A Sunburned Haven for Sea Birds and Hardy Fishermen part 2 October 10, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Air Tickets, Cape Town, Greenland, Hotels, Sightseeing, South Africa, Tour, Trails, Trip , trackbackDwarskersbos to Cape Columbine
Return to Laaiplek, turning left out of Jameson Street into Voortrekker Street, then turn right in Velddrif to cross the Berg River bridge. 1,5 km later, turn right onto the R399 towards Vredenburg and Saldanha. After 10 km on the R399 turn right towards St Helena Bay.
The road passes close to the sea at St Helena Bay, with views of fishermen’s cottages, the harbour, and the first of a succession of fish- processing factories. A sign indicates the way to the Da Gama Monument, a few hundred metres to the right of the road. Immediately after the monument turn left onto a gravel road towards Vredenburg and Paternoster.
After a further 5,7km turn right at the inter‑section. (The farm on the left is called Rondekop.) After a further 8 km turn right at the T-junction for Paternoster, where there is a hotel, a wide sandy beach, and many small cottages clustering on the hillside.
The road continues through Paternoster for 4 km, through the Cape Columbine Nature Reserve, past the lighthouse, and arrives eventually at the resort of Tietiesbaai.
Return through Paternoster, and pass on your left the road on which you arrived from St Helena Bay. You reach tar just before Vredenburg, a distance of some 15 km. Drive along Vredenburg’s Main Street, and turn right at the second four-way stop street (there is a hotel on your right) into Saldanha Road — a 12 km tarred road back to Saldanha.
An Impenetrable Cloud of Birds
One of the unforgettable sights of the Saldanha Bay area comes at sunset as thousands upon thousands of birds — sea birds and waders — stream home in long, ragged lines over the water. The French naturalist Le Valiant, visiting Saldanha two centuries ago, reported seeing an ‘impenetrable cloud of birds of every species and all colours’.
Three islands in the bay — Malgas, Jutten and Marcus — are home to thousands of jackass penguins, and Skaap Island holds the largest known breeding colony of kelp gulls in southern Africa. In the summer months, up to 23 species of waders have been counted in the area, most of them migrants from far to the north, some of them coming from as far afield as Greenland and Siberia. Meeuw Island (gull island) was named by the Dutch for the countless gulls that favoured it as a roosting place. These birds feed on the micro- fauna of the intertidal zone along the shores of the lagoon — and have left a treasure trove in their droppings, or guano. Malgas Island was 10m deep in guano when it was first exploited for fertiliser in the 1840s.
Daar Kom Die Alabama
Among the many famous ships to have dropped anchor in Saldanha Bay was the Confederate commerce raider, the Alabama, in 1863, during the American Civil War. Her Captain, Raphael Semmes, wrote: ‘There is no finer sheet of landlocked water in the world than Saldanha Bay.’ He was surprised that the unsheltered anchorage of Table Bay had been chosen above Saldanha. (The reason was that Table Bay had abundant fresh water, which was lacking at Saldanha.)
When the Alabama sailed, she left behind one of her crew, Third Engineer Cummings, who was accidentally shot and killed while hunting. His grave, on the farm Kliprug, just north of the town, is believed to be the only grave of a Confederate seaman in Africa.
Cape Columbine Lighthouse
The nine-million candlepower Cape Columbine lighthouse, first switched on in 1936, came none too soon; the area around Cape Columbine has long been a graveyard for unwary mariners.
Soldier’s Bay, one of the indentations on this rockbound coast, is the site of two memorable shipwrecks. The troopship St Lawrence struck a reef here, and the Portugese mail steamer Lisboa ran aground here in 1910, with a cargo that included large casks of red wine. The Lisboa was eventually broken up by a gale, which stained the sea red with wine and washed many barrels safely onto lonely beaches where they were buried by locals — to be retrieved when the customs officials eventually left.
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