Wild Coast Experience
Some people come here to spliff out on the Wild Coast. Some pull in to surf a wicked, café latte-coloured point break off Port St Johns. Others arrive to chill out, succumbing to the languid allure of Pondoland Fever.
But if you really want to live the Wild Coast experience, you have to do it across the handlebars of a mountain bike. This secluded section of shoreline stretching from the Umtamvuna River south towards the Great Kei remains one of South Africa’s most untouched seascapes.
Awesome riding along beaches, cattle tracks and hiking trails are but one of the attractions of this untamed paradise where the Xhosa tribe continues to live according to ancestral traditions. Bird watching, surfing, snorkelling, hiking, scuba diving, horse trails … you name it, and you better believe you can do it here.
Hole in the Wall
Coffee Bay offers numerous attractions, including a friendly hotel, two backpackers hostels, excellent surfing conditions and the iconic 'Hole in the Wall'. The Hole in the Wall is an unusual rock formation with a giant hole right through the middle. This tunnel is big enough to drive a ski boat through, but only the foolishly brave would attempt such a feat, as the sea crashes through here.
It is for this reason that the locals refer to it as esiKhaleni, meaning 'place of noise'. Xhosa mythology tells a romantic tale of sea people, a beautiful Xhosa maiden and a giant fish that battered its way headfirst through the wall of rock to create the Hole in the Wall that allowed them to escape to sea with the Xhosa girl.
Just to the left of the Hole in the Wall along the Wild Coast, there's a long inlet where a reef breaks the waves for about 80 meters. This makes it an unusually safe beach for swimming. And it's away from the holidaying crowds further up the coast.