My tour of the southernmost tip of the African continent brought me in touch with a bit of history, when I came across the iconic Dutch architecture at the empty seaside village of Arniston. The quiet village is full of cute white beach houses, but they are mostly empty and locked up until their owners flock in for their holidays once or twice a year.
I was there on a particularly quiet part of the calendar which allowed me to walk about the empty and deserted lanes and houses at my leisure. I had the chance to admire what is known as the classic “Cape Dutch” architecture on some of the local houses. It hints at the original settlers who sailed in from Holland in the 17th century. They introduced this style of architectural embellishment on their houses.
You can see this style of architecture throughout the Cape peninsula, and Cape Town city, which is just about 90 minutes drive away, to the west. Although one of the buildings had the date of 1933 inscribed on it, meaning it was 90 years old, still the style of construction is reminisce of the original Dutch building style present since the early settlers.
There was hardly a single car on the roads and lanes of this side of Arniston holiday village. And barely a handful of people throughout my entire walk around the town. Most of the houses were locked up. Locals do live in the area but their more humble abodes are situated on the other side of town.
It’s a poorer economic bracket who have little work opportunity in this dry seaside region. Fishing was a pastime for a while, though less now. And holiday makers are super seasonal. So the village remains empty like it was today, as I strolled around inspecting the houses and flora.
The actual real southernmost tip of the African continent is a few miles from this little village of Arniston, but I’ll get to that another time. Today I want to show you a village lost in time that few ever get to see. All you can really do here is fishing apparently. The beaches are not for surfing and hardly much for swimming.
I did, however, find some fascinating rock features along the shoreline. The landscape is made up on some ancient looking geology. The land that time forgot can be found alive and well on the far end of the planet, if you look hard enough. Every continent has its fair share, I presume.
Another name for this village is “Waenhuiskrans”, which is the local Afrikaans dialect, derived from the original Dutch. It means something like “wagon house cliffs”. You will even fine a fully functional hotel right on the beach front, and I saw two people at their car, so tourists do pass through here. The hotel has the only shop which is more of a kiosk at the hotel.
If you don’t make it to see this part of the planet, then not to worry, you’ve seen the photos now, so you can imagine the rest. This is about as active as it gets near the southern tip of Africa. If you like peace and quiet, and perhaps fishing, then you might enjoy the remote Arniston village. There are still some pleasantly remote and peaceful places to pass the time on the planet today. The climate is mild and you could retire in peace while the world went racing on in the distance.
