August 2023

When we were in Langebaan during August, we were treated to bright sunny days. No visit to Langebaan is complete without a walk on the beach of the lovely lagoon.

Just after parking the car, we saw one of the boats of the 4 Special Forces Regiment (Recces) leaving the dock. This unit is the Seaborne Special Forces Regiment in South Africa and receive their military training in this area.

Recces’ boat on the Langebaan lagoon

We started our walk from The ‘Paaltjies’. This is the general name for the launch area on the main beach for smaller or lighter boats. It is clearly marked by two rows of poles.

The ‘Paaltjies’ at the main beach

A small boat, called ‘Jan’, is a familiar sight on the beach. We always walk past this boat and think it must have been photographed a thousand times (or more) by beach goers.

‘Jan’ on the beach of the lagoon

We also saw a couple of seagulls rocking peacefully on the water. As it was low tide, a few seagulls found food in some of the bivalves (clams). We also saw how they opened these shells to get to the juicy food inside: Since they cannot crack the shells with their beaks, they instead carry them up into the air and then drop them from a height on a hard surface so it can break open.

Seagulls enjoy the gentle lapping of the water

Seagull with his portion of fresh seafood

Since it was a weekday (and we’re technically still in our winter season) we didn’t see many people on the beach. There were only a few joggers and people walking their dogs – it was actually the perfect day for a walk on the beach.

Joggers on the beach

Did you know?

The Langebaan Lagoon is a large saltwater lagoon. No river runs through it – making it one of only three lagoons worldwide fed by fresh water. The lagoon is an intense turquoise, only 6 meters deep at its deepest and completely open to the sea. (Source: SA-V website)

Langebaan lagoon

On the way back to the car park we walked past one of the buoys used as a marker for swimmers. As it was low tide, the buoy was fully exposed.

Buoy on the beach

It’s wonderful to always feel so relaxed after a walk on the beautiful beach of the Langebaan lagoon.

On the way back home, we drove past a couple of traffic circles. The spring wildflowers looked beautiful in the circle and we quickly stopped for a last few photos.

Spring wildflowers inside a traffic circle

Lovely wildflowers

The Langebaan Lagoon is such a beautiful sight that we will show it to you again in our next post. But then it will look completely different, because we went for a walk there at sunset (read here).