Lambert's Bay is a cute little seaside village full of cafes and fishing boats and a gorgeous rocky coastline reminiscent of Monterrey.. We found the parking area for the famous Bird Island and walked out on a long jetty with a huge pile of creative chunks of concrete lining the ocean side to protect it.
The island (full of nesting gannets, cormorants and, formerly, penguins) was originally cut off from the land and thus the seabirds were protected from land predators. The jetty was constructed in the 50s to protect the fishing boats and created problems for the birds, mainly Cape Gannets, that had been nesting there forever. Now predators are trapped and the town protects the island as it attracts a lot of human visitors.
The Atlantic is quite fierce here with large surf, although today was mild and warm. We walked out about a mile, looking at nesting platforms that had been set up and were being used by Cape Cormorants. We then went into a hide to observe the 14,000 Cape Gannets congregating on the island beach. It was quite a sight and very noisy! We walked further down the jetty and were hit with a very strong odor of guano! Really overwhelming!!
We drove further down the coast and came to Eland's Bay, a small collection of modern cape dutch cottages used as weekend homes by Cape Towners. There was a huge rocky cliff behind the beach, wild flower-covered sand and crashing surf - a really lovely place. We heard a train approaching and watched it enter a tunnel carved into the cliff; Bob counted 341 cars carrying, we think, iron ore, and seven engines scattered throughout the line of cars...pretty amazing.
At the Berg River mouth in Veldrif we pulled into a salt drying operation across from the Riviera Hotel and Restaurant where we had lunch way back in 2002 with Hilary and Mary M! Bob wanted to see a Chestnut-banded Plover there but we were rejected by the guard - tight security around the salt processing!!
We eventually reached Langebaan, a seaside town about 100 miles north of Cape Town. When we last saw it, it was a sleepy little town, but in the last decade it has become a popular weekend retreat and there is new construction everywhere. We found our B&B, Harrison House, surrounded by big new houses, and were a little discouraged, but once we were inside we felt insulated from the ever-growing town and and found our room to be quite delightful and luxurious - and warm - at last! A lovely bathroom, nice bed and beautiful view over the bay.
The only drawback is the tiny parking area for the three guest cars; Bob didn't feel like driving anymore so we cleaned up and set off on foot for the nearby Farm House Hotel at the bottom of the hill. I don't think anyone walks around after dark, but this seemed like a safe neighborhood, so we took off. The Farm House is a nice hotel/restaurant in probably the original farm house of the area. It has a huge fireplace and is full of old farm furniture. We had a good dinner of chicken pie and a piece of local fish with pudding for dessert, and climbed the hill back to our B&B.
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