What day of the week was it? I knew that is was a Sunday, but being on the Wild Coast I was wondering whether it actually mattered. We were taking a walk along the sea bluffs to the south of Mbotyi, making for a place called Mpunzi Beach. With the sun casting long shadows and a stunning day slowly drawing to a close, we passed Shark Point, the legendary fishing spot and made our way onto the beach.
The small beach was rather crowded, which is not unusual for beaches in this part of the world. However the crowds weren't sun-seeking tourists, but rather groups of lazy, multi-coloured Transkei cows. Their routine entails heading down to the beach at around 8am and remaining there all day until the sun sets, doing nothing more than lying around in the sand and chewing the cud.
Even the farmers among our group, who are more used to their stock grazing in fields all day long, wondered when they actually did get around to eating. Anyway, so timeless was the scene on the beach that I concluded that giving names to days was irrelevant here. Sunday, Wednesday or Friday; each day is just like the one before.
Perhaps here it's more appropriate to think in terms of seasons, when there is a perceivable change to make one take notice of the passage of time.
Talking of time passing, it had been about 12 years since I'd last visited the quiet hamlet of Mbotyi on this stretch of coast known as Pondoland. Little seemed to have changed. There were a few more huts and cottages, but other than that it was still the same old place.
I began to wonder about the history of the Transkei and why exactly the Wild Coast had escaped the ravages of coastal development that is seen on most other parts of the east coast.
I stumbled across some answers in a book called The Road To Isandlwana by Philip Gon. The book obviously covered the British defeat under the shadow of the hill called Isandlwana far to the north in Zululand, but also examined the whole build-up to the battle and included the history of the Transkei, which was paramount in trying to understand the fight against the Zulus and the conquest of this rugged land across the Kei River.
This region was occupied by around 12 different tribes, all loosely grouped as the Xhosa, who had moved into the area somewhere between 500 and 1 200 years ago, displacing the nomadic San and Khoi people who were the original occupiers of the land.
These tribes engaged in hunting, agriculture, the rearing of livestock and lived a life based on tradition, custom and the spirits of the ancestors.
By the late the 19th century the British were exerting pressure from the south, with ideals of a unified South Africa, the Boers were exerting pressure for land from the east and those displaced by Shaka's reign of terror were pushing down from the north.
Furthermore, the tribes themselves were not friendly and the British used groups such as the Mfengu against the Gcaleka tribe for example, usually sending Mfengu warriors into the thickets and forests ahead of their troops to flush out the hiding enemy.
An African afternoon scene with cows
Through no fewer than eight Frontier Wars the British slowly began to break the tribes and take control of the region. By 1856 the tribes were dispirited and longed for some kind of divine intervention. In folly they were led by Mhlakaza, the chief prophet of the Gcalekas, who used his young niece Nongqawuse as a spiritual medium to find the way forward. According to Mhlakaza's interpretation of her visions, the spirits had said the white invaders would be overcome, but only after a great sacrifice by the tribes. The ill-fated prophesy called for the slaughtering of all livestock and the destruction of all grain supplies.
The result however was not glorious emancipation through the returning spirits but rather wide scale hunger and famine, which weakened the tribes substantially, though it was only after the ninth and last Frontier War in 1877 that the British were able to gain total control.
Residing in the north-east corner of the territory the resilient Mpondo tribe were more isolated and had not taken part in the cattle killing of 1856. They remained independent until 1894, when they were annexed by the British. After annexation ongoing tensions and the menacing reputation of Pondoland and its peoples kept settlers away to a large degree.
After becoming part of the Cape Colony the area was not high on the list as far as development was concerned, and this legacy continued after take-over by the Nationalist government in 1948. The apartheid policy gave the Transkei self-government in 1963 and independence in 1976. The effects of this still endure today in the form of wide-scale poverty.
Troubled and unfortunate this history may be, but together with the remote geography, the result in the present is there are no beach cabanas, hotels and time-share developments on the Wild Coast. Indeed, in the year 2008 it's a precious thing to find a place on our coast as unspoiled as Mbotyi, and I was going to make the most of my time at Mbotyi River Lodge.
Early on the first morning I wandered down to the lagoon in front of the lodge for some fly-fishing. I only managed to catch one small "kingy" however, and should rather have taken out one of the lodge's canoes, as some other fly-fisher was doing on the far side of the lagoon. Well, it's hard to get worked-up or uptight on the Wild Coast, so I headed back for a wonderful breakfast at the lodge.
After breakfast it was time to head down to the beach and relax for a while, imitating the cows by lying around for a few hours and watching the tide turn and finally force me from my little spot on the beach. A group of boys came down after lunch and a game of beach soccer began, providing an essentially African afternoon scene, with cows all around and a World Cup final in miniature taking place on the hard sand next to the lagoon. It was difficult to imagine a more relaxing day, but three of us decided to take a walk, and so it was that we passed Shark Point and headed to the far end of Mpunzi Beach.
The walks along this part of coastline are simply breathtaking. There's nowhere else like it: the smooth grassy hills that rise straight up from the rough and rocky shoreline; the ocean further out where the observant might see a whale breaching or dolphins swimming by; the views of the coastline sweeping off in front and behind. There are footpaths all the way along, used by both man and livestock for hundreds of years and sometimes they run along the edge of head-spinning drop-offs and precipices.
At the far end of the beach where the next rocky headland began we met up with the rest of the party who were fishing
Back at the lodge there were drinks in the bar before a wonderful three-course dinner, including some fresh Wild Coast fish (not caught by our group!), and I couldn't think of a better way to round off a truly memorable day. For the next two days we went fishing, walking, horse-riding, canoeing, and visiting nearby attractions such as Castle Rock and Magwa Falls.
Soon though the morning came when I had to face the fact that it was actually Tuesday and I needed to head back to the place where it did matter as to what day of the week it was.
So after a last look at the cows and the beach I bade farewell to Mbotyi and the lodge. I vowed not to leave it for another 12 long years before returning, lest something change drastically, although I think the Wild Coast will remain as special for a long time to come.
- More info from www.mbotyi.co.za, or call the lodge on 039-253-8888/8822. You can also email [email protected]. There's also a camping site opposite the lodge. Call 039-253-8295.
- Leon Marais paid for his own accommodation.