text: I grew up in the former Transkei. My childhood holidays were spent at the Wild Coast. The roads were bad. It often took a long time to travel a short distance. But when you finally saw the sea behind the grassy hills, it was all worth it. I visited Hluleka in November 2017; almost three decades since I was a child playing on those beaches. Shepards still kept cows and goats on those hills. Rural life in the Eastern Cape should not be romanticised; it's poor. But on a clear day, with a calm ocean, the breeze whistling and the cow bells knocking, it is good.