Hole in the Wall

On the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape, about 8 kilometres south of Coffee Bay, the Indian Ocean has driven a clean archway through a detached cliff island standing at the mouth of the Mpako River. Known as Hole in the Wall, it is one of the Wild Coast's most photographed landmarks: a wall of dark shale and sandstone, capped by a hard sheet of volcanic dolerite, pierced by a sea-carved tunnel said to be wide enough for a small sailboat to pass beneath at the right tide.

The rock belongs to the Ecca Group — layers of shale and sandstone laid down hundreds of millions of years ago and later crowned by resistant dolerite. Geologists attribute the opening to relentless wave action, which wore away the softer sandstone while the harder cap held firm, leaving the arch that frames the surf today. The setting is classic Wild Coast country of green headlands and empty beaches, with a shallow, sheltered stretch of water in front of the arch that makes the spot popular with families.

To the local Xhosa the place is esiKhaleni, usually translated as "the place of sound" (sometimes rendered "place of thunder"), for the booming crack of waves against the cliff — a sound a well-known legend attributes to the voices of the river people, the abantu bomlambo. In the tale a maiden fell in love with one of these sea-dwellers, whose kin rammed the hole through the cliff with the help of a great fish so that she could join them; she was never seen again, and locals still regard the arch as a gateway to the world of the ancestors. Reached by a rough road best driven in a 4x4 and lying within the malaria-free Eastern Cape, it rewards visitors with hiking, birdwatching and one of the country's most striking coastal views.