RSA II - Planes, Trains and Automobiles

We left the Mann family on January 2, boarding a bus to East London that went right through the Wild Coast where Gary’s Mom grew up. While the all-day trip was LONG, the Transkei countryside was like stepping back a century, with most people still living in the traditional round mud huts. We found it hard to visualize how these folks would keep up with the “New South Africa.”


The Wood cousins (Lolah’s side of the family) are loosely based around the East London area. We stayed with Cousin Harland and his wife Nienie, who normally live in Natal, at Aunt Beryl’s house in Gonubi. We swam/body surfed in the nice weather to get the joints moving again. Their daughter, Lauren, was adorable and learned our names in no time…”Lolo!” We spent two days catching up with them before hooking up with cousin Linda, her husband Mark Andersen (photo above), and their two kids Justin and Kurt. Welcome to playland!


We started off at the Andersen’s mountain retreat in Hogsback, where it took two vehicles to bring in the toys…horses and a glider!! We managed to fit in gliding (magical; Lo riding in photo above, Gary below), horseback riding, mountain biking, and a great game of ultimate Frisbee in our four days there.

Next, back to their home just north of East London, a farm-sized property spitting distance from the ocean that they have “developed” into a game reserve. A portion of the property has actually been developed with friends from a local flying club into about 10 lots bordering onto a runway for their planes…all the houses have a garage and a hangar!

Apart from the boundary fence, the animals roam freely around the whole property, so it is common to have a herd of impala or wildebeest grazing on the runway. In addition to roaming around the property on our own safaris, we got a bird’s eye view from a vintage airplane that Mark shares with his brother Nils.

On another day, Nils took us and Linda on a guided tour of the Mercedes factory he manages…complete with state-of-the-art robotics and painting facilities…amazing logistics to keep the line running at 4 minutes a station!


The highlight of our stay with the Andersens was going to Qolora to visit the family beach cottage (only one truck and a plane for this jaunt). The toddlers below are Gary’s Mom and his Uncle Granville, enjoying the nearby lagoon area back in the day.

This beach cottage on the Wild Coast is where Gary got his primary exposure to the ocean growing up…the rest is now history. Like any amazing place from your childhood, there is always a concern that it will have changed or seem way smaller than you remember. Qolora did not disappoint! It was a crazy weekend, with Gary showing Lo EVERY activity that the Mann boys did in their youths...hike to the wreck of the Jakaranda, tidal pool explorations, swimming, beach games, snorkeling tiger shark alley, and cliff jumping at the famous Gates (a new activity passed on from the Andersens).

Auntie B even baked bakpot bread for the occasion (twice!), which was a staple fuel for the Mann boys as they raced around. We flew back with Mark along an amazing coastline…spectacular and largely undeveloped!