Pack for Pondo
Stripping down to our bathing costumes, we stuff our backpacks into waterproof bags and stand on the edge of the 100-metre-wide Mkweni River. A group of local kids eyes us quizzically. “We waded through last time,” apologises our guide Garth Robinson, after reconnoitring the crossing. “It was only waist deep.” The water is deep, brown and swirling, but at least we are here on an incoming tide, and will be swept upstream to Mthatha rather than out to Mozambique.
“Don’t Zambezi sharks breed in these river estuaries?” asks Matthew Holt unhelpfully. While some of us debate the breeding habits of sharks, Theo Calitz plunges in and practises his butterfly. Our supposedly mild slackpacking trail along the Pondoland coast is becoming wet and wild.
Just getting to this remote, inaccessible, northern part of the Wild Coast has been an adventure. Recent heavy rains have scoured deep dongas in the road, testing the skill of the local bakkie driver that transferred us from the N2 to Mtentu Lodge, a
