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Discovered
by Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1497, St Helena Bay
- known locally as Die Agterbaai - is one of the world's prime
fishing centres. Fed by the nutrient-rich Benguela Current,
the waters teem with marine life, which provides the livelihood
for its coastal inhabitants.
The main harbour at Sandy Point bustles with activity and
shipbuilders and fishermen rub shoulders as they go about
their daily work.
Trawlers' nets groan with anchovy and pilchards and in wintertime,
the snoek (Barracouta) catches bring prosperity to the local
fisherfolk. Sandy Point Harbour
buzzes with activity and visitors have the opportunity of
watching fishermen at work. They will gaze in awe at the dexterity
with which the women vlek (split, gut and then spread) the
fish.Their cultural heritage is unique and the quaint tongue
of the locals will bring a smile to the face of those who
stop to savour their vernacular.
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Heaviside's
Dolphin (Cephalorihnchus
heavisidii), endemic to this part of the
world course the bay, as do Dusky
Dolphins (Lagernorhynchus obscurus). And if one is really
lucky, scores of Common Dolphins (Delphinus delphis)
can be seen leaping and slapping the
water to herd in shoals of fish.
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Courtesy
of the Mammal Research Institute |
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The
Southern Right Whale (Balaena glacialis) migrates from the
Antarctic feeding-grounds to the safety of the bay in order
to mate and calve in midwinter and spring. The Humpback
Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is one of a number of other
species that also comes a-calling.
The
West Coast is renowned for its seafood and veld flowers.
The sun-scorched landscape bursts into colour with the advent
of spring and the many indigenous plants that abound here.
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Courtesy
of the Mammal Research Institute |
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Did you know that birding is the fastest growing pastime in
the world today? And not surprisingly the West Coast is the
southernmost stop-off points of the Palearctic summer migrant
waders, with the Berg River estuary in the north and West Coast
National Park and Cape Columbine Nature Reserve in the south.
And 90 miles north is a Cape Gannet colony at Lambert's Bay
where a state-of-the-art bird hide, with its one-way window,
allows the viewer to get within 10cm of the birds. |
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| At
Dolphin B&B+S/C we cater for the twitcher - that means late
breakfasts and packed lunches to boot. Your host is a founder
member of the West Coast Bird Club and has a sound knowledge
of birding in this area and a library of reference books that
will answer your avifaunal questions - "What I don't know
I'll find the answers to". |
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| The
area around St Helena Bay offers safe walking routes and
the pristine beaches area joy to traverse. Explore the
rocky hillside of Britannica Heights and venture into
Fonk se Stal (Fonk's stable) a cavewhere reputedly this
diamond-smuggler and his horse sheltered. In more recent
times another cave, in nearby Paternoster, hid escaping
British soldiers during the Anglo-Boer War. |
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And did you know that our very own Madiba, Nelson Mandela,
was escorted on a secret outing to the West Coast whilst
he was still incarcerated?
A
victim of weather changes and notoriously fickle seas,
the Britannia, which
sunk in 1826, lies buried beneath the waters of the
so-named bay, as do
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Sea,
sand and snow!
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the wrecks of many other old sailing ships, offering up a
challenge to the underwater diver.
On
2 June 1971, en route from the East to Holland and carrying
a cargo of reinforced steel, the 'Sea Trader' fell prey to
sea mist and ran aground at Duykereiland, home to Corrie van
Zyl who was awarded the salvage licence. A restaurant of the
same name caters for groups and functions where guests dine
on Corrie's famous mussel soup and his wife's pickled fish
(you try wheedling the handed-down recipe out of Bessie!).
From the tables one of the ship's piston heads still can be
seen … but better to hear the full story from your hosts,
Dries and Corinne.
West
Coast cuisine ranges from kingklip to kabeljou, lobster to
limpets or, as Cape Times journalist John Scott writes in
his P.S. column of July 7, 2007, "Moerse T-bones"
and 'bledie lekker scones …". Some of the more adventurous
may want to get their palates around bokkoms - traditionally
served with apricot jam. Maybe not everyone's taste but, hey,
you should try everything once in life, not so?
But's that enough to whet your appetite for now. To experiment
with these and other delicacies you will simply have to come
and try for yourself.
No
trip to the West Coast is complete without a visit to the
Fossil Park where one of the world's richest palaeontological
dig-sites provides a peek into the past - a sub-tropical paradise
that once was. In more fertile times the short-necked giraffid
rubbed shoulders with other sivatheres and herbivores that
relied on trees for food. And did you know that the first
bear found south of the Sahara once lived here? Today, only
their bones remain, a record of the past 20 million years.
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This
31 km stretch of beautiful coastline boasts 18 bays, three working
harbours, stunning beaches and rock formations. Whether it be
kayaking or boardsailing, casting a line into the cold Benguela
current to hook a Galjoen (in season, of course), or simply
sitting on the beach taking in the African sun - doing as little
as possible - the rewards to those who visit are many: glorious
sunrises, still and safe waters and a culturally rich and entertaining
townsfolk. |
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