Under the heavy grey skies we’ve now grown all too used to this last week and a half, the Braai4Heritage tour departed Mthatha and arrived in East London just after 12pm on Wednesday 13 April.
There we met with Velile from iMonti Tours, an excellent guide who enlightened us on the history of the area, in particular the life and tragic death in police custody of student leader Steve Bantu Biko, co-founder of the South African Students’ Organisation who’s black consciousness movement and anti-apartheid activism was instrumental in mobilising the urban black population in South Africa during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Our braai that day was scheduled for a “˜bring and braai’ spot in Mdantzane, South Africa’s second largest township by area (after Soweto), situated roughly 10 kilometres outside East London. Mdantzane is divided into 18 zones and we were destined for zone 15, there to pick up some meat and throw it on a braai with some of the local residents.
Unfortunately it seems Wednesday afternoons aren’t exactly the hip and happening time for a braai in Mdantzane township. There was literally nobody but the owner at the large, wooden decked braai restaurant and with all of us keen for more of a party atmosphere – or at least one other local braaier to chat to while we ate – we decided to keep going to King William’s Town (incidentally the town where Biko was born in 1946), and try find another “˜bring and braai’ with a bit livelier a vibe.
We settled on a slightly busier spot just off the main road in King William’s Town and braaied some thin-cut club-steaks, spiced up and well cooked the local way, while the clientele looked on in general bemusement at the busy camera crew and Jan posing for shots by the open fire.
The sun had at long last come out with some degree of force while we were busy eating our steaks, but things had started looking gloomy again by the time we’d driven the 50 or so kilometres back into East London.
Our accommodation that night was at the very cosy and friendly Nahoon B&B, The Terrace, just off beach Road and perhaps 500 metres from the beach front. It wasn’t really beach weather though. We did pull briefly past the Nahoon Reef on our way in – Jan and Faan hoping that maybe the light would still hold for a quick sunset surf – but it was not to be. By the time we got back to the guesthouse and checked in, the sun was well gone, the clouds were building and drizzle was once again starting to fall.
