Arniston, respite for the soul on the shores of the Overberg

Arniston

Some people don't know this, but the sea­side vil­lage of Arniston has two names. It's also called Waenhuiskrans or 'wagon shel­ter cliff', which describes the huge cave that you can reach only at low-tide. And no, this does not mean, as I thought, that set­tlers and their wag­ons used to shel­ter here (hav­ing vis­ited the cave, I now real­ise they would have had to have a death wish) but instead describes the sim­il­ar­ity of the cave to the struc­tures in which set­tlers used to store their oxen and wag­ons. It is vast, the cave, and an incred­ible space to visit – just wouldn't like to be caught there at high tide! Continued

Whale watching at De Hoop

Whales at De Hoop

Yes, Hermanus is a won­der­ful place to go and view the whales. That is, if you don't mind shar­ing it with thou­sands of other people, a fest­ival or two, and fun fair rides right on the edge of the cliff over­look­ing the bay where the whales come to calve. It is true that you can't beat the town's access­ib­il­ity – it is really close to Cape Town — and as far as land-based whale view­ing goes, it is undeni­ably one of the best. But I can't help think­ing that the whales want a little more peace and quiet when they're here to mate and calve.

And for that reason De Hoop Nature Reserve must be one of the most beau­ti­ful places to see the Southern Right Whale. The reserve is a 36 000 hec­tare con­ser­va­tion area on the Whale Trail that is also part of a World Heritage Site. And it is only three hour's drive from Cape Town. And a beau­ti­ful drive, peppered with gor­geous scenery and at least four farm­stalls ... Continued

De Hoop — three hours up the coast, friend to whales ...

De Hoop Reserve

De Hoop — three hours up the coast, friend to whales, well worth the trek: My geo­graphy is such that I thought De Hoop was just out­side Swellendam. It is. But I def­in­itely had it con­fused with the Bontebok Nature Reserve, so was more than happy to be rudely awakened to the beauty of De Hoop, because gor­geous it is (there are also plenty of bon­te­bok here too, for those who appre­ci­ate this petite, white rear-ended antelope).

When you turn off the R319 onto the gravel road that enters the De Hoop reserve, you leave behind you swathes of green wheat and fields of bright yel­low can­ola. The stark con­trast between this con­spicu­ous agri­cul­ture, and the almost imme­di­ate evid­ence of fyn­bos, all in flower, is dra­matic. It also makes obvi­ous how con­trived these seem­ingly benign farms are and how we have mar­gin­al­ised the Cape Floristic fyn­bos that is so obvi­ously threatened (it's the smal­lest but the richest veget­a­tion type in diversity). Continued

Struisbaai or Blue Lagoon?

Struisbaai

I have a very fond memory of swim­ming in a lagoon ten years ago. Not only found because I was ten years younger but also because the sur­round­ing were so exquis­ite. Basically it was like being in The Blue Lagoon. Ten years later I may have changed, but the Blue Lagoon hasn’t. It’s real name is Struisbaai and it’s well known for the longest con­tinu­ous stretch of white sand coast­line in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s also only ten minutes from Cape Agulhas, the south­ern­most tip of Africa.

Struisbaai is as close to a trop­ical para­dise as one can get with its exquis­ite white sand beaches, crys­tal clear water and little fish­ing boats.  Your first stop after the drive should be  Pelican’s Harbour, an awe­some little sea­food res­taur­ant serving fresh fish. Sitting on the deck, with the water lap­ping a few feet away from us at the harbour’s edge, you’ll be mes­mer­ized by the pic­tur­esque scene of Continued

De Hoop Nature Reserve Photo

These two pho­to­graphs are part of a series taken in the De Hoop Nature Reserve in the Western Cape whilst on a 5 day hik­ing trail, the pop­u­lar Whale Trail (see yes­ter­days art­icle, The Whale Trail). To view more pho­to­graphs from this series see De Hoop Nature Reserve Photographs. Continued

De Hoop Nature Reserve

De Hoop Reserve

De Hoop Nature Reserve is roughly three hours drive from Cape Town and just east of the town of Bredasdorp. The Reserve cov­ers an area of 34,000 hec­tares and one of the favor­ite des­tin­a­tions for those who want to spend time away from fren­etic city life. The reserve offers diverse scenery for hikers, bikers and bird watch­ers and Koppie Alleen is a fam­ous lookout spot for the avid whale watch­ers, with about 40% of the world’s Southern Right whales com­ing to the De Hoop Marine Reserve each year dur­ing breed­ing season.

Visitors have a lot of free­dom within the reserve. Take a leis­urely game drive along the cir­cu­lar route that cov­ers the reserve and see the Cape moun­tain zebra, eland, grey ree­bok, the rare bon­te­bok and if you are lucky you will see the mat­ing dance of the ostrich. The reserve is also home to cara­cal and leo­pards and the ever-present troops of baboons. Visitors can, how­ever, safely leave their vehicles dur­ing a game drive to explore on foot and view some of the 1,500 plant spe­cies up close. Continued