East London: A coastal gem...and my new home :)

On Easter Sunday J and I drove out of sleepy Pretoria at dawn, crossed the Nelson Mandela bridge in downtown Jozi and headed out across the Highveld bush. We watched the land undulate and flatten into the fields of the Free State, splashed with sunflower yellow, then crossed a few dramatic mountain ranges and descended to the Eastern Cape coast.

En route I read aloud from Gustave Flaubert’s letters and travel notes. This quote is just too perfect and sums up my headspace in India, etc:

When I think of my future (that happens rarely, for I generally think of nothing at all despite the elevated thoughts one should have in the presence of ruins!), when I ask myself: ‘What shall I do when I return? What path shall I follow?’ and the like, I am full of doubts and indecision…. However, I worry very little about any of this; I live like a plant, filling myself with sun and light, with colours and fresh air. I keep eating, so to speak; afterwards the digesting will have to be done, then the shitting; and the shit had better be good! That’s the important thing.

-Gustave Flaubert in a letter to his mother, Cairo, 5 January 1850

East London is, quite simply, lovely.

Cool old buildings and awesome sea views. Friendly people and breathtaking beaches. I’ve filled my first week with happy explorations and now have a fairly good idea of the layout of the town, which although small is complex with its two rivers, the Buffalo and Nahoon, and countless hills, valleys, bays and beaches.

I’ve been looking at property with the help of eager estate agents and on my own. I've linked a map above. I absolutely love Quigney which is on the seafront beside the heart of the city. Huge skies and sea spray. The widest streets lined with crumbling jewels. Come on developers! What’s with those hideous suburban security complexes?! Cookie cutter functional prisons crammed into little unattractive spaces. Glaring evidence of ridiculous greed.

The city beaches are utterly gorgeous. From my gym, the Virgin Active, I have the most awesome view of Eastern Beach and a bay that was crawling with playful seals this morning.
Another favourite spot is Nahoon point. Wow. Yesterday at sunset J and I stood where the oldest human footprints were found with joy in our hearts. There's a photo to comemorate the moment above. And a few more of the journey and the destination here.
We feel so lucky to be here.

How’s this – East London has one mall J Yay.
Unfortunately they’re building another in Gonubie, which was a sweet seaside town right beside East London and is currently being developed to death.
We’ve had only one rainy day, the others have been gorgeous, so it’s living up to the Sunshine Coast boast.

Strangely, I do feel like a foreigner here. Although I’ve definitely been more of an obvious outsider in places like Afghanistan and Japan. Still, people look at me oddly when I speak and I find myself fascinated by how nice everyone is. Standing next to a stranger almost always elicits random conversation. People don’t hoot or get pushy on the roads.

There are also lots more black people mixed into privileged white lives and not just as servants. In Pretoria I’d get excited when on a Sunday the racial demographic at Menlyn Mall almost nudged 50/50. Here it’s far more representative. And the people are largely Xhosa speaking with its beautiful array of click sounds. This was the birthplace of Steve Biko and his Black Consciousness movement after all and it seems like he may not have died in vain. It’s also Mandela’s home and he is currently in retirement not far from here.

We’re looking forward to exploring more of the Wild Coast this weekend and are spoiled for choice as to how best to utilise the fast approaching long weekend – magical Hogsback in the Amatola mountains, or the exquisite Tsitsikamma forest coast, or the eerily beautiful Karoo towns of Graaff-Reinet and Nieu Bethesda, or or or...

Apologies to all e-mail correspondents. The little garden flat we’re renting has no landline, so no dial-up and alas, no wireless. I’m sneaking a couple of minutes on-line at J’s office.