KuGompo City

Since February 2026, KuGompo City has been the official name of East London, the port city at the mouth of the Buffalo River in the Eastern Cape. The name comes from the sound of waves breaking on Gompo Rock, a site sacred to the Xhosa. It is a working city built around the country’s only river port, not a resort. Travellers mostly pass through on the way to the Wild Coast, but the beaches and one famous fish make it worth a night.

Getting there

King Phalo Airport has flights from Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. By road the N2 runs west to Gqeberha and Cape Town, and north east through Mthatha to Durban, roughly 676 km. The N6 heads inland to Bloemfontein. Johannesburg is about 982 km by road and Cape Town about 1,100 km. Shosholoza Meyl long distance trains and Translux and Greyhound coaches also serve the city.

When to go

The climate is oceanic and mild, with spring and autumn the wettest times of year. Summer is the obvious time for the beaches.

What to do

The East London Museum on Oxford Street is the one place everyone should see. It holds the coelacanth, a fish thought to be long extinct until a live one was caught off the nearby Chalumna River in 1938 and recognised by the museum’s curator, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer. The museum also has maritime and regional cultural collections.

The city has a string of sandy beaches, and surfers know it for Nahoon Reef. Inkwenkwezi is a Big Five reserve nearby, and the botanical garden is in the suburb of Bunkers Hill.

Most people use the city as a jumping off point. Chintsa, with some of the best beaches in the region, and Morgan’s Bay, about 85 km east, are the first stops on the Wild Coast, and the N2 and R61 lead on to Coffee Bay and Port St Johns.

Good to know

Once you head up the Wild Coast, plan to arrive before dark. Livestock stray onto the roads, the surfaces are badly broken in places, and help can be a long way off if you break down, so keep drinking water and a basic toolkit in the car. Because the renaming is recent, search under both East London and KuGompo City when booking flights, trains and rooms.

Last updated 6 October 2026. Sources: Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wikivoyage (Wild Coast), East London Museum.