a sort of nice view. It was not! In the Double Mouth nature reserve the cliffs stretch high into the sky with a vast grassy area on top overlooking the waves crashing against the rocky shoreline far below. I was a bit nervous approaching the edge. I wanted to take a selfie but was very aware that this was one of those spots where one could easily become an Instagram photo-fail statistic, so I approached with extreme caution. The view was breathtaking! Yes, there were benches but it far exceeded my expectations. It was a perfect breakfast spot.
This part of the world has a lot of cows wandering around. The amount of cow dung I’ve had to avoid today could plaster a whole village worth of rondawels and power that village for months. It’s like doing a peculiar cow dung dance wherever you walk. There is something wonderfully surreal about cows on the beach though. Not so great when you’re driving and they wander into the middle of the road and just lie down. And their mates stand there and give you that look. The one that says “we were here long before this road even thought of becoming a potholed nightmare, so you just park there until we’re ready to move”. Also on the side of the road, and occasionally in the middle, were lots and lots of dogs. Very cute dogs, in surprisingly good condition. Looks like same father, different mothers. They were all busy foraging for food, which was in stark contrast to the puppy at the Yellowwood Forest campsite which spent the morning running around chasing the monkeys with the biggest smug grin I’ve ever seen on a dog. It’s a Maslow’s hierarchy situation I suppose. And of course there were the pigs and goats and sheep as well.
The Transkei rural areas are quite different to the rural areas that I’ve driven through in the Karoo and Eastern Cape. There doesn’t seem to be that air of poverty here. There are brightly coloured houses spread across the hills as far as the eye can see, and even though you get the groups of young men wandering aimlessly along the roadside, they have a different demeaner. Having said that, I didn’t feel comfortable stopping to take pics, because the one time that I did there were suddenly these young boys running towards my car and demanding money. I think for taking a picture of a cow. So, just the one cow picture today.
It’s Freedom Day today. I remembered a day over 30 years ago when I was driving through the Transkei with my partner at the time, on our way to a beach holiday. What we didn’t realise on that day was that the ANC had just been unbanned, and the country was exploding with excitement and fear and long pent up rage. We’d taken a back route and as we rounded a corner there was this huge group of youngsters toy-toying in the road, with an angry-mob wildness that was instantly terrifying. They surrounded our car and started shouting and brandishing their knobkerries at us. All I could think of at the time was to become part of the mob. That’s what they say you must do. So I started punching the air with a freedom fist and shouting along with them. Amandla! Awethu! Amandla! Awethu! And just like that the crowd parted and let us through. Later that day we found out that freedom was on its way. It felt good to be driving through the Transkei again today, on our official Freedom Day.
I drove around Coffee Bay looking for a camping site and eventually found a beautiful spot at the White Clay resort, with a view of the ocean from my tent. I said a few days ago that it was full moon but obviously not, because tonight I watched an orange full moon rise over the ocean and honestly, I was trying to imagine a more perfect moment, but I couldn’t. I fell asleep early listening to the sound of the waves. I think I may be in heaven.
