Today I want to show you the rare nature reserve on the south Cape coast of Africa called Robberg Peninsula. It’s a popular hiking trail among international visitors and locals alike as you can see the seal colony that lives on this out-jutting peninsula in the “Garden Route” region of the Western Cape Province in sunny South Africa. December has arrived and it’s tourist season. Now is the peak time for visitors from far and wide, and this particular peninsula and its adjoining beach are a major attraction.
If you look at the Robberg Peninsula from a distance, you can see that it’s a long finger-like protrusion that juts out from the main land mass, thus actually providing protection to the Plettenberg Bay. Situated on the western flank of the bay, it acts as a buffer to the tidal swells and wind, thus making the bay so sheltered and attractive to tourists and whales alike according to their season. One can hike along the peninsula, walking a circuitous route all around its edges, which takes about three or four hours. So it makes a great day trip.
The town of Plettenberg Bay is perhaps the most attractive tourist destination in the entire southern Africa, with its lagoon, rivers, long white beaches for surfing and awesome views. There are also numerous hiking trails, wildlife watches and other outdoor adventure activities situated all around the town in this holiday hotspot. Nevertheless the Robberg beach and peninsula are one of my favorite zones for basking in the sun and sea air, or swimming in the warm Indian Ocean.
If you enjoy water sports like canoeing then the lagoon and river that flows from inland are perfect places to take a leisurely paddle for the day. You can see in these photos how the river mouth flows out to the Indian Ocean, with the little holiday town of Plett – as the locals call it – in the background.
The lagoon in on one side of the sandy dunes of the beach and the ocean is on the other at this section near the river mouth itself. In the far distance to the east you can see the Formosa mountain peak, named after the original name for this bay – Bahia Formosa – given to it by the first Portuguese sailors who passed by here on their way to the east Indies several hundred years ago. And they named it appropriately since the name actually means “beautiful bay” in Portuguese.
Where the long stretch of sandy white beach meets the peninsula itself, you have some interesting rock features. I have seen them appear differently on different visits during the course of the year. This is due to the way in which the sand is washed up around it by the ocean swell. Sometimes it is almost totally covered up, with only the tips of the rocks showing. And sometimes, like today, you can see the bigger rock formation and the curious channel it makes. As you can see, the sand on the right of the rock feature is much higher than the rest to the left. That is the normal sand level. But today all that sand on the left has been washed away and has exposed the rocky channel for a change.
The tidal sea water comes racing up this channel at high tide, though it is now low tide, so you can see the exposed rock formation for a few brief hours. It looks like a magnificent stone sculpture, designed to act as a walkway or channel of some sort. In the far distance you can see the other side of the huge Plettenberg Bay itself, which curls around and creates such a sheltered enclave for the whales to breed in season.
As we go up closer into the actual channel created by the two rocky walls, it’s possible to see the curious green moss that grows presumably just above the high water mark. What is even more curious is the heavily eroded rock surface, which has all sorts of pitted holes which look truly odd. How does the water erode such neat round holes in this otherwise uniform rock? It looks very unusual to see such neat shapes that are so randomly placed on the rock wall.
here’s a close-up photo of the biggest hole in the rock wall, which looks to me just like a wide open mouth, with the sand looking like a tongue. Nature never ceases to amaze me, with its random abstract creations that are obviously quite logical and natural, yet appear to be harmonious in some cases and odd in others. This is a combination of both, where the eroded hollow circular holes are inexplicable to me and yet also intriguing. Whatever it is that causes such unique rock features, it’s all natural and I’m probably just preoccupied by something quite simple. That’s what happens to me when I get absorbed in the timeless space and beauty of this apparently endless stretch of beach and all its curious details. I call it “the eternal sunshine of the spotless beach”, a play on the movie title from a few years ago.
One can get lost in a timeless zone of the eternal present moment when roaming along these vast clear and clean sort white sandy beaches of Plettenberg Bay, where the waves wash upon the shore like the ticking of a clock, on and on without cessation, keeping their own rhythmic timing, which is so soothing and cleansing on all levels of body, mind and consciousness. If you want to have a holiday in a distant and often deserted paradise on earth, then this is a place I highly recommend, with milder climate than any other on earth and less known compared to the tourist hotspots in the northern hemisphere. Once you arrive, you may never want to leave.
