Reasons To Visit Gqberha, If You Are Not Like Other People

I recently had the pleasure of enjoying a wonderful weekend in Gqberha with my son. here are a few reasons why GQ is an awesome place to visit.

1. The Wind

It’s the windiest city in the world, and while it might not blow as hard as The Cape Doctor, it blows all the time, every day and every night. So it’s a fantastic place if you’re a kiteboarder, windsurfer, or even one of those adventurous types who like to challenge themselves with the scariest of all-time aeroplane landings at the Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport. You need to be a brave and talented passenger to land at GQ.

2. The Waves

There are hardly any waves in Gqberha; when they come, they come with the wind. This situation is ideal for those who don’t surf, like the Iron Man competitors, paddlers, open water swimmers, the people who enjoy their Saturday morning parkrun and the cyclists and skateboarders and other athletes who compete on the land. On the weekend I saw a tiny young kid make a makeshift sail with a towel and stand on the end of it on his skateboard. The wind filled his sail, and he flew off into the distance on his skateboard with his dad on foot, giving chase. He somehow wobbled from the car park onto Marine Drive. The last I saw of him, he had picked up tremendous speed and was heading toward the Casino with no visible way of stopping. How we laughed.

3. The Bell Bouy Challenge

Speaking of open-water swimmers, Gqberha has the Bell Buoy Challenge. This jol is ideal for a Saturday morning frolic, especially in the wind. Basically, you swim out to the Bell Buoy, around it, and then back to the land. It is a race, so you must go as fast as possible. All you have to deal with is persistent, short-interval windswell, currents, blue bottles, sharks, whales, loss of direction, disorientation, dehydration, exhaustion and hypothermia. If you’re lucky, like when I was there as a second, you might get so disorientated that you might end up paddling down to a nudist beach a few km down the track by mistake. It’s a lovely way to kick off the weekend in GQ. If you finish it, however, you have bragging rights of being the main ou. The results of the 2025 Bell Bouy Challenge HERE

A Bell Buoy similar to the one in GQ.

4. Traffic Lights

The traffic lights don’t work along Marine Drive, meaning you can drive faster along this busy, dangerous road covered in intersections and zebra crossings. Those pesky speed bumps might slow you down, but you could do what the taxis do and ramp them instead, making that stretch of road even more fun and exciting. You could even do drag races with those taxis. You can really test your car out, drop a few gears, etc.

5. Restaurant Service

We went to a famous Steak Ranch inside the Boardwalk Mall, and a staff member was talking intensely with a customer over his bill while standing outside. The entrance was open, so my son and I sauntered into an empty restaurant.
The same lady disputing over the bill came running towards us and shouted that we needed to go outside and wait until she seated us.

I said, “No, it’s cool. We’ll sit over there (pointing to an empty booth), and could you please bring me a cold Black Label.”
” No. Get outside!” she said vociferously. “I will seat you. You cannot seat yourself.”
I looked at her quizzically for quite a long time.
“It’s pretty empty,” I eventually said, with an even voice hiding my growing irritation. “We can just sit. Here?”
“Get out!” She barked.
“Fine,” I said. We turned around, walked out, and reunited with her. She smiled wanly at us and stood by the entrance with some menus.
“Would you like a seat?” she asked, shuffling her menus like a savant without a special skill.

We had fallen into the twilight zone.

In the distance, a dog barked…

“Naah, screw this jol,” I said to her. “We’re out of here.”

It was too weird.

So the benefit is that we didn’t splurge on calorific Chico The Clowns and had to walk to the next restaurant, building up my step counter for the day, to an excellent sushi restaurant that welcomed us with open arms and gave me a fortune cookie with my beer. See below. We were still in the twilight zone.

6. Kentucky Blues

Regarding restaurants, there are approximately 37 Kentucky Fried Chicken branches in Gqberha, according to Google, so if you enjoy food that makes you nauseous for a few hours but is still addictive, then this is the place for you. For more convenience, KFC has a Find A Chicken search website.

7. Sandstorms

When that easterly wind blows, the sandstorms at Pollock Beach can be quite remarkable. Something like this >

The sand gets everywhere. It gets through doors and windows and in nostrils and mouths, even when they’re closed. I was wearing board shorts and tracksuit pants and was in my car, and I still somehow got volumes of sand between my cheeks and in my exhaust.

—

the editor.