A Heavenly Place ....... near the Transkei

In April this year I was invited to join a boys club which has been running for 35 years called the "Mpande Buffalos".

Setup by a founding 6 members from the Eastern Cape the club has gone (at around the same time each year) to a very secluded spot about 30km from Port St. Johns in the Transkei. The club has 2 rules

1. No Girls
2. No vegetables

The beach cottage is 1 of only 4 houses on this section of the coast and has almost 1 km of private beach front - below you can see access down the lawn directly onto the beach

The club has many traditions which take place over the duration of the week. The first of which is the waking up and morning ritual. Every morning Grahame (one of the longest standing and founder members), plays (at full blast) The Hollies classic "He aint heavy ... he's my brother" while ringing an old school bell to get the lads up. This is normally quite a heavy task based on the state of the boys that early in the morning after what has inevitably been a large evening the night before.

 After everyone is up we meet on the balcony for a quick coffee and take in the beautiful view again ...

This is followed every morning by an early morning swim ....

The swim is usually followed by breakfast which almost always has an option for Crayfish on toast as well as some fresh home made bread made by the locals working at the house.

After this its onto the beach for the day for snorkeling and fishing ... 

As the day passes you return for lunch and buy some seafood and some of the other locally "cultivated vegetation". Most of which will be consumed later that evening.

Sundowners happen each day either on the deck or on the rocks.

Dinner is usually a braai with some crayfish or fish caught that day ... 

The evening ends off with one or two drink too many and perhaps some of the locally grown "goodness" either inhaled or in a muffin of sorts.

This is followed by one of the final traditions which is the fines meeting, here called "Boo boos". Its a completely unfair process where the older click gang up on the younger new members often out voting them democratic process of voting for someone to drink the Boo Boo.

The Boo Boo is consumed from a ceramic mug shaped like a boob and you drink from the "nipple". The fine usually involves 4 different shots of spirits ... the only one I can remember the name of is Stroh Rum - The rest are equally tasty.

Before.

After

I could write for ages on the beauty of this place and strange yet surreal images of cows on the beach, and the tradition, and the new friends I've made ... all I will say is that its a blessing to have been invited to this place and to have experienced such an amazing and untouched part of our beautiful country.

I'm now off for dinner at my brother's place to celebrate my amazing mother's birthday which is today ... Happy Birthday Mams - I love you.