South Africa
GASTRONOMIE
The remoted village of Coffee Bay is a real beachcomer especially known for its coastal hike "The Hole in the Wall". Coffee Bay is one of the key destinations of an itinerary on the Wild Coast. With its rustic lodges, its numerous bars and its sublime beaches, Coffee Bay has the reputation of "the place to be" for backpackers and watersport addicts. The surrounding countryside is riddled with hills, revealing many xhosa villages, and offer hiking opportunities or cultural visits.
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Despite the fact that we can read in tourist brochures that Coffee Bay is very accessible, it is not so true ! The village of Coffee Bay is pretty remoted. There is quite a drive through the Xhosa villages and the hills before to get to destination. You need to know, it's a mission to find gasoline in this area. So make sure to not arrive in Coffee Bay with an empty tank... like we did. Crossing fingers, we drove around the Xhosa Village nearby because we heard it was maybe possible to buy gasoline from some residents. This was not the case, and nobody around had any idea where we could find a gas pump. Finally, with the help of one a the villager, we found a small gas sation next to a supermarket hidden next the main road leading to Coffee Bay.
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THE HOLE IN THE WALL
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One on the most popular trail around Coffee Bay is the famous walk to The Hole in the Wall. The Hole in the Wall is a spendid offshore rock formation carved out by pounding waves. This impressive natural feature is dipping in a beautiful lagoon, which make it a perfect place to have a swim. Starting in Coffee Bay, the trail goes along the costaline and it takes around 3 hours to arrive to The Hole in the Wall. Most of poeple related to tourism will tell you that you should walk the trail with a guide because robberies can happen on the way. We can not say if it is true or not, but we had the feeling it was a good commercial argument. With the guided walk, the trip ends with a bone-rattling 4x4 ride back to Coffee Bay.
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If you don't feel like walking to The Hole in the Wall, you can also go by car from Coffee Bay. There is a small road, going through the hills and offering a magnificent view on the coastline​, that leads to The Hole in The Wall Hotel, where you can park your car (the parking is for free if you buy a drink in the hotel bar). It takes only 5 minutes to walk from the parking to the natural feature. There is another road to get to The Hole in the Wall, but we definitly don't recommend to try the trip if you don't have a pick up or a 4x4. We wanted to stop in The Hole in the Wall before our trip to Coffee Bay (we didn't know anything about the area), so we put on our GPS the name of the landmark. At some point, after passing hundreds of rondavels of small really remoted villages, we could'nt go further. The road was really bad, full of stones and potholes, and we had to go back. Therefor, keep in mind it is much better to go first to Coffee Bay, and then to The Hole in the Wall.
