Ngwenya Garden Cottage has an open-plan kitchen, living room and dining area that opens onto a private patio nestled in the garden. It is just 100m from the beach and 100m from the walk up Magoza Hill, where you’ll get a spectacular birds-eye view of the area. You’ll find a braai (barbeque) stand, large TV (with Netflix and Showmax) and WiFi. The garden
The garden consists of mostly indigenous pl
ants and trees. There are aloes of all kinds, clivia and veltheimia (sand lilies), red hot pokers, plumbago, wild honeysuckle, wild olive, red coastal milkwood trees, felicia (blue daisies), osteospermum (African daisies) and allophylus trees, among others. This garden edges the coastal dune forest: it flows into the forest and the forest flows right back. Bushbuck hang out here. So do vervet monkeys, blue duiker and porcupine. The neighbourhood
Ngwenya Garden Cottage falls within the Kwelera Nature Reserve. The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) manages the forest and the nature reserve as part of the Kwelera National Botanical Garden. This is South Africa’s 10th national botanical garden and the Eastern Cape’s first. The garden, still being developed, is also the first that includes coastal, estuary and dune forest areas. Some things to do
Choose from several walks – up Magoza Hill, around the Kwelera River mouth, and along the beach, for example. The beach is a popular fishing spot (you need a permit to fish), and Yellow Sands at the Kwelera River mouth is one of the top surfing sites around East London. It’s also the main skiboat launch site in the area. Kwelera Mouth lies along the Wild Coast Jikeleza, East London’s premier tourism route. Crossways centre is just 5km away. Here, you will find a Super Spar and several restaurants around a lake teeming with birds. There is also a pharmacy, filling station, gym, hairdresser, dentist and doctor.
