Our Experience living among the Xhosa People
You are going to stay WHERE for a month? This is the response we received from a lot of white South Africans whom we met during our time on the Western Cape. Our response was met with shock in that 'white people don't stay there'. We met a videographer from Cape Town who spent months in the rolling hills of Swazi land and was enthusiastically thrilled that we were going to experience this piece of undeveloped coastal Africa.
If it wasn't for TJ and Anke, our hosts who needed a cottage and pet sitter while they went into town to have their first baby, we wouldn't ever, in a million years had the chance to stay literally on the wild coast.
Before getting our rental car and taking the 5-hour drive from East London to the Port Saint Johns area, we stayed with Siziwe. She made us some fab African food and we quickly fell in love with the hospitality and charm of the eastern cape. How cool we were all the same size too!
The Drive to the Umngazi River Area was paved, and pleasant with rolling hills and thousands upon thousands of Xhosa Villages dotting the hillsides.
We were curious why more travelers didn't head this way?
We had no problem getting to the village where we would be spending the next month. TJ met us an hour from their place and we followed him for the last (very rough) hour down to the ocean side on a less than ideal 'road'.
Getting Closer..........Our Cottage......Flat Rock, our Home for the next month.
After lots of discussions online preparing us for this experience, we finally met Anke (German) who was 9 months pregnant, her German Mother, and TJ, a native South African who escaped the city of Johannesburg to live off the grid in this heavenly oasis they created.
This was not your average Housesit
It wasn't for the faint of hearts. TJ and Anke made the decision to live unconventionally with the tribe with no electricity, no running water or plumbing, no refrigeration or food storage, and hardly even a road to get to their seaside home.
The high safety factor was evident after driving the additional hour in the bush and taking the dirt foothill path to their house. Unlike any of the other places in South Africa, there were no bars on the windows, no doors to lock, no razor wire, and no alarms to set.
TJ and Anke both educated, chose this life to be enriched by nontraditional means rooted in culture. They were the only light-skinned outsiders living among the locals. It didn't take long to see that they really were not at all very different. Like most humans, they share the same desire to experience joy, spend time with family and friends, respect the basic needs which support life, and live in a simple harmonious style.
Anke is a Vet and works with the Xhosa villagers helping with pet issues. She ran a shelter on the Western Cape before moving to Swazi land. They have 6 Dogs, 5 Cats, and a neighborhood donkey that they consider part of their tribe. We did not get a group photo of us and the critters, but we did set the camera timer to attempt a few shots.
Most days the beach was deserted. The happy, happy dogs ran and ran and ran. The first week we arrived it was still a school holiday, so there were locals enjoying the surf on a few occasions. Even with my golden African tan, I was by FAR the lightest person on the beach. Many of the local kids took extra looks because seeing light skin is very foreign to them, some of them never having witnessed white-skinned people.
The Xhosa people are native speakers, and they replace a few letters with a click sound. We had some interaction with them but didn't get very fluent clicking.
There are no beach chairs or umbrellas, just raw beautiful nature. It had a Jurassic park look on the sand dune hills that lined the beach. There were very shy darling grey monkeys that swung from the trees, occasional cattle and random donkeys and goats that found their way to the beach.
With the exception of a nature resort a half mile from the property, international tourists and local South Africans don't often venture to this area. The resort guests are flown in by helicopter to the Umgazi River Lodge. They indeed did experience running water, electricity, and food flown in from all over the world.
Two Simple wooden cottages, rain is collected from a local spring and from the roofs of the cottages, electricity is only cultivated from a simple camping power bank used to power cell phones and twinkle lights. Eating vegiterian and mostly vegan is pretty necessary since there is no refrigeration and making it to the store is a day event itself. Once you opened something, you were all in--eat it now or throw it. Everything in very small packages and shelf stable.
Our water tank, the simple kitchen with no sink and a gas burner, and the most beautiful view from the toilet
It really wasn't about what you didn't have or went without, it was about super cool stuff. The location is wildly remote, insanely quiet, seriously rustic, jaw-droppingly beautiful, and systematically peaceful. We discovered the innate reality that humans really don't need much to have a pretty enjoyable life. (Truth be told, just a dorm fridge would have totally been the bomb)
So REALLY, what did we do for a Month?
Our cell phones were always charged and we purchased a SIM card with 50 G of data that had 4G speed. We were able to watch all of the Bengals playoff games, even if it was 3 am in the morning. Cumulatively, we read well over 12 books. We did daily beach walks, hung out with the cats, and fed the donkey. In addition to daily beach walks, we had a few other routes in the jungle and along the hillsides. We were up early with the sun, and tucked in bed at dusk.
On the path to our place, the sun was hot, many local women had umbrellas for shade. A local Xhosa woman was harvesting oysters at low tide. Often you would find cows just doing their thing on the beach.
We like to concentrate on being givers, but we feel we took way more away from this experience than what we gave. TJ and Anke gave us so much thought for reflection.
A true model in doing what you love (even if it is at times hard)
Trusting the universe to allow things to happen naturally (have faith, my friend!)
As humans, our basic needs are really very, very few
WATER is life. Even when you are surrounded by an ocean, fresh water is the source of everything
Other people don't have to understand what gives you joy--most everyone thinks they are nuts for living this way
Use your talents to help make your part of the world a better place, and start in your own neighborhood
The tribal girls suck on stones to prevent pregnancy----as for Anke, this did NOT work very well.
HUGE washed up jelly fish. The view from our deck. A local neighbor hauling fire wood with his donkeys to use for cooking food.
Baby Heidi Wolf has arrived, safe and sound in this big world!
We finished our month, and it was time for them to come back. Our visa was a bit too tight for comfort, so it was time for us to scoot. They had tiny baby Heidi with them on their return to the village. TJ came back with warm bottles of local beer in quarts. He and Brett celebrated, so our safe early morning departure wasn't so early. Little did we know this decision would cost us.
Some of the townships we had to drive through to get back to East London were definitely less than safe and targeted anyone that wasn't local. The early morning departure eliminates a lot of this risk if you do it before the chaos starts.
TJ and Anke's friends run a local grocery shop and have to watch the amount of cash they take to town to deposit because they have been robbed and threatened so many times. People get car jacked, stabbed, often never reported in many cases.
After being targeted and sucked into an elaborate roadside scam, we were lucky to scoot out of crowded and chaotic Mataha with only our credit cards being taken. Lucky for us, there was no struggle we let them have it and out of there we were.
It was time to wrap up the 3 month Africa experience. Cape Town, Yzerfontien Western SA for a month of white privilege living among the richest of rich, 20 Days in Namibia living among the animals in our comfy Kombi Van, and 30+ Days on the Wild Coast of Eastern Africa with the Xhosha tribe. You can say our experience was diverse and a little crazy. We of course would have it no other way. (minus the robbery would have been nice tho)
It is however, time for a little first-world living and luxuries. Australia, here we come. Yip, yip, yippee! Bring on the snakes, sharks, spiders, jellies and other critter that can kill us---we are ready.
Amazing adventure, love all the photos, looking forward to seeing your adventure in Aussie Land. Love Patsy. 😘