I ♥ Britannia Bay Because ...

I ♥ Britannia Bay

Hi, I’m Lucille Byrnes from Dolphin B&B+S/C in Britannia Bay a sub­urb of the town St Helena Bay up South Africa’s Cape West Coast.

Britannia Bay IS BEST KNOWN FOR long stretches of pristine beaches, “heaven” and “hell” surfer’s corners and the wreck after which the bay is named.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT the deck of my house (where do you get sea and surf in the fore­ground and back­drop of the Winterberge in one pho­to­graph?). From Britannica Heights one can see north to Baboon Point at Elandsbaai, a nat­ural her­it­age site, and south to the first work­ing light­house after you cross the equator at Cape Columbine near Paternoster.

THE BEST wed­ding PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT Sea Trader, the ideal spot to get mar­ried on the rocks. Continued

Escape to the West Coast and the Berg River Region

West Coast Beach

Think West Coast, think sand, heat, sea and little fresh water. And you wouldn't be far off the mark. The West Coast is arid, wild and windswept, but it does have water.

And one of the major sources of water avail­able that makes farm­ing pos­sible, in the arid Sandveld and undu­lat­ing hills of the Swartland, is the Berg River — its source in the Drakenstein Mountains just south of Franschhoek and its mouth at Laaiplek on the Atlantic Ocean.

In the pres­ence of the Berg River (more com­monly known amongst loc­als as the Bergrivier – one word) the towns of the West Coast between Velddrif and Elands Bay and their inland coun­ter­parts – Aurora, Redelingshuys, Goedverwacht, Eendekuil, Piketberg, Porterville and Wittewater — are awash with beau­ti­ful moun­tains, lush vine­yards, wheat fields and pic­tur­esque vil­lages; a com­plete con­trast to the pic­ture one holds of the West Coast and its accom­pa­ny­ing sand­scapes. Continued

I ♥ Yzerfontein Because...

I ♥ Yzerfontein

Hi, I’m Myrna from the White House Beach Villa in Yzerfontein.

Yzerfontein IS BEST KNOWN FOR white sandy beaches, relaxed sea­side liv­ing, whale spot­ting, bird­life, the September flower sea­son, unfor­get­table golden sun­sets, surf­ing and boating.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Pearl Bay, on the beach, a stone’s throw from the White House Beach Villa.

THE BEST mid­day PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN lying in a field of Spring flowers.

WHEN THE WEATHER'S GOOD, I LIKE TO take a long leis­urely walk along the 16 mile beach or simply soak up the sun and enjoy the sound and smell of the ocean. Continued

Aurora – things go pear-shaped

On the way to Aurora

Tell me you know where to find Aurora. Without resort­ing to Google maps. I live in the Western Cape and had never heard of the little dorp in the heart of the Sandveld, just inland from the West Coast town of Dwarskersbos, so I'm not anti­cip­at­ing that many of you will know where it is either. Then again, my geo­graphy has always been a little on the rusty side.

Dwarskersbos is as obscure, come to think of it. The little sea­side vil­lage through which we drove has little to recom­mend it, other than a couple of unex­cit­ing quick-stop cafés, a new mod­ern, white washed, cottage-style beach cot­tage devel­op­ment full of Pam Golding signs, and a com­plex called Slakkepas, where the units for hire are built in the shape of snails. Perhaps it was a nov­elty when they were built. Nonetheless, they do lie within walk­ing dis­tance of the beach. Continued

Lekker Velddrif and Laaiplek — it's bokkoms to you, sir

Velddrif & Laaiplek

It isn't only bokkoms that make the town of Velddrif so fam­ous. Enter the West Coast vil­lage across the white Carinus bridge that only recently, well his­tor­ic­ally any­way, replaced the pont across the Berg River and you will also pass hil­locks of white, shiny salt.

This is where we get most of our table salt. Any attempt to take pho­tos of the Cerebos pyramid-shaped salt moun­tains, how­ever, will bring you into con­tact with the rather surly  secur­ity guard, who might, if he doesn't mind the look of you, deign to allow you to turn your car around before you beat a hasty retreat. Cerebos, the other claim to fame in Velddrif, is not for vis­it­ors. And you can for­get tak­ing any pho­to­graphs – there is a sign on the gate that for­bids it. Continued

A day in Paternoster

Coffee at 'Oep vie Koep'

We spent a week in Citrusdal over Christmas and with our fam­ily hav­ing driven up from Zinkwazi, Hilton and Durban in KwaZulu Natal, we thought we'd make a day trip out of going to Paternoster and then thought, what the heck, its Christmas so let’s book a long, lazy lunch at the one and only Noisy Oyster Restaurant in this charm­ing West Coast fish­ing vil­lage ... Continued

Paternoster — a palliate for the soul

Paternoster

The first thing that strikes me about the gor­geous little sea­side fish­ing vil­lage of Paternoster, is the har­mony – there is no 'right' or 'wrong' side of the tracks here. Instead soci­ety is lumped into the same hand­bas­ket. The aver­age hol­i­day maker encased in huge util­ity vehicle, here for the week­end, tends to drive with head turned away from the fishermen's cot­tages that lie cheek by jowl with hol­i­day homes in the vil­lage — an attempt to ignore the 'other' side of Paternoster, or cran­ing to see the sea? I'll give them the bene­fit of the doubt ... Continued

Gone fishing — time out in Papendorp, Ebenhauser, Strandfontein and Doringbaai

Gone fish­ing ...

Three men sit against the curved stone wall that announces Papendorp to pass­ers by. One dons a Nike cap, the other two a hood and beanie respect­ively, and all three are hunkered down to avoid the coastal wind that whips through here. They bring to mind the three mon­keys – see, hear, speak no evil – but actu­ally, they are just fish­er­men passing the time.

These men know where to find cray­fish, they know when the harders are a plenty, when the tide is red and what the wind is say­ing when it blows. They know how to make bokkoms, pro­duce their fish­ing nets by hand, and pro­cess salt in the tra­di­tional way (there are salt pans nearby). By com­par­ison we wouldn't last five minutes in a vil­lage like this, where you eke out an exist­ence on the sea ... Continued

The wild flowers are here – where you'll find what this weekend

Wild Flowers

News alert: the wild flowers are already put­ting in an appear­ance! Certainly local radio sta­tions have begun broad­cast­ing that they are out and about for all to see. And little white and pink oxalis are already bloom­ing in and around Darling, whilst gor­geous drosera (more com­monly known as sun­dews) are begin­ning to raise their heads.

From now until the middle of September you can expect, weather depend­ing (and it has been a rather dry sea­son for some parts of the flower route), to see a flurry of flowers; a burst of col­our; a car­pet of blos­soms; proof that spring has sprung! All the way up the west coast of South Africa. Continued

Paternoster — a quaint west coast fishing village

Visit Paternoster

I just love Paternoster and it must be an inher­ited fam­ily trait because I have pho­tos of myself as a little girl (so about 33 years ago now) walk­ing along the beach with my Dad and another walk­ing down a road in the town with my par­ents and their friends decked out in 70’s garb!  Back in those days Paternoster was still a well kept secret but roll the clock for­ward 30 odd years and what you have is a still quaint but a lot more pop­u­lar Cape West Coast fish­ing village.

As one of the last tra­di­tional fish­ing vil­lages the per­man­ent Paternoster res­id­ents have made sure that vein of archi­tec­ture has been adhered too so expect to see white­washed cot­tages with shady stoeps and strings of sea­shells hanging from the reed dakke.  Properties on the water are treated to majestic sea views with sun­sets that are pure magic! Continued

Simoné of Darling

Simoné of Darling

On the corner of Main Road and Van der Stel Street in Darling, just as you begin to leave town behind and become slightly antsy about per­haps hav­ing missed the venue entirely (we had selec­ted the venue from the latest Time Out CT Weekend Breaks), you catch sight of the pretty little Victorian-style home on your right.

The venue has appar­ently been here for a while, although it's only been known as Simoné's for the past three years or so. Before that it was a farm­stall. Simoné greets you as you walk through the bright and breezy entrance — it's as if you've just come through someone's front door. Particularly as she's your unas­sum­ing girl-next-door type ... Continued

An Elands Bay Road trip — stories from the road by Ruan Smit

Elands Bay

On a misty morn­ing in late March I put myself to the road and hope that what it has to offer is what my soul is in need of. Only the road and the spirit of adven­ture can truly know what I need to exper­i­ence on a day like this and I’ve long since given up on for­cing the out­come of this road

The mist hangs like a cot­ton cloud over the veld of the robust west coast. The shrub­bery only enough to feed the few sheep that have become friends the last few days. A road I can­not the end of stretches under­neath the gray cloud as work the tar, my legs burn­ing in the cold morn­ing air and the feel­ing of being alive pumps through my heart into the rest of my body. A smile appears on my face before I real­ize it and when I do I try and frame it for use at another occa­sion ... Continued

Vredendal in the Olifants River Valley

Vredendal

Vredendal; Afrikaans for Peaceful Valley, is a mod­ern town that thrives on the banks of the Olifants River. The town marks the bound­ary between the Mediterranean cli­mate of the south­ern part of the West Coast and the dry, arid north.

The Olifants River is the large artery that drives the eco­nomy of the town and the region and makes this a small para­dise for those who want to get away from the city, yet have access to all the mod­ern amen­it­ies; the best of both worlds in tech­no­logy and the warmth of small-town hos­pit­al­ity and liv­ing ... Continued

Linger a while in Lambert's Bay

Crayfish

Lambert’s Bay star­ted out as a small and humble fish­ing vil­lage, much like all the other fish­ing vil­lages along the Cape West Coast. Today, how­ever it is known as the Diamond of the West Coast and one of the major tour­ist des­tin­a­tions year-round because of the mod­er­ate climate.

Here Seafood is king. In all its won­drous vari­ety, the plen­ti­ful sea­food has made the town into the pros­per­ous com­munity it is today.  Fisherman come from all over when the snoek (Cape Barracuda) run. This unique tast­ing fish is deli­cious slow-cooked on an open fire, basted with lemon juice and apricot jam ... Continued