Bay Harbour Market — Photographs

I’m a big fan of a mar­ket so ima­gine my sheer joy when we walked into the Bay Harbour Market in Hout Bay!  It seemed to be a case of ‘the early bird catches the worm’ because on arriv­ing at around 9.30am we man­aged to walk around eas­ily, found a table to sit at and didn’t have to wait in to long a queue to order our deli­cious break­fast and per­fectly made creamy cappuccino.

I was so impressed with this mar­ket; it’s been open for about six weeks and in that short space of time has become very pop­u­lar.  There are over 100 stalls which have a healthy mix of food, art, cloth­ing, craft, décor and fash­ion.  I loved the beau­ti­ful cush­ions, nap­kins and aprons Melanie of Quiver Design had on show and the ceram­ics Noleen Read pro­duces are def­in­itely on my Christmas list.  The food all looked abso­lutely deli­cious and the only thing to do is to make the mar­ket a reg­u­lar week­end stop to try all the pro­duce offered.

The mar­ket is open 10am – 5pm on Saturdays, 10am – 4pm on Sundays and from September 9^th will also open from 4pm – 9pm on a Friday. There is ample, secure park­ing avail­able. Continued

Short & Sweet comes to Cape Town

Short & Sweet

Capetonians are in for a winter treat! Short & Sweet, London's only weekly short film even­ing comes to Cape Town for an exclus­ive five-week spe­cial. In asso­ci­ation with Highland Park Single Malt Whisky, Short & Sweet launches on Tuesday, 28 June at the Bay Harbour, Hout Bay (31 Harbour Road – oppos­ite Fish on the Rocks). Doors open at 18h00. Films screened from 19h30–21h30 includ­ing inter­val. Entrance costs R20.

Short & Sweet is ded­ic­ated to the exhib­i­tion of short film as a crit­ical art form in its own right. Each week you can expect to see a selec­tion of the finest short films, music videos and short anim­a­tions from around the globe: old films, new films, films from estab­lished dir­ect­ors to break­ing tal­ent. The intent is to inspire all who attend, expose the best tal­ent and ulti­mately cel­eb­rate film. Continued

I ♥ Hout Bay because ...

I ♥ Hout Bay

Hi, I’m Liz Bester from Chez Victor in Hout Bay, Cape Town.

HOUT BAY IS BEST KNOWN FOR its mag­ni­fi­cent moun­tains and spark­ling blue sea views, its vibrant cos­mo­pol­itan res­taur­ant life as well as its laid­back “vil­lage” life­style.
GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN ON Chapman’s Peak Drive which over­looks the Sentinel Mountain across the bay.
THE BEST VIEW PICTURES can be taken at sun­set from the top of Chapman’s Peak, cap­tur­ing the golden glow of the majestic moun­tains.
OTHER HAPPY SNAPS CAN BE TAKEN in the pic­tur­esque Hout Bay fish­ing har­bour with it’s amaz­ing views of Chapman’s Peak and the moun­tains, also from the Sentinel across the Hout Bay val­ley ... Continued

Hout Bay's Green Faire

Hout Bay's Green Faire

Twice a year Hout Bay hosts a Green Faire — a show­case of sus­tain­able liv­ing options in an out­door set­ting. It's an occa­sion worth diar­ising as we've vis­ited the first and the third, the lat­ter hav­ing taken place last week­end, and been more than a little impressed.

The Green Faire is run by Envirochild Projects, a not for profit organ­isa­tion facil­it­at­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity, self suf­fi­ciency, waste reduc­tion, energy effi­ciency and any other green pro­jects that encour­age con­scious liv­ing. Envirochild also has quite a vis­ion for Hout Bay and is ded­ic­ated to unit­ing the com­munity to form a Transition Town. Transition Towns is a move­ment to raise aware­ness of sus­tain­able liv­ing and to build local resi­li­ence in the com­munity, to equip them­selves for the chal­lenges of cli­mate change and peak oil. Continued

Seal takes fish from Fisherman's mouth — Video

Below is a short (17 second) video of an encounter between a fish­er­man at Hout Bay and a seal (seal takes a fish from the mans mouth). We were lucky enough to cap­ture this moment on cam­era, taken at the Hout Bay Harbour on a Sunday morn­ing, just as the boats came in laden with cray­fish. Continued

Hout Bay — a Delightful Hideaway

Hout Bay

Hout Bay gained its name from early Dutch set­tlers in the Cape. It lit­er­ally means Wood Bay, for the tim­ber they gathered there to con­struct the early build­ings in the Cape. After a brief period where the area was used for Manganese min­ing, the still-existent fish­ing industry was founded.

One of the main attrac­tions in Hout Bay to this day, aside from the white sandy beaches and moun­tains that encircled the pro­tec­ted bay, is the har­bour. Home to sev­eral art and curio stores, res­taur­ants and mari­time antiquity deal­ers, the har­bour is a must visit. Take a stroll along the piers, buy freshly caught fish straight from the trawl­ers when they return from the sea, or enjoy a deli­cious sea­food lunch or din­ner in one of the eat­er­ies. Continued