PORT O’ CALL
Destination: Beach
About halfway between Margate and Port Edward, at the place where you can only just make out the roof of Mac’s Country Grocer on your left in the thicket, Trafalgar Road turns off to the left from the R61 towards the sea. Next to the road you’ll find one of the South Coast’s ubiquitous tourist signposts, with name upon name stacked one on top of the other. The fifth sign from the top invites you to continue straight to Port O’ Call Caravan Park. It’s roughly 2,5 km from here. At the kink in the road, where the first roads join from right and left, Trafalgar Road becomes Nelson Road. Just keep going straight. It’s not named after our own Nelson, of course, but rather the British admiral and hero of the Battle of Trafalgar. A different breed of seafaring heroes walk along the road, surfboards under their arms. It’s Shange Asanda and his mates from Bhokodisa in the Gcilima township, about 11 km away. They eagerly jump onto the back of the bakkie and catch a lift to the caravan park’s entrance on the right-hand side of the last turn in the road, just before its second name-change, to Brooke Gardens. They jump off and jog the last 350 m to the parking lot closest to the beach.
A calm haven
At Port O’ Call’s entrance you must keep right all the way to the small reception office, where you quickly do some paperwork – if you remembered to bring cash, because there are no card facilities. There’s a small shop in the office where you can buy matches and cooldrinks, but not much else. Once you’ve checked in and paid, you have to drive around to the resort’s entrance gate. The resort is literally on the beach, and the campsite runs downhill to the sea. The 87 stands range in size, but all are level and each has its own power socket. During holiday times the resort is packed to the brim, but over the rest of the year the resort staff will ask you to choose a stand at the top of the resort, so they can keep the bottom half locked. And in fact, the stands with the best views are at the top anyway. The ilala palms, wild fig, coral and milkwood trees grow in abundance. You’re almost guaranteed a stand with the right ratios of shade and grass. The stands are laid out in such a way that there’s some space between you and your neighbour, so it doesn’t feel like you’re right on top of each other’s ground sheets. Once you’ve pitched camp you can sit back in your camp chair, and – depending on what kind of stand you have – stare into the distance over the ocean. The kids, meanwhile, can entertain themselves at the pools (a big one, and a smaller one for children) or at the playpark and games room.
Beach walk
There are two paths from the stands through the bushes down to the beach. There are gates that lock to monitor the entrance to the resort, but during the day they’re open, and you can walk down to the almost 5 km-long beach that stretches from San Lameer in the north to the Mpenjati Nature Reserve, at the mouth of the Mpenjati River, in the south. The beach is part of the Trafalgar Marine Reserve. You’re not allowed to spearfish, take out crayfish or collect bait, but angling and diving are allowed. If you want to wash the sand off your body after a long day at the beach, there
You can walk down to the almost 5 kmlong beach that stretches from San Lameer in the north to the Mpenjati Nature Reserve in the south.
are three ablution blocks in the campsite to choose from. They are not new or modern, but the park staff keep them so neat you feel almost guilty for dirtying the tile floors. There’s also a laundry at the bottom ablution block. If dinner is cooked over the coals you need to bring your own braai, because besides the communal braai area at the games room, there’s no other place to cook your chops. There are no busy highways or train tracks nearby, and at night the campsite is so quiet and dark you can hear the waves crashing in the distance. When you walk to the beach in the morning you’ll see fishermen with their rods on the rocks close to the tidal pools, and people walking along, towel over the shoulder, for some exercise and a quick dip in the warm Indian Ocean. If your timing is right you might see Shange Asanda and his friends or other members of the Wave of Hope and Trafalgar Saints surfing clubs, huddled together in a circle, praying, before tackling the waves.
It’s our first time here, and we like the place. It’s nice that it’s so dark at night, and that there are no bright lights shining all over the place. The silence at night is also lovely.