Walking the Wild Coast (at last).
Face Book is amazing. We reconnect with old friends, get to
know all sorts of interesting stuff, and some of us see posts and make instant decisions regarding those posts. My dog Hunter is at my feet because of such
a decision. A friend posted a photo of him, I fell in love, and here he is.
The same instant decision making happened, when Margie
Pretorious, one of my few FB ‘friends’, that I hadn’t actually met, late one
night posted something about Wise Women Walking. What is it? I messaged her.
Her answer; ‘We’ll walk and talk, and maybe get answers to things’, interested
me. ‘Do you want more participants?’ I asked. And that was it; I had signed up
to walk the northern part of South Africa’s Wild Coast with a bunch of women I
had never met before.
Not only had I never met the other walkers, I had never
hiked for 5 days (or 2 days for that matter), carried a back pack, slept in a
hut, done without my ‘good’ binoculars for days. What had I said yes to? A
bonus; I had met our guide to be, Bongani Mlotywa,of Absolute Wild Coast Tours,
briefly at a tourism conference. He had seemed an OK guy. See https://www.facebook.com/absolutewildcoast/
I had moved to the Wild coast 36 years before (for a
month), it really was time I walked the Wild Coast.
Margie set up a WhatApp group, I flippantly said that I’d
drive to Port Edward, walk halfway home, get driven back to Port Edward, and
then I would drive home again. That caused some confusion- huh? After all, who
lives in Port St Johns?
So, the day before, I drove to Port Edward, and met up with
Margie and other interesting people, had convivial conversation at supper time
, and at breakfast, about issues we are passionate about, and then drove off to
the Wild Coast Sun, where we were meeting and starting from. I stopped at the
local supermarket for must haves like chocs and snacks, and as I was walking
away from my car, past 3 women, something they said, made me stop and ask if
they were my walking partners – yes they were, Lucy, Cathy and Janet. We
immediately hit it off, and decided that wine was a must, so the bottle store
was also visited. Thank-goodness for wine in half litre cartons, and I
discovered that Old Brown Sherry, a must in all bush situations, was now also
available in cartons. The extra weight that I was carrying? I reckoned we’d
empty the cartons on the first night. It was a completely wrong assumption.
We parked our cars at the hotel, met up with Bongani, got
down to the beach, sat down and ate our lunch. I liked the pace of this
adventure!
Bongani got up, we put on our backpacks, and started the
six kilometers which was the distance on our first day. The Wild Coast is
beautiful, and it was beautiful walking past those rivers that I normally drove
over, further inland.
We arrived at Sigidi Village a few hours later, and
gratefully sank down on the mattresses in our communal hut. Ten minutes later, our
hostess served us tea and hot steamed bread. Steamed bread is a Pondo
speciality, it is cooked/ baked in a cast iron pot over an open fire, and with
peanut butter, it is uber delicious.
Supper – yummy Pondo food. My favourite, nqush (samp and
beans) is served with a stew and vegetables. Nqush is not pronounced ‘enquushe’.
In Xhosa,the ‘q’ is one those delightful tongue clicks. One of the ‘tongue against
the palate’ ones.
We chat, we lighten the wine box, but far from empty it. We
go to sleep at about 8.00pm, feeling quite silly, because it is so early.
In the morning, some of us are up with the sun. Since it is
winter, sunrise is after 6.30am – not exactly early. Lucy makes proper filter
coffee, I have brought good quality instant coffee along; some things cannot be
given up, even on a Wild Coast hike. Breakfast is maize porridge and more
steamed bread. We are given lunch packs, and off we go.
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| A petrified log |
and a photo session
with them is held. We stop for lunch,
plonking ourselves down on dune in a row,
facing the sea.
The sandwiches are steamed bread and jam, they get eaten very
fast.
Later on, we arrive at Matholane village. As it was at Sigidi, our hostess makes us comfortable. We
attack the hot steamed bread with gusto. Steamed bread was the reason why none of
lost any weight during the 50 something kilometer walk. Dinner was again
delicious, and we had the children of the village entertain us with song and
dance. The youngest couldn’t have been 3 years old yet, and the oldest was about
17 years old; she was baby-sitting a very young child, of maybe a few months,
and the baby was danced with, and it slept through the loud singing, all the
while being passed between the children.
Matholane village is near the edge of a magnificent gorge,
where I found the last resting place of Chief Pynnokiatus. As you can see in
the photo, the stone formation does look like a reclining person with a very
long nose. As all of us on the walk are against the N2 Wild Coast Toll Road and
the mega bridges, that are being proposed by the SA Government’s Department of
Transport, and their agency SANRAL
( note: I am not against a decent upgraded
road), I thought it apt to say he was related to the story spinning Chief
Sanralliatis.
About a hundred meters from the homestead we were staying
in, is the most amazing collection of standing stones, sort of reminiscent of
Stonehenge. Archaeologist Len van Schalkwyk thinks they may be ‘naturally occurring Msikaba Sandstone boulders possibly
dispersed by a a higher Mio-Pliocene sea level stand’. Which is gobbledegook to
me, I just can’t grasp the reality of things that are between 23 million and 5
million years old. I wondered around them at sunrise, and imagined all sorts of
scenarios of how they had come to be. Natural weathering and changing sea
levels didn’t feature in my thoughts.
Wednesday
morning, day 3 had us heading towards the Mtentu River, the only place other
than the Msikaba River, where the Mkambati Palm, Jubaeopsis caffra , also known as the Pondo coconut
or Dwarf Pondoland palm, is found. This endemic species, because
of its small size has become a popular house plant in the USA, so much so, that
there are probably more of these palms in Florida than what there are on The
Wild Coast. Which is good to know, should some tragedy happen to the naturally
occurring palms. Like Uganda's rhinos all being shot out, during 'the Troubles', and new stock coming from Disney Land.
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| The MkambatiPalm, Jubaeopsis caffra |
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| Leucosprnum innovans, a very special endemic at Sigidi. |
But first we had to cross the red
sand dunes of Xolobeni. These amazing red sand dunes are rich in heavy
minerals, especially titanium. The South African government, had given an
Australian company the right to mine these minerals, but in their arrogance and
greed, had not thought it important to ask the local people, the Amadiba, a
Pondo Clan, if they thought it was ok to mine their ancestral lands. Most of the
Amadiba objected strongly, but a few, having been bought by the mining company,
wanted the mining to happen. This has resulted in many years of strife, with
the result that the dunes have not been mined. Yet. The proposed toll road
would provide much needed access to the sands.
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| The red dunes of Xolobeni, which have been inhabited for over 300 000 years. |
‘The stone
tools you are observing probably span some 300 – 400 000 years of early human
interaction on the landscape. Their provenance within the dune sands is the
subject of ongoing research (Kuman, K. 2006; Fisher et.al. 2013) but suffice to
say that their appearance on the hard pan indicates the winnowing effect of
the aeolian sands as the latter are removed.
In papers published by Prof. Oliver Davies (Natal Museum) in the early 1950’s and later in the 70’, ancient stone artefacts were reported from a number of localities where red dunes are distributed along the KwaZulu-Natal and Pondoland coast. Those described by Davies are of the late Early Stone Age industry known as the Sangoan. Kuman and I have observed that the bulk of the stone artefacts at Xolobeni are of the Sangoan Industry but that possible early Middle Stone Age artefacts (250 -30 kya) may also occur at Xolobeni. Kuman has also described stone tools with elements from the preceding Acheulian Complex dated at possibly 500-600 kya.’
In papers published by Prof. Oliver Davies (Natal Museum) in the early 1950’s and later in the 70’, ancient stone artefacts were reported from a number of localities where red dunes are distributed along the KwaZulu-Natal and Pondoland coast. Those described by Davies are of the late Early Stone Age industry known as the Sangoan. Kuman and I have observed that the bulk of the stone artefacts at Xolobeni are of the Sangoan Industry but that possible early Middle Stone Age artefacts (250 -30 kya) may also occur at Xolobeni. Kuman has also described stone tools with elements from the preceding Acheulian Complex dated at possibly 500-600 kya.’
Kya
means thousand years ago in archaeology and palaeontology speak. I had picked
up some seriously ancient tools. And put them down again. How can anyone
entertain the thought of ruining an ancient site? I can only imagine the
outrage that would ensue, should there ever be thoughts of mining at Stonehenge
or Ayers Rock, so why is it ok to ruin this site? Is it because the Amadiba
Clan is very happy to pursue their ancient traditions and life style, and are
therefore considered as uninformed / uneducated peasants by the investors? Why is the area not being a declared a
heritage site? That people can even fleetingly consider messing up the culture
and heritage of an indigenous people, is arrogant.
Bongani
points out a midden, which has been newly uncovered by the winds, a midden with
shells and bones. Who were these ancient people who messily left their tools
and rubbish lying around? We spend a long time speculating on a subject that we
know very little about, and then carry on to the homestead where we will spend
the night.
Mtentu Lodge, a 15 minute walk away, is where
we went to charge our very flat phones. The hosts there are delightful, and
while our phones got some life into them, we had drinks and chatted with Chris,
an economist who had chucked in city living, and was now teaching the local
kids science and maths.
Day 4 dawned, and I was very happy
to leave, possibly our hosts were glad to see us go too, as we shouted every time
a dog was abused.
We made our way down to the river, where our canoe man
ferried us one by one across the Mtentu River, over to the northern border of
the Mkambati game reserve. The Mkambati Game reserve has several beautiful
waterfalls, we stopped at Horseshoe Falls, and the brave amongst us (everyone
but me), went for a swim in the icy winter water. I think Mkambati Falls, which
fall directly into a small bay at high tide, is the world’s prettiest sight.
Unfortunately for us, the herds of antelope had gone inland, so all we saw were
two eland, and spoor of various animals, including leopard.
This was the 19 kilometre trek,
and we walked the length of the Mkambati Reserve, stopping frequently for
photos, and chats, one place being the wreck of the Weolmi 303, a ship which
went up on the rocks , and not down to Davy Jones’ locker – a good example that
drinking and sailing do not mix well.
We lay in the sun after our lunch –yep, you’ve guessed it – steamed bread sandwiches, but sophisticated ones today: cheese, lettuce and tomato! I think we were disappointed that it wasn’t peanut butter. We dipped in the very refreshing turquoise sea, picked up shells, admired plants and birds, and then, with a bit of speed, because Bongani was worried about missing the chap who was to take us across, got to the Msikaba River. At the Msikaba, River, it was quite funny, we became a bit disorientated, because the tide was out, and the river was a mere few inches deep, spreading across the sand, so we walked across, and we didn’t recognise it as the mouth of one the deepest river gorges in South Africa. Bongani had to confirm where we were, and that the ferry boat wasn’t necessary.
The last 3 km was uphill, and not what
was wanted at the end of a long hike. First we popped into the Drifters’ Camp
at Msikaba ( https://www.drifters.co.za/tours-and-lodges/greenfire-camps-wild-coast/
, and said hello to the manager, Lumka, and then we walked the last stretch up
to the homestead, which was to be our home for the next two nights. Tea and the
hugest loaf of steamed bread we’d seen to date, tea, and hot water for washing
greeted us. Also, this village had electricity, so we happily charged our
phones, not because we wanted to call anybody; we needed the phones charged to
take photos.
An assortment of animals, cows,
goats, chickens and cat milled around, the chickens and goats were shoo’ed out
of our hut, and the dogs were given titbits to eat. Here we saw a perfect
example of a ‘Transkei Dog’, essentially of the Africanis land race, the tough
mongrel that survives, despite everything that is thrown at it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPcEenJypp0
). One of the dogs had a hole through his palate, so every time he breathed,
you could hear the air gurgling. Other than being a bit ugly and a bit skinny,
he was ok, and hopefully, the Transkei Animal Welfare Initiative, which is
based in Port St Johns, will have a vet in the area sometime, and will have a
look at it.
Friday, day 5 was our chill day,
just a 7km walk. 3.5km to a lovely river at Mbaxeni (the ‘x’ is another click,
sort of like sorting out saliva on your molars), and back again. The lovely unspoilt
wilderness had two houses on it. The first one, an illegal cottage built on the
most beautiful spot imaginable, the second one, about a kilometre away, being
the beach cottage of the famous Khotso (http://www.museum.za.net/index.php/imvubu-newsletter/100-khotso-legendary-herbalist).
It is said that the whole area is protected by spirits requested by Khotso to
do so. We were careful not to do anything that might have upset the guardians. We had lunch on a rocky ledge overlooking a crystal clear pool, and sat under a small waterfall, giggling and squealing like children.
On the way back we had a lesson in how not to mess with nature. A cow was calling her calf. We found the calf , asleep in a shallow river bed, nearly stepping on it, it blended in so well, and thought we’d help the mother by guiding ‘her’ calf back to her. Margie and I spent a good while being inept calf herders, then we realized that we were attempting to get it to the wrong mother. Local kids walking past, had their laugh of the day at our antics.
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| Margie had a liitle calf..... |
Saturday dawned, with a chill in
the air. We had been so lucky with the weather, only having had a little bit of
rain on day 3. Breakfast was served, good bye to our hostess was said, and we
got into our taxi, to get back to our starting point at the Wild coast Casino
at Mzamba.
A short detour was taken to the
vulture viewing deck which overlooks the Msikaba gorge, several kilometers from
the sea. Here there is a colony of Cape Vultures, a species which was fairly
common right across Southern Africa, but which is now extinct in Swaziland, and
is critically endangered in Namibia. We spent a good while marveling at them
swooping in and around the cliffs, before getting back in our taxi and making
our way back to ‘civilization’.
As with the rest of tourism in the
Wild Coast area, hikers doing the different Wild Coast hikes, became fewer and
fewer in the last 12 years, due to lack of marketing, and therefore lack of
word of mouth advertising. Where the villages had about 10 different hosts
each, now they only have one. Hopefully, the tide will turn again, and hikers
will once again become plentiful, adding much needed revenue and job creation
to the Pondo people who live here, in their culture rich environment.
Sustainable tourism is what the people need, not toll roads, mega bridges or
mining activities, that will destroy their heritage. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-07-20-op-ed-resistance-is-0fertile-amadiba-agriculture-challenges-elite-mining-agenda/#.WX3paBV97IU
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