Elands Bay — a revolution for the soul

So, what is there to do in Elands Bay? was the first ques­tion flung my way when I men­tioned to two of my closest friends jet­set­ting in from Johannesburg that we were head­ing out to the small town on the West Coast for our long-planned week­end away.

A little research brought to light an apt descrip­tion that went some­thing like this: there is a very long beach; and you can head down to the local pub and drink coke and klip­pies with the local potato farm­ers! Elands Bay essen­tially gives new mean­ing to the term 'laid­back'. This beau­ti­ful, coastal wil­der­ness, reached after roughly two-and-a-half hours drive from Cape Town along the R27 past through the towns of Langebaan, Veldrift, Laaiplak and Dwarskers, will hope­fully remain the rel­at­ively unnoticed sea­side town that it is for many years to come ...

Because it is so refresh­ing to stumble across unhindered beauty that has not yet had 'this is my two-storey second home when I'm not stay­ing in Cape Town or Johannesburg' stamped all over it.

Of course there are hol­i­day homes here, or we wouldn't have had the joy of stay­ing in the Straw Revolution (see http://www.strawrevolution.co.za/), a straw­bale home, designed by Matthew Beatty and built along a unique theme in which the inner heart of the home is in fact the Fynbos rich out­doors and  in no way slewn off from the rest of the world by a six-metre wall. You can, in fact, enter the inner sanc­tum without open­ing a door.

The tran­quil court­yard of the straw­bale home forms a per­fectly shaded nook at most times of the day, and a star-gazing sanc­tu­ary in the even­ings. And the outdoor-yet-indoor shower and bath­room are an unex­pec­ted delight.

It helps that we were there on the most per­fect ever week­end of the year! Not only did we have fault­less sum­mer weather (blue skies, not a breath of wind, calm seas) in what was the middle of winter - she of heavy weather con­di­tions, down­pours and windswept skies — but no-one else had cot­toned on in time to head out to Elands Bay either, which meant that the town and beach were des­ol­ate, but for a couple of kite surfers, dog walk­ers and a hand­ful of surfers.

It is hard to depict with words the harsh beauty of the West Coast. Our two-day break was the equi­val­ent to six days away because of the imme­di­ate sense of time hav­ing slowed, the beauty of our sur­rounds, and the effort­less relax­a­tion that the house provided.

In the Bobbejaan Mountains that suprise with their beauty and act almost as a head­land to the bay that is Elands Bay, we are told you can find Bushman paint­ings, whilst walk­ing the beach to watch the gulls crack mus­sels by fling­ing them against the rocks, close to the fish fact­ory on the south side Elands Bay (even this far flung town has a north and south divide!) is an early morn­ing obligation.

The pretty Verlorenvlei marsh, one of the few coastal fresh water lakes in South Africa and a RAMSAR site, is an import­ant wet­land and bird­ing area just inland of Elands Bay that only adds fur­ther pleas­ure to a visit here.

It is also the centre of much con­tro­versy given that it is under threat by a pro­posed tung­sten open cast mine. If min­ing rights are gran­ted, an open cast mine on 500 hec­tares of land just next door to Verlorenvlei will res­ult and there will be a major impact on Verlorenvlei. Considering that this is home to 20 000 indi­vidual birds in the sum­mer months and to three glob­ally near-threatened and eight nation­ally threatened bird spe­cies (we saw a few pel­ic­ans grace­fully glid­ing on the waters just in passing), this is a fairly crit­ical decision not to be taken lightly.

The only blip in our idyllic break was the fairly reg­u­lar passing of trains car­ry­ing iron ore between Saldanha and Sishen in the Northern Cape. And it's a fairly long train...

Despite this, our straw­bale exper­i­ence was one we would repeat at the drop of a hat and one which left each of us with a renewed sense of aban­don and joy at the unanti­cip­ated beauty of the weekend.

As the Coast to Coast Guide so cap­ably says: “The west coast is like a high powered inter­net con­nec­tion to your soul. It is wild, rugged, tem­pes­tu­ous and untamed and any time spent here will lodge itself in the feel good centres of your being.”

We couldn't agree more!

Photo Credits:
Elands Bay Photos © Ottie on Flickr.com

Useful Links:
For more des­tin­a­tion inform­a­tion see:
Elands Bay Attractions
Cape West Coast Attractions
Things to Do in Cape west Coast
Cape West Coast Accommodation