CAMPING – Elands Bay, West Coast (South Africa)

Celebrating 50 (II)

“If you haven’t grown up by age 50, you don’t have to”. I don’t know who said it, but I LOVE it!

In our previous post, my friend and I went on a gin tasting experience to celebrate my 50^th birthday (you can read about it here). The celebrations didn’t stop there though and I could see no better way to celebrate 50 years on this earth with camping next to the ocean (this time with family).

Elands Bay:

Elands Bay is only a 2-hour drive from Cape Town (and more importantly, just 1 hour from our home). It is well off the beaten track, has beautifully unspoiled beaches and if you’re a keen surfer, this is THE spot to visit!

It is just so BEAUTIFUL … forgive me for the HUGE amount of photo’s in this post! But then, we were there for 4 wonderful days and every sunset was more magnificent than the previous one!

Our camping spot was located on the Elands Bay Hotel camping ground. The hotel is literally next to the camp site, but I must admit … our accommodation was my preferred choice!

With the tents pitched, we all went down to the beach (just a five-minute stroll) to enjoy the pristine beach … not to mention an amazing sunset!

The next morning, we made our way quite early down to the beach – temperatures will reach the high 30 degrees Celsius and the cold water of the Atlantic Ocean was just what we needed!

After we enjoyed the beach for most of the morning, everyone was ready for a late lunch. Corn in foil (dripped with garlic butter) were placed on the coals. The fish lovers were not left behind (we are after all in a quaint fishing village) and they were treated with fish prepared on the fire.

Towards the evening, fog came rolling in from the sea. It was very welcome after the hot day … but it was only for a short time before the fog disappeared and we could witness another sunset!

A visit to Lamberts Bay:

The next day started out with a light drizzle – it’s almost hard to believe that it was so hot yesterday! We decided to drive to Lamberts Bay (only half an hour away) to view the fishing boats in the harbour. But first, we headed to Isabellas Restaurant for something hot to drink (and something cold for my niece’s little boy).

Although the rain stopped, the harbour was wrapped up in a blanket of fog. Just as we walked over to the fishing boats to take some photo’s, the fishermen were busy preparing their boats to catch fish and crayfish.

We took a stroll on the walkway on the breakwater. I was fascinated by the breakwater blocks … they had the appearance of the Camino waymarkers we saw on our Camino journeys in Spain and Portugual!

Back at our camp site, we made a fire to prepare ‘boerewors’ (sausage) for a late lunch. The fog was still present over the ocean and we spotted a yacht close to the beach. As the fog rolled deeper into the ocean, it almost looked as if the yacht was moving towards a silky cloudy sky … the scenes were astonishing!

And then, with the fog rolling away, the rain came back. Fortunately, only for a short while and then a beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky and we had a lovely evening.

This was the ideal opportunity to walk down to the beach to take photo’s of (yet another) sunset.

Today is my birthday! And we are celebrating it with a hike up a mountain … of course you’ll say!

In the Bobbejaansberg (Baboon Mountain) above Elands Bay you can view numerous San (Bushmen) paintings. Their ancestors apparently lived in this area for more than 20,000 years. It’s difficult to put a date to these paintings, but it’s estimated to be between 200 and 6,000 years old … much older than my 50 years!

The rock paintings include several hundred handprints, large eland with bodies painted in red (but from which the head, neck and legs have disappeared because they were done in white paint).

When we climbed down the mountain, we saw some old buildings in the valley below and walked closer. We are not sure what these buildings were, but we enjoyed the graffiti on the walls.

On our way back to the camp site, we stopped at the little harbour of Elands Bay where boats came back from their morning of catching crayfish.

The well-known Sishen-Saldanha railway line (also known as the Ore Export Line) is an 861km (535 miles) heavy-haul railway line which also go pass Elands Bay … through Bobbejaansberg (Baboon Mountain). We stopped to take a photo of the entrance/exit tunnel.

The fog of earlier disappeared and it was a beautiful sunny day … time to go down to the beach for one last time!

Because it was my birthday, I could choose the final meal for the weekend. Without hesitation, I asked Berto to prepare a lamb rib next to the open fire … his speciality and my favourite!

We also witnessed one last sunset … probably the most beautiful of them all this weekend!

Oh … let me just share one last picture! Berto said, in celebration of my 50^th  birthday, he thought it would be a great idea to put our first sticker on the back window of our Suzuki Jimny (he said “she’s looking a lot like you” … hmm, maybe when I was 18).

What a great weekend – filled with laughter and making new memories. Elands Bay is a great place to just unwind, as well as enjoying spectacular sunsets and unspoiled beaches. We hope you enjoyed another camping trip with us.