What a wonderful time we had at Dwesa. It is a lovely bush camp situated in the most beautiful part of the country. As we arrived in the dark, I had no idea of where we were and what the area looked like, in fact, when we stopped at the gate, I asked Dick what the noise was that sounded like earthmoving machinery and he said it was the sea. At that stage I did not even know that we were close to the sea, so wonderful was the surprise the next morning when we went for a walk and we were in fact a hill away from the sea. Awesomely awesome it was. The sea is so different from Cape sea and the sand is brown and there are rocks right into the sea and the hills run into the sea as well.
The first morning we walked along the beach and on towards the mouth of one of the many rivers in the Transkei. We took a little backpack and water bottle with 2 G&T’s in and picked up some oysters on the beach and then had a “chill moment” on the beach where we enjoyed this. These are the moments in life that adds the real quality. When we got to the mouth of the river we were met by a herd of cattle, lying on the beach and on the rocks, chewing the cud. What a life that must be for a cow. It is really difficult to describe to anybody what this coast is like, especially if you are talking from a Cape coast perspective. It actually just has to be experienced to appreciate it.
The following morning we went for a walk through the forest. As it is a Nature reserve the forest is protected and there is quite a bit of it. There are lovely old trees and several Yellowwoods amongst it with lots of bird life and apparently wild animals as well. We were unaware of this, but we were stopped by the local guide who told us that we are not allowed to walk alone in the forest, due to the fact that there are dangerous animals. The most dangerous that we saw was a little green snake. We also found out that we were only allowed to walk to the Khobolo river on our own. We never observed a sign indicating to the wild animals that they were not allowed to attack anybody before that, but then again, maybe they knew that already all by themselves. Obedient as we are, we walked back along the beach. We stopped on the way to have a rest and just to enjoy the wonder and beauty of the environment, when we spotted movement on the beach. It was a big ghost crab trying to open a mussel, about the same size as it. It was fascinating to watch. Dick slowly tried to make his way closer to take some photos, however this is quite difficult as the crabs have really good eyesight and detect any movement and within a flash they are into their “ghost crab hole”. Anyway Dick waited him out and was lucky enough to get some really good action shots of the crab eating out of the mussel shell. What an experience that was and I would think quite rare, as these crabs are extremely fast moving and whenever you see them they are disappearing into their holes. And as Dick always says: “Another day of hell in Africa”.
We left Dwesa with sad hearts and wished that we could have stayed for longer, but on Wednesday morning we were off and on our way to White Clay lodge where we were booked to camp for 2 nights. Again the road was typical Transkei with little, if any difference between major and minor roads. There is not a great deal of local traffic on the road, however what there is, it is mostly Toyota bakkies and if anybody ever wondered about what had ever happened to all the Toyota Ventures, let me tell you, they are gracing the Transkei roads proudly .The scenery is picture book pretty, with undulating hills with brightly coloured huts that are scattered all along each and every hill. Cattle and goats and wondering, cell phone carrying people everywhere, however each and every hut and patch that we saw were well kept, clean and obviously proudly owned. Never saw a man doing any work, but many a woman working the fields and carrying things and generally being productive. I suppose the men are all in the major cities, like Cape Town to earn money to build the houses here in the Transkei.
We stopped off at a rural shop to purchase a loaf of bread and were greeted with such hospitality and very friendly people. The fact that we could not understand a word of each other’s language was irrelevant. We also stopped at the famous “hole in the wall” for some photos. It is another of the peculiarities of creation, with this huge “rock” that has this big hole in it where you can either see the horizon on the other side or huge waves breaking through the hole. It is really spectacular. A short few kilometers later we were at White Clay lodge, home for the next few days.
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