Langebaan — A West Coast Gem

Langebaan

Defined by its rugged shorelines, coastal veget­a­tion, her­it­age fish­ing vil­lages and unpre­ten­tious life­style, the Cape West Coast still holds an ele­ment of the wild unknown. A tan­gibly strong cul­ture of fisher-folk with their quaint small wooden fish­ing boats and simple lives on the sea, are qual­it­ies that draw vis­it­ors from across the globe. Loved by many, the dra­matic coast­line, change­able seas, white sandy beaches and cerulean blue skies creep under your skin and seep into your soul. The most pop­u­lar of all the quaint vil­lages is Langebaan, with its nat­ural won­ders, blue lagoon and azure skies.

Established as a party town for lov­ers of water­s­ports, fish­ing or just a good time, Langebaan has an excit­ing buzz over the week­ends and hol­i­days. Visitors to the town are never short of some­thing to do over a long week­end, with a pleth­ora of water­s­ports equip­ment hire stores, res­taur­ants, drink­ing holes, cock­tail ven­ues, hores­rid­ing, play­grounds and even a casino resort. Days are best spent on the water, ski­ing, canoe­ing or simply swim­ming and sun­bathing, and the even­ings are for sooth­ing burnt skins and going out on the town to appre­ci­ate the sun set­ting over the vast lagoon.

Langebaan

There is a wilder, unknown side to this tour­ist town, avail­able only to the keen senses of nature lov­ers and wor­ship­pers of silence, in the pro­tec­ted areas of the lagoon within the West Coast Nature Reserve. The West Coast is blessed with stark nat­ural beauty and with res­id­ents fiercely pro­tect­ing their piece of para­dise, Shark Bay and Churchhaven have been pre­served and sheltered from hoards of hol­i­day­makers on their speed boats, leav­ing more than foot­prints and tak­ing more than pho­to­graphs. This is where the sleep­ing beauty of Langebaan lies — in the rus­tic fish­er­mans cot­tages, shabby-chic and weathered porch fur­niture and soutvis dry­ing on ropes from the rafters on the stoep. This is where neigh­bours invite you in for a sherry after a day spent fish­ing and where photo moments wait for you to chase them down like seagulls, where the silence is only dis­turbed by the lilt of the lagoon waters lap­ping at the shore. These are places that seem to have been for­got­ten by time and yet pre­served by it too.

Langebaan

Geelbek Restaurant in Shark Bay offers an authen­tic West Coast din­ing exper­i­ence, offer­ing unpre­ten­tious homestyle dishes and scrump­tious teas. Travel up the coast and spend the day in the quaint fish­ing vil­lage of Paternoster, famed for its inex­pens­ive cray­fish and pic­tur­esque wooden fish­ing boats scattered along the shoreline. Return for an even­ing at the Strandloper, an open-air sea­food res­taur­ant serving up to 7 courses of the most wicked sea­food ever! It’ll be an exper­i­ence you’ll remem­ber with fond­ness for the rest of your life, for how could any­thing match the simple joy of din­ing on fresh sea­food, freshly baked oven bread, homemade jams and farmer’s cof­fee out under the set­ting sun, on the sandy dunes of one of the most beau­ti­ful places in the world?

Spend some qual­ity time in Langebaan and you’ll have an all encom­passing exper­i­ence. Rediscover the inno­cence of genu­ine hos­pit­al­ity. Rediscover the quiet beauty of the weath­ers moods. You’ll feel the weight of your fast paced life melt away as you slip into the warm waters of the lagoon, as your foot­prints dis­solve into the sand ...

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For more des­tin­a­tion info see:
Langebaan Accommodation
Langebaan Information
Cape West Coast Accommodation