Living On A Film Set

With incredible natural beauty, Port St Johns and the Wild Coast is becoming a regular with filmmakers.

Recent films made here include Three Needles, starring Chloe Sauvigney, Ian Roberts, Olympia Dukakis, and Sandra O. The Dutch child soldier movie, Wit Licht (White Light) was filmed here in 2008, as was the story of Nobel Prize winner Dr Albert Shweitzer. For the Shweitzer movie, Port St Johns became the jungles of Gabon. In 2009, the local production, Themba, the story of a young football player was made here. Older movies include ‘Shout at the Devil” starring Roger Moore, ‘River of Death’, starring Michael Dudikoff; and other French and German productions. TV series, such as ‘The Philanthropist’ and adverts are regularly shot here. The airstrip on top of Mount Thesiger was used in ‘Blood Diamond’ which starred Leonardo DiCaprrio.

Jandre shares stories of being a fixer to John Cleese recently, whilst Steve tells how Jonny Rotten badmouths Roger Moore for refusing to help push his broken 4WD out of the mud. Rotten also lost the plot with Hollywood director Michael Dudikoff, who received a very bloody nose. The locals can certainly get feisty.

Bill Decker is a local celebrity and political activist who spent several years as a cave-dweller up the coast from Amapondo. His cave days might be over now, but he now lives in his beautiful cottage close by.

High in The Transkei

As touched on in earlier Port St Johns' posting,s like Parvati Valley in the Indian Himalayas, the region of Transkei in South Africa has a worldwide reputation for producing high quality marijuana, almost exclusively in weed format.

Tommy, a passing local gives me an enlightening time about the variety of growth available, from the wild to genetically modified. He proudly tells me that Durban Poison is in the Top 4 smokes in the world in a recent survey of connoisseurs. He tells me how to score freebies and what to look for in the different samples that are distributed by almost everyone along the Wild Coast.

Today’s local newspaper The Opinion News informs local residents that this weekend sees the “Doobie Brothers Motorcycle Club” coming through town on their annual circuit tour . Their badge boasts a huge marijuana leaf which is splattered all over the front page.

I am reliably informed that there are some mushrooms to be found at nearby Coffee Bay which are very popular with many.

Port St Johns' Community

Xhosa kid in magenta

Once an all - White community, PSJ shows an excellent mix of predominantly well travelled white South Africans and the local Xhosa communities in the area. Quite probably related due to the “indigenous tobacco” all inhabitants like many coastal areas are smiley and friendly. Both Black and White communities are subsistence survivalists.

Most of the long term PSJ residents are involved in some local community project, be it medical, teaching, fishing or agriculture. Others come and sell their craft work, from jewellery to pipes. In their spare time many either work part time in Amaponda (running daily walks and hikes, bar work,, dj-ing, etc.) or simply to hang out here, trying to impress and score with attractive young things passing through. They are friendly, usually quite well travelled and have some classic stories to share and entertain the traveller stranded waiting for a parcel from UK to set him on his way again.

Many “classics” are generated by the legendary local raconteur and story-teller Jonny Rotten who i am keen, but yet to meet. Clearly a local legend indeed!

With such a wild coast not surprisingly the surfing is popular especially for beginners and intermediates who are not put off by four great white shark deaths in two years. Fishing, for selling and subsistence is also a common pursuit off the beach-heads.

The hikes to the Gap, the waterfall, across the coasts and bays and Silaka Nature Reserve are beautiful.

fishing is a popular pursuit


One of many such advantages of such interesting “hippy communes” is how easy it is to hitch the roads around and getting to and from the town centre, which boasts a Spar and a less whole-sale style Boxer grocery store. Internet can be accessed from the Internet server up the stairs next to Spar or in the friendly, quiet and tranquil Jesters Coffee Shop and Restaurant. PSJ must clearly be on the map boasting its own Kentucky Fried Chicken behind the main bus stand.

There is a heavy police force here as you will see from all their vehicles on the roads, however they are polite, courteous and friendly, much more interested in tackling the multitude of poachers selling contraband shell-fish (mussels, oysters, clams and crayfish) than checking bags for marijuana – a strong contrast between here and the charis selling valley of Parvati Valley in Himachal Pradesh, India. Nonetheless, almost everyone smokes and has something to sell or pass your way if you ask for a sample only. Locals claim that their crop is as good as anything found in Swaziland and Malawi. It should therefore not be surprising the proliferation of “Pondo” fever that hits visitors to the area.


Highly recommended eateries include Wood ‘n’ Spoon and Delicious Monster, both just past the bridge at the end of Second Beach, although the service can be ridiculously slow. The latter has special Mediterranean food. The food at the Backpacker, most notably their braais and breakfasts are both good. North, East West and South opposite Jester's does a yummy cheesecake, and a selection of curries and fresh fish for around ZAR50. Toppings, a new wood fire pizza hut between the Backpackers and just past the liquor store is new, pricey but large. The Frommagio 4 cheeses is excellent. Prices range from ZAR45 -65. The Fish Eagle in the town centre next to KFC has tasty lamb shank in an axcellent tangy sauce. Good filter coffee is available in PSJ, but I have been unsuccessful to track down a place with espresso. Meanwhile I borrow Jandre's coffee maker.

Walking The Dog

Marley is the three year old dog of Boy’s and is like a nephew to me. And certainly was treated as a prodigal son by Boy and Nic until the arrival of Baby Daisy. He is a Shetland sheepdog, Ma had three of them as we were growing up. I miss walking a dog.

However, the dogs at Amapondo despite some resembling horse proportions are a soft bunch and will escort you on beach walks along the Wild Coast. Sometimes I even walk with The Beast too if the weather is decent!

Mad Mike

Mad Mike (far left) and his water craft

So I am encouraged by fish-breeding Steve to join Mike for a morning dolphin and whale watch.

Naively I agree, even though I am enduring “hardship” budget at the moment. Don’t ask me why, but I thought this was a local fisherman and we’d be out on some catamaran or fishing boat. Not at all, Mike has got a state of the art motor raft. A deeply religious man judging by his love of Born Again rock on his car’s cd player in his trailer and the open prayers he performs before taking the “boat” into the wild waters with his twin sixties. I immediately strategically place myself at the stern and he asks me if my glasses are firmly in place before roaring off. My glasses solidly perched but my much loved Juan Valdez baseball cap is not and I lose it in less than 3 seconds.

The raft bounces into the air hovers in mid air for a while then drops into free-fall before the next wave hits us and Mad Mike accelerate further with even further gusto and laughs with his death-wish grin.

This is so not what I expected. And I haven’t even had my morning black filter coffee.

Mike had seen a pod of four whales pass by the coastline on the way to pick us up and he is confident we can catch them up if we hurry.

His confidence is completely misplaced, however much we hurry. He eases us off for a while and we head to where the sea-birds lead us to the spiraling air bubble trap of feeding common and bottle-nose dolphins. There shiny skins glint like electricity as they flash past in the water gorging on the mackerel. Trying to photograph them is impossible with my zoom lens and I don’t even dare contemplating changing to my wide angle in these unforgiving waters. Bird dive-bomb the waters, usually successfully emerging with fish in their mouths. Below the dolphins and the sharks that also join in for this weird feeding frenzy.

dive-bombing bird

Jeans and boots were clearly extremely foolish for the journey as I have to strip to my black silk boxers, jump into the shark infested waters to pull the water travelling devise through two waves and bounce it into 2nd Beach. And all this before 10am!

No whales were spotted and i am in too much shock to complain. Nonetheless it did provide an adventure as I kill time in PSJ and it is certainly interesting to view the coastline from another perspective of the Wild Coast. Wild indeed!

Hippy Life in Port St Johns

As I mentioned before, the clientele is a fairly mixed group, but there seems to be a disproportionate amount of sociology, psychology and Social Science graduates here. There are a few South African long-termers who have relocated to 2nd Beach doing “interesting projects in a variety of fields, including farming, teaching, and not least Steve who is currently sorting out his 15th line of breeding Siamese fighting fish. Respect.

The chilled out life of Amapondo life is no doubt accentuated by the “indigenous tobacco” which is cheaper than the Peter Stuyvesant that I have been favouring throughout my African journey so far. It is not just the sea spray that adds to the misty coastline here.

Soccer Deprivation

Remember not so long ago when you could watch three matches in a row?

The reduction to two games was bearable, but now whole swathes of days pass without a match being played at all. Fortunately the walks on the coast help, although weather remains variable.

An Eye and a Lens - Port St Johns in Monochrome