The mountains, ports and villages of the Eastern Cape offer more than their fair share of great watering holes. Here are some of the best:
The Long Bar
If you’re staying at the refurbished Victorian Tuishuise in Market Street, Cradock, you’ll invariably be dining in superb style at the Victoria Manor on the corner. You walk in and find yourself back in the 1850s, in a stately old hotel that serves hot, steaming Karoo buffets in an elegant dining room.
The Long Bar at the Victoria is just that – a grand old counter where you can imagine 1820 Settler farmers, British officers and adventurers bound for the interior gathering to slake their thirst and share news of the frontier.
Grahamstown
Less than two hours’ drive east, you enter Grahamstown, the city of saints and students. The presence of Rhodes University ensures the survival of any number of good bars.
In years gone by, the Victoria (fondly called ‘The Vic’) Hotel and The Graham vied for the student rand alongside the Rat & Parrot. New bars spring up every year and the trick to drinking in Grahamstown is to observe where the leaders of tomorrow and their lecturers like to have a pint.
The Pig
And when the students head for the sea, they invariably stop off at the Pig ‘n Whistle in Bathurst 
(‘There’s no thirst like Bathurst’, goes the famous slogan), built in 1831 by settler, blacksmith and part-time dentist Thomas Hartley. When he died his wife Sarah took over and it became known as ‘The Widow Hartley’s Inn’. It received its present name during World War II.
Don’t be shocked when you exit ‘The Pig’ and see a giant pineapple glowing in the evening light. It’s not the local equivalent of a pink elephant, but the tallest pineapple statue in the world. Bathurst is, after all, known as the ‘pineapple capital’ of South Africa.
Rhodes
In the far-northern reaches of the province at the end of the Bell River Valley, lies the secluded little mountain village of Rhodes. There are two watering holes of note here, the Rhodes Hotel, a favourite of horse riders in the area and Walkerbouts Inn, where you get to have a dram with a livewire raconteur and host called Dave Walker.
In the bar of Walkerbouts, you will meet the local farmers and villagers who have been there since ‘the hippy days’, when Rhodes buzzed with all the delights of an alternate lifestyle. In early July, mountain bikers gather for the Rhodes Marathon, a festive occasion that fills the village – and its ever-popular pubs.
Hogsback
Another fine ‘sundowner town’ in the Eastern Cape is Hogsback, a village deep in the Amatola Mountains. Both the Hogsback Inn and the Arminel Lodge offer more than pleasant drinking spots – and accommodation to boot. The village itself is worth a few days’ visit, and the friendliness of the locals will make you want to linger on.
The Hunter’s Inn Pub
Along the Eastern Cape coastline, on the edge of the Tsitsikamma Forest, is the village of Storms River. And here, you will find the Tsitsikamma Village Inn, which has a bar called the Hunter’s Inn Pub. It is the original hunting lodge used by the legendary Lieutenant TH Duthie, a British soldier who settled in the Knysna area. The pub is decorated with old rifles, trophies and skins, including the stuffed replica of a giant leopard.
Hunter’s Inn is a great place to slake your thirst after a day with Storms River Adventures, riding on a high wire through the forest canopy or simply exploring the forest at ground level.
Kwekwe’s Tavern
Outside Port Elizabeth, we join the staff of Calabash Tours for a drink at Kwekwe’s Tavern in KwaZakhele Township.
In the kitchen at Kwekwe’s, Patricia January and her assistant Beauty Dywili are adding final touches to the tourists’ feast of chicken stew, boerewors, coleslaw, mealie pap, mash and fresh bread for a visiting busload of Dutch tourists.
The Deck Bar
The Deck Bar at the Ocean View Hotel in Coffee Bay along the Wild Coast is one of the finest places anywhere to be at the seaside. In the early evenings, you can watch sport on TV while munching on delicious oysters as pre-dinner snacks.
The intrepid fishermen troop in with their tall stories and mighty thirsts, some tourists from England arrive and pretty soon there’s a party happening in this idyllic place, with the pounding surf of the Indian Ocean in background.
Another round please.
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