Morgan Bay

Morgan Bay, officially renamed Gxarha in 2022 as part of South Africa's heritage renaming programme, sits at the southern end of the Wild Coast in the Great Kei Local Municipality of the Amathole District. The village is about 90km north of East London, accessed via the R349 off the N2. It was named in 1822 after A.F. Morgan, master of the survey vessel HMS Barracouta, which was charting the coast under Captain William Owen at the time. The rename has not changed what the place is.

The beach at Morgan Bay is long, wide, and backed by those dolomite cliffs that rise around 70 metres above the water. There are paths along the cliff tops and down to the shore. The lagoon formed by the Gxarha River is calm enough for canoes and paddleboards, safe for children, and rich in birdlife including African Fish Eagles. The Double Mouth Nature Reserve, just to the south, is accessible on foot and brings you into proper Wild Coast estuary country.

For surfers, there's a right-hand point break that works on a good south-easterly swell, known to those who've found it. For everyone else, the attraction is simpler: walking the cliffs, horse riding on the beach, watching dolphins from the headland during the sardine run, and doing very little in between. There is a hotel that has been operating here for decades, some self-catering cottages, and a campsite.

The Wild Coast does not perform for visitors. It exists on its own schedule. Morgan Bay is perhaps the most accessible entry point to that coastline without sacrificing the sense that you've arrived somewhere genuinely remote. The lack of development is not a shortcoming. It's the whole argument for going.