Please support our advertisers who make this free guide possible. 1 FREE ST. HALINA BAY GATEWAY EDITION 9 GUIDES ‘There is no finer sheet of landlocked water in the world than this.’ TANDEM Captain Semmes of the Confederate raider, the Alabama, on entering Saldanha Bay in 1863 SKYDIVING The West Coast 1 EVERYDAY CAPE TOWN (weather permitting) Shelley Point SA Fisheries Museum only 35 minutes drive In 1497 the renowned Portguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, was recognised as survival. There are accounts of resistance by the Khoi-na, but it was futile. The confederate soldier was buried outside his Stompneuspunt from Cape Town CBD 5 Britannia Bay St Helena Bay the discoverer of the sea route to the East: it is less widely known that he also smallpox epidemic of 1713 wiped out a vast number of Khoi-na and some native country. His body was returned to Britannia Laaiplek accidentally ‘discovered’ the West Coast. He named the place where he made San. Some decided to leave and follow Adam Kok, the founder of the Griqua the USA 131 years later. Some people 1826 +27 (0)82 800 6290 • [email protected] • www.skydivecapetown.co.za Stompneusbaai landfall St Helena. Da Gama stayed for eight days, cleaning his ship and taking nation, up north. Those that remained fought the Dutch on three occasions but today still believe that pirates Cape St Martin 9 Sandy Bay 2 on basic supplies. He soon realised that he was not in fact the first there: the ended up moving north or working on European farms or eking out a living as buried their elusive treasure SS Saint St Helenabaai Velddrif Lawrence Britannia Bay Discover the history of and indigenous inhabitants, who became known as the Khoi-na or Khoikhoi, had strangers in their ancestral land. at Saldanha Bay. 1876 Bokkom Laan i Port Owen been there for thousands of years. Road to interesting information ‘I have a flag’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTduy7Qkvk8) Within 50 years of the Soetlandkop (150 m) Vlaminke Vlei Piketberg Groot 18 399 Not surprisingly, encounters between the Portuguese and the Khoi-na often As more Europeans rounded the Cape, the West Coast saw more visitors. The Dutch settling at the Paternoster about the West Coast Peninsula Patrysberg (265 m) ended in tragedy: Da Gama was wounded in one encounter; in another French had started using Saldanha Bay as far back as 1602, a year after the Cape there were 40 farms including the area from Francisco d’Almeida and 64 of his men were killed at Table Bay. As a result of Dutch sailor Joris van Spilbergen had stopped there. He named the bay after the between De Groene Kloof Cape Town to Velddrift such incidents the Portuguese decided to make their halfway stop to the East renowned Portuguese navigator Antonio de Saldanha, who he mistakenly thought (Mamre) and Saldanha in Mozambique. Thus the history of the West Coast, the Cape and ultimately Geelbek Manor, which is now a restaurant, was rebuilt in 1860. had landed there in 1503. (De Saldanha had in fact landed at Table Bay.) The Bay, and a fair Paternoster South Africa was written by other French were keen to move their halfway station on Madagascar to Saldanha sprinkling further 16 6 7 Kasteelberg warm, humid period to a cool, dry period. During this process, the landscape (185 m) European powers that subsequently Bay, much to the consternation of the Dutch. Thus in the late 1600s and early up the coast. 399 changed to grasslands and riverine forests. Some of the most exciting of these Cloeteskraal 2 came to dominate the lucrative trade 1700s there were three players vying for control of this bay. The remaining Most of these 10 ancient animals are the large mammals that resemble, in part, their modern route to the East. Khoi-na were reluctantly accommodating at first, and traded with the French settlers were counterparts but on a much larger scale, such as short-necked giraffe, sabre- Columbine Langrietvlei and Dutch, but as the Europeans came to have a stronger presence in the area desperately 1829 To appreciate the full story of the tooth cat, bear, elephant with four tusks, musk ox, giant pig and many more, Vredenburg Saldanha- Railway line 3 tension increased, resulting in wars between the Khoi-na and the Dutch, the to Malmesbury Berg River West Coast we must go back to a unique to this location. Today you can relive this turbulent transition period i Sishen first of which was in 1657. These interactions were low key, mainly involving railway RAALBAAI OUSE BOATS time before the local Khoi-na clans, by visiting the West Coast Fossil Park, an absolute must for anyone exploring 11 K H cattle raids and resulting in few deaths. Cape Columbine Luxury before the ancient San people, before this area. Kersefontein our modern human ancestors walked Cape Columbine Humans before written history 7 Tietiesbaai Nature Reserve at Kraal Bay and before the earliest Paradise on the water The West Coast is one of the places in southern Africa that lays claim to Witklip West Coast mammals of Langebaanweg. The story 15 Fossil Park the oldest examples of modern man, not the so-called ‘missing links’ such SS Lisboa 1910 starts with the rock under our feet. R as Little Foot, Mrs Ples and the Taung Child. In 1953 Keith Jolly uncovered 45 West Coast National Park • +277 601 74788 Set in stone at Elandsfontein a fragment of a skull now named ‘Saldanha Man’ (archaic Wesbaai www.kraalbaailuxuryhouseboats.com Homo sapiens). This fragment has been dated to about 400 000 years (before R The West Coast has the same geological 79 Langebaanweg history as that of Table Mountain. Over humans moved into Europe). Since this discovery, over 60 skull fragments, Jacobsbaai ArcelorMittal i Saldanha Works millions of years, the younger Table teeth and other artefacts have been found at this site. Saldanha Mountain Group of sandstones has British Peer 1896 The Moravian mission station The next step in the story of ancient man on the West Coast was actually a 8 4 been eroded away, leaving only the 19 i R with its church, watermill young girl given the name Eve. In 1995 Dave Roberts was studying the coastal 27 Experience and taste the best of the West Coast siltstones of the Malmesbury Group Danger Bay platform close to Pulpit Rock at Kraal Bay, when he stumbled upon human at Geelbek Restaurant situated in the heart and outbuildings set in the (18 km thick), which are intruded by R footprints imprinted in the rock, an extremely rare find. The footprints have 45 Hopefield of the West Coast National Park heavenly De Groene Kloof. various bodies of granite. Parts of the Wildebeest (Gnu) in the Buffelsfontein Game Reserve, which is an hour’s drive 10 been dated to about 117 000 years ago, to a day when a young girl with a Museum Mamre was established in Malmesbury Group are visible along from Cape Town. Visitors can stay overnight or take a day trip. Saldanha Bay size five foot walked diagonally down a sand dune to the lagoon edge, which 1808 as a refuge for the the coast as dark grey siltstones at Middelburg at that time was a metre away. Since the footprints were now exposed to the As the French and Dutch both knew the importance of the area, whenever they remaining Khoi-na. Bokbaai and Ganzekraal. One agent of 1781 Langebaan 11 elements and eroding fast, a decision was made to cut them out and relocate were in the bay plundering its resources (such as water, penguin eggs, seals erosion was the Berg River, which once and fish) or fixing their ships, they would put up a flag or plaque claiming it as poor, but some 6 5 them to the safety of the Iziko Museum in Cape Town. big names such as Jutten Island i had a flow rate of 50 km/h although today it meanders gently through a vast their own. However, when the French left on a voyage or the Dutch went to Thali-Thali Game Lodge plain. Over the last few million years the river has changed its exit point to the The first documented people their new settlement at Table Bay, the other party would remove the symbol Eksteen, Cloete, Van Postberg Nature der Stel and Versfeld had HERITAGE DINING • AWARD WINNING WINES sea from Langebaanweg to its present position at Velddrif. The Portuguese explorers discovered a well-populated land with two different of authority and replace it with its own. (One of the plaques was knocked Reserve is open Hopefield www.gatewayguides.co.za only in August i HISTORICAL SETTING • RAMSAR STATUS BIRD WATCHING peoples, the first being the San (Bushmen). They are the original people of the down by a rhino!) On one occasion the Dutch stole over 2000 seal skins the large cattle farms, horse One exception to the general flatness of the West Coast is a ridge of granite and September 3 West Coast National Park • +27 844 067434 • [email protected] • www.geelbek.net West Coast and southern Africa whose presence goes back over 20 000 years. French had left on Schaapen Island for safekeeping, but despite some hostility studs, and salt and fishing Elandsfontein hills, starting in the south at the Darling Hills and running in a NNW direction Langebaan Massenberg The San were hunter-gatherers, small in stature, with a traditional territory; a state of war was never reached. Eventually the Dutch had control of the enterprises to supply the Dutch Soutrivier all the way up to Shelley Point.