West Coast South Africa - West is Best

The West Coast Regional Tourism Organisation have launched their new logo showing a searing sun, vast blue ocean and flower dotted plains and hills, roamed by a bushman. What it is trying to tell you is that the West Coast Region encompasses not only the seaboard, but the rolling Swartland hills, the lush Olifants River Valley and the Cederberg Mountains as well.

The enticing Langebaan Lagoon is well known to most Capetonions and it is undoubtedly the most charming warm water delight of the coast. Especially when the spring flowers cover the Postberg peninsula with brilliant brush strokes of colour.

But I found another beach haven, The Blouwaterbaai Holiday Resort, just as you enter Saldanha. It consists of the Blue Bay Lodge with rooms and garden cottages, and privately owned beach houses not a stone’s throw from the sand. The night vista glitters with lights from the iron ore jetty, which admittedly is not quite so pretty in daylight, but the proximity of sea and sand makes up for the unsightly harbour.

Dried Shrivelled Fish

Bokkoms are a typically west coast thing. I almost used the word ‘delicacy’ but as this suggests a dainty kind of food with a fineness of texture, I thought better of it. Only in Veldriff did I meet people who actually like bokkoms – dried and shrivelled silvery harders.

Rarely do the little fishing boats need to go out to sea - they catch enough of these slippery little fish in the mouth of the Berg River - but never, to my astonishment, manage to fulfil the demand.

Bird & Whale Watching

Sea birds are ever present and never more so than at Lambert's Bay further up the coast. The colony of beautiful pale cream Cape Gannets, a short walk past the harbour onto the peninsula, is a sight to behold. There are thousands of pairs performing to each other, and the density of birds means that they must take off and land like a Harrier jump jet.

Their huge splayed feet can surely walk on water and their pointed grey beaks are positively menacing. Even though there are major plans to upgrade the viewing facilities, the existing fake-rock building offers a fantastic close to nature experience. Lambert’s Bay also offers probably the best boat-based whale and dolphin watching in the Western Cape. The MTN’s Whale Route marine biologist, Darden Lotz, says it is one of her very favourite places in the world.