ARNISTON ESCAPE

The coast guard If you want more from your seaside getaway than just sand and surf, Arniston serves up a mix of shipwreck history and Southern Cape culture

Words JADE COOKE Photography ALFRED LOR

55 SUMMER ’13 ARNISTON ESCAPE

‘It’s sunny,’ I say, disappointedly, as we cruise into the parking lot of the Arniston Spa Hotel. Our home for the next two nights fronts on to a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses-green lawn that gives way to a beach, and above the soft white sand is a blue sky unmarred by clouds. Having spent the previous weekend in the sun-drenched Winelands, my fantasy Arniston getaway included hulking cumulonimbus on the horizon, windswept beach walks and cosy nights eating seafood in front of a fire, the rain lashing at the windows. After all, we’re in shipwreck country now. I wanted a storm. I wanted crashing waves. I may even have wanted a three-masted galley struggling bravely to shorten sail. What I have is another day in paradise. Not 20 minutes later, we’re checked in and seated on the large, elegant terrace of the hotel, cocktails ‘in hand, while gulls call to one another and a waiter explains the intricacies of the PSL to a handful of tourists.I I’ve swapped my jeans and parka for a pair of shorts and the thought that maybe tomorrow it’ll rain. Slowly, as I allow the sunshine and Mai Tai to remove the last vestiges of city stress, a dark smudge on the horizon resolves itself into a boat. By the time it’s finally being hauled up the tiny slipway adjacent to the beach, we’re already halfway through our next round of fruit-festooned drinks. It seems nothing in Arniston happens in any great hurry. And why should it? The dinghy’s owner is more than likely a resident of Kassiesbaai, the 200-year-old fishing village and national monument that was here long before the hotel or the harbour. You can see the cluster of whitewashed sandstone As authentic a taste cottages from the terrace; pretty as a picture but as authentic a taste of Southern Cape life as you’re of Southern Cape likely to get anywhere. Life in Kassiesbaai remains largely unchanged over the decades, and most of its residents still make a living off the sea. life as you’re likely As we wend our way between the little houses later, the unfriendliest greeting we get is from a brown, shaggy mongrel. Everyone else is all smiles, including a group of youngsters involved in a to get anywhere hard-fought dominos battle in a front yard. Our tummies are rumbling – we’ve heard talk of the best fish cakes on the coast hiding somewhere in Kassies. One teenager pauses, domino in hand, to give us directions. ‘Sien jy die wit huisie (Do you see the white house)?’ he says, without gesturing. ‘Draai links (Turn left).’ Then he slams down his tile and falls about in good-natured laughter – all the houses are white.

57 SUMMER ’13 ARNISTON ESCAPE

It’s a strange feeling, knowing that going any further will lead you to nothing but ice and penguins

Its shipwreck hall has a vast collection of fascinating salvage material from the equally vast number of wrecks that occurred nearby – the Cape’s coastline proved too treacherous for many a historical seafarer. In fact, if it weren’t for the sinking of the HMS Arniston in 1815 about 900m offshore of Kassiesbaai, most people would know Arniston by its official name, Waenhuiskrans (‘oxwagon shelter cliff ’, after a sea cave so big early settlers declared they could turn an ox wagon and team around inside it). The rest of the Shipwreck Museum is a replica turn-of-the-century house, complete with sausage makers in the kitchen and a microwave-sized pulpit bible in the study. If you’re lucky, you may be escorted around by a large ginger tom, who seems in particular to like the early 20th-century fire engine in the barn. Back at the hotel, we toast the fiery orange sunset from our sea-facing balcony with its 180º view, before heading downstairs for a shared seafood feast of oysters, prawns, mussels, calamari and squid heads, washed down with local Strandveld wine. The next day, the stubbornly bright sunshine finds us standing in solemn silence at , the southernmost tip of Africa, where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. It’s a strange feeling, knowing that going any further will lead you to nothing but ice and penguins. The chill coming off the water even feels slightly Antarctic so, hugging our jackets closer, we allow the now gusting wind to chivvy us away from the edge and along the boardwalk to the lighthouse. Built in 1849, it’s the second oldest still in operation in the country, warning off today’s sailors with a 7 500 000 candlepower lantern that can be seen some 30 nautical miles from shore. All this fresh air does wonders for the appetite, and we know just where One of his companions takes pity on us and to find lunch, too. The directs us to Willeen’s. Picnic tables and flotsam southernmost town in and jetsam dot the grass outside the eatery, but Africa is the quaint little the wind is picking up (to my delight) so we L’Agulhas, and its tiny choose a table inside. Unfortunately, Willeen harbour does a brisk trade herself is not in, but her family is holding the in seafood. Of course, the fort, and the warm bread, tender lamb curry fishermen are haggling and fish cakes are all that lunch at the seaside over the day’s catch, and cottage is talked up to be. Art, crafts and baked since I’m no sushi chef, goods are on sale too, and we end up leaving we bypass the overalled with plenty of home-made rusks and a pair men and head to JJ’s of crocheted beanies we don’t really need. takeaways for good, old- Feeling thoroughly nostalgic now, an fashioned, greasy fish investigation of the area’s shipwreck history and chips, topped off seems to be in order. So we head back along with a soft serve from the R316 to , about 25 minutes the ancient-looking inland from Arniston, to the town’s museum. stand next door.

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ONCE YOU’VE HAD YOUR FILL OF SUN AND SEA, HEAD NORTH OF ARNISTON FOR MORE Linger OVERBERG ATTRACTIONS Longer 1 Bredasdorp’s Shipwreck Museum provides a fascinating glimpse into the history of the Southern Cape Find a secluded coastline, the ships that stretch of sand to met their fate here as well as the stories of the sink your toes into survivors. A must-visit for anyone interested in maritime history. Go to their website for opening times. An hour or so later and only a few kilometres Explore 6 Independent Street, from the hotel, the Struis Point beacon seems 2 Bredasdorp Expect to come to a stop on a bit paltry in comparison to Agulhas’s sentinel. 028 424 1240 the main street of Napier while But it marks the location of a wealth of rock waiting for a solitary donkey to cross 5 De Hoop Nature Reserve, north-east of Arniston www.bredasdorpmuseum.co.za pools, for those wanting to clamber around and off the R319, promises 34 000 ha of pristine wilderness, the road. This unassuming town has relive childhood memories in search of hermit a playground for nature lovers keen on hiking, cycling, become a haven for artists and city- crabs, anemones and periwinkles. If not, slowly bird- and whale-watching, or simply walking barefoot weary folk in search of a quieter slice meandering along Otter Beach to the beacon along wide open stretches of white-sand beaches. of country life. Refresh yourself with and back is still lovely. The joy of Arniston’s Turquoise rock pools lie dotted along the shoreline tea and cake at a roadside restaurant coast is that, although the town is popular with and beckon to be explored by little hands. De Hoop before heading on to Arniston or holidaymakers, during the week you can always Collection offers a wide range of accommodation, Cape Agulhas. find a secluded stretch of sand to sink your We’ve timed things just right and the tide is out as we crest a dune and then head down the from self-catering bungalows to the luxurious, newly Stay R316 between Caledon and Bredasdorp toes into. well-marked path to Waenhuiskrans cave, which is inaccessible at high tide. Steps cut into the renovated Opstal Stable Suites with mesmerising cliffside lead you down to a small cove, then it’s just a hop, skip and a careful scramble over some 4 Check into a luxury views across the vlei. rocks until you’re in the sea-facing cavern. While I’m fuzzy on the exact dimensions of an oxwagon, sea-facing room at the 021 422 4522, www.dehoopcollection.com Waenhuiskrans is certainly big enough to do a U-turn with a modern hatchback. Standing in its Arniston Spa Hotel mouth puts you at eye-level with the waves further out, and the sound of water rushing in manages and be lulled to sleep by to be melodious and slightly threatening at the same time. I feel a bit like a pirate stashing her loot the sounds of the ocean. … until a family with a Labrador joins us in our oohing and aahing. R316 Breakfast on the terrace is We pick our way back around a flung-out finger of rock and up towards the dunes again, turning 5 a hearty affair that’ll set you Taste left to follow the signs to a lookout point. It’s distinctly colder now, and the sky doesn’t seem as bright De Hoop up for a day of sightseeing 3 The historical village of 2 Napier Nature Reserve blue as it did yesterday. At the third sign, a crevice in the rock may go unremarked, unless you know or poolside lounging, while Elim, halfway between Gansbaai and Bredasdorp's it’s the back entrance to Arniston’s ‘secret’ cave. Slithering through the gap, I scrabble around for a Shipwreck Museum the hotel restaurant serves Bredasdorp, has become one of South 1 second to find a foothold, then lower myself down to find a perfect, rock-framed ocean view, with Bredasdorp freshly caught seafood with Africa’s most closely watched wine the cottages of Kassiesbaai artistically sketched into the bottom left-hand corner. 3 a variety of traditional Cape regions. The cool climate lends itself Far below, the tide is coming in; water swirls around the base of the cliff and sprays upwards. Elim R 317 R316 to producing exceptional Sauvignon R319 Malay dishes on the menu. The Lab is barking and children are laughing. But – like the lighthouse, like Willeen’s, like the Arniston Spa Hotel A full spa menu completes Blanc and Pinot Noir, with boutique beacon and like the hotel – I ignore the landlubbers, and instead stand and keep watch out to sea. 4 Arniston the four-star experience. wineries such as Strandveld, Black And on the horizon a storm is finally brewing. Arniston Bay Oystercatcher, The Berrio, Quoin 028 445 9000 Rock and Zoetendal leading the way. How to get there www.arnistonhotel.com Elim Tourism Bureau 028 482 1806 Arniston is a two-hour drive from Cape Town. Take the N2 towards Caledon and turn off on the R316 to N2 Bredasdorp and Arniston. R316 Agulhas 60 SUMMER ’13