Like many good travel ideas, this one was conceived in a bookshop. After picking up the dinkiest old book South African Explorers at Hemingway’s in Hermanus, I decided to head for St Helena Bay, where Vasco da Gama landed on November 8 1497.
About 10 years ago I rode to Verneukpan with a remarkably brave woman. She was relatively inexperienced and we rode a lot of difficult sand tracks and mud to get there, but no matter how many times she fell off her motorbike, she got up again and soldiered on.
I’m thinking about her as I sit in the Elands Bay Cave because of what her father told her while they were stargazing one night. “We’re just a flash in the plan, my girl,” he said, after a long discussion about the formation of the universe and our minuscule part in it all.
The Elands Bay Cave, with its 20,000-year-old archaeological record and reasonably well preserved San rock art, is a good place to sit and ponder such things. Not only is a heritage site such as this a window on the relatively recent past, showcasing relics and the eating habits of the San until about 300 years ago, it is also a good vantage point from which to contemplate the effects of natural climate change (* the Milankovitch Cycles) — as opposed to anthropogenic influences (human activities) — over the millennia.
John Parkington, emeritus professor at the University of Cape Town’s department of archaeology, who has worked this site and numerous others on the West Coast, records that 20,000 years ago the ocean levels would have been 120m lower than today. It would have made the coastline around 35km west from where I now sit. This period was the height of the last ice age (glacial maximum) and it correlates with Parkington’s finds of more terrestrial animal bones here in the first half of the period and more shellfish remains in the second, where at one stage the sea almost lapped at the cave’s front door and marine pickings were plenty.
There was also a period of about 1,000 years (between 2,000 and 3,000 years ago) where no occupation records were found in the cave. This puzzled archaeologists until they found huge shell middens which were exposed at low tide. Their radiocarbon dated ages slotted perfectly into this gap, demonstrating that ocean levels were lower at that time and the conditions such that the San were happy to dine alfresco over this period.
Yet, with plentiful occupation records following this, the cave clearly became a popular, if reasonably infrequent, refuge once more. The many handprints found here — an eland graphic gave the bay next door its name — are thought to indicate that the cave was a sacred place, where the “artists" would draw spiritual power from the rock, at the same time marking the cave as a place of religious significance.
The ride to get here was pretty epic. Around 410km split 60-40 between tar and dirt track took me from the Overberg through the Koue Bokkeveld, the Cederberg range, the Komsberg and the Sandveld to Elands Bay. If I can tear myself away from this fascinating cave in time, and make it back down the hectic dirt track (Grade 2 4x4) I came in on, I hope to make it to my accommodation in St Helena Bay before nightfall.
The rest of the ride to my two-night stopover at Die Skilpadjie partners me with an azure coastline and I soon pass by the cookie-cutter housing estates of Dolphin Bay and the older, and slightly quainter, seaside village of Dwarskersbos en route to Velddrif.
Here the mighty Berg River opens to the sea at Laaiplek, once an important agricultural lading port (Carel Stephan started exporting wheat from Laaiplek to Cape Town in the 1870s) but today it is host to a colourful fishing fleet and some of the best fish and chips on the planet (Doepie’s nearby).
Unfortunately, I don’t have time to dally here, and only manage to fill up the bike with petrol and snag a few cold beers before shooting off again for my date with the sunset on Die Skilpadjie’s stoep. I make it with minutes to spare and I’m soon enjoying a sundowner while overlooking the bustling, yet still romantic St Helena Bay harbour.
In his book Coast of Treasure (Howard Timmins, Cape Town, 1933) Lawrence Green reminisces about the “double-ended whaleboats ready to dash out of the covers of St Helena Bay when the spout of a whale was reported”. These were the days before explosive harpoons and there was little margin for error as things could go wrong fast.
Today, my host Wilma tells me, small whaler-type boats (12-man fishing crew) still go out, particularly when the snoek are running, and that’s the best time to buy fresh fish on the quayside. “But you have to be quick, otherwise the fish merchants’ trucks pull in and buy the lot,” she says.
The next day I take the short ride to the Vasco da Gama monument near Stompneus Bay. Three simple stone columns commemorate his landing here; but if you want the full back story you’ll need to bring your own notes. Suffice to say, misunderstandings arose between the Portuguese and the locals and a fracas ensued. Though Da Gama was injured in the thigh by a spear, nobody died and the expedition still managed to careen their vessels nearby and fill up their water casks in the Berg River before departing.
It’s lunchtime when I take an amble around St Helena Bay harbour. I take Wilma’s advice and buy a parcel of hake and slap chips from the BP Marine shop and enjoy it on the quayside. I’m amazed how clean the harbour is and pleased to note how well this port seems to be run, a marvel in a country where so much seems to be on the verge of collapse.
On my way home the next day I make a serendipitous find. The West Coast Fossil Park announces itself to me just past Langebaanweg Air Force base. The new visitor centre opened in December 2017 and I learn an amazing amount about the 500-million years preceding my walking through its doors today.
It’s striking how the region’s climate, topography and fauna and flora have changed over this time — from lush forests to near desert — not to mention the evolution of mankind. Perhaps most memorable is the 117,000-year-old footprint of an anatomically modern human; the impressive short-necked giraffe (sivathere) installation, and exposure to many species I never knew existed: the African bear; a three-toed horse; a giant pig and a sabre-toothed cat that gives me primal shivers down my spine.
All going to show that mankind’s role in it all really is just a flash in the plan.
*The Milankovitch cycles refer to three phenomena (the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit around the sun; obliquity — the variation over time of the tilt of the earth’s axis, between 22.1° and 24.5° ; and precession, the direction in which the earth’s axis points) that singly and combined affect the long-term climate patterns over tens to hundreds of thousands of years. Most climate scientists agree that the current climate crisis has little to do with the present state of these cycles and is largely anthropogenic (caused by human activities).
Travel Adviser
Day 1 — Bot River to St Helena Bay: via Van der Stel Pass to Villiersdorp; Worcester; Ceres; Prince Alfred’s Hamlet; Op die Berg (last petrol for 210km); Cederberg Oasis; Uitkyk and Nieuwoudt’s passes; the R27 south for 8km before turning right at the Marcuskraal sign. Follow the bendy tar road for 8km until you come to a T-junction — turn right towards Clanwilliam. After 10km turn left at the T-junction, make your way down the Witelskloofpas and after 14km you will join the R365 to Lamberts Bay. Just outside Leipoldtville (2km) turn left for Elands Bay (20km). Head across the Verlorenvlei Bridge and make for the old crayfish factory, just past Elands Bay south. About 300m further on the left a dirt track will break off the railway service road and you will see the Elands Bay Cave above you.
From here to St Helena Bay: follow the railway service road until it joins the R27 (about 7km) and then ride through Velddrif to the R399 (southwest). After 10km you’ll come to the St Helena Bay turn-off — the town is about 15km further on.
Distance: 498km — 165km (33%) on dirt.
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