Coastal Christmas 1- Chintsa, Wild Coast

December 14, 2013

For the first stop on our Christmas trip, M and I were both looking forward to some quiet beach time. We chose a spot somewhat off the radar: Chintsa is part of the "Wild Coast", which is a stretch of coastline that isn't necessarily on most tourists to-do list as it can be tough to get to and isn't really on the way to anything. For the majority of the Wild Coast you need 4x4 to navigate the roads, and a significant amount of time, as roads are few and far between and a considerable amount of back-tracking is often required. Chintsa is a bit of an exception to this, as it's only about 40km north of the popular city of East London, and can (for the most part) be accessed in a regular car.

We could not have been happier with this little slice of heaven…M and I both said this was one of our favourite spots on the entire trip. The beach was gorgeous and fairly quiet. We spent our time reading on the beach, walking along the ocean, and sitting on our balcony drinking wine and playing cards…rough life, we know.

We broke up the drive to Chintsa with a night in Bloemfontein. While not exactly a tourist destination, Bloem is where JRR Tolkien was born, so it does have a bit of a Lord of the Rings claim to fame. Naturally, we stayed at the Hobbit Boutique Hotel. We also made a stop at the Loch Logan Waterfront for dinner. Not exactly the V & A Waterfront of Cape Town that it claims to be modelled after, but a nice spot to watch the sun go down none-the-less.

As soon as we arrived in Chintsa, M headed straight for the water. Naturally.

My idea of beach time...

Deciding whether or not to go in for a dip (I went in).

Happy to be at the beach, even if it means me dragging him for a walk... 

Our little 2-person bungalow was situated in the cliffs overlooking the lagoon and the ocean, and had a glorious balcony to relax and enjoy the view.

Morning sun through the clouds.

One last look at the water before saying goodbye to Chintsa!

As we left Chintsa we stopped in the small university town of Grahamstown en route to our next destination (Addo Elephant Park). A good friend of ours went to university here and insisted that the Rat & Parrot make the itinerary for a lunch stop. Thanks for the suggestion, R!