Day 7, 8, 9 & 10: Pondoland 4X4 Trip



Typical Pondoland scenery



Pondoland is basically the old Transkei North or northern Wild Coast. The people are generally friendly but poor and the kids mostly have the super-irritating habit of holding out their palms when they see a white face, screaming "Sweeeeeeeeeets!!!!!"

The scenery is fantastic, the deep gorges a product of minor tectonic plate movement causing fault lines accross the landscape which occasionally result in a spectacular waterfall.

Our guide is extremely knowledgable about the area and we are to stay in two different Drifters Camps for two nights in each, carrying out recce's of the local surrounds with a bit of 4x4 challenge thrown in.

To be honest the 4x4'ing wasn't that exciting but it was comical seeing the nervousness of some of the other participants.

Fortunately Lyn's cousin and his wife joined us on this part of the Doddle and the company was pleasant - Vaughn and I gettting some heavy paddling up river and body surfing also (maybe a future entrant for membership of the Doddle Gang).



The endangered Cape Vulture nests here



The Cape Vulture is being sustained partially by the creation of a Vulture Restaurant where farmers can dump carcasses off which the vultures can feed - they have an incredible flying range of up to 750km and can spot kills and carcasses from many kilometres away.



The Wild Coast



The most interesting sights were the waterfalls and the Magwa Tea Plantation.  The Magwa Tea Plantation was a government initiative where a very large (R25m I believe) investment was made into an existing small tea farm to produce the largest tea plantation in the southern hemisphere.  We drove for half an hour through thiss plantation and saw only a fraction of it - sadly it is now inoperable due to labour disputes and local politics.  It is incredible how such a fantastic opportunity has been completely fucked up out of sight!




There are also many tourism opportunities going begging here, with one waterfall having a greater freefall height than Victoria Falls - but guess what, the main Tourism Office in East London has just shut its doors due to lack of funding - the Eastern Cape just beggars belief!




Vaughn, Claire, Lyn & Simon





The food on this tour has been superb and generally cooked solely by our chief guide Frank who only has one assistant, Pete. We are seriously overfed and spoiled (battling to fasten the pants now) and we enjoy a couple of drinks each evening with Vaughn and Claire.



The Doddle (and Simon) doing their thing!




Road building is part of the fun!



Magwa Falls

Manteku Falls



Early-morning paddle on absolutely still water



They breed them tough - and cute - in the Transkei!!



We saw countless dolphin from this road

The Doddle continues from here - heading North but not really sure where to. Our fellow-travellers were all envious as they hussled off to their various commitments and we continue going nowhere slowly......