Where Mermaids Roam

The Cape, flanked by two oceans, the Atlantic and the Indian, attracts a stream of visitors annually. The east coast offers warmer waters and a scenery that is more lush, while the west coast, in contrast, is barren ... until spring, that is, when it suddenly comes to life in a blaze of colour as the famous wild flowers begin to bloom. Both coastlines are part of the whale route, with Hermanus, on the east coast and 90 minutes' drive from Cape Town, the most popular.

Closer to Cape Town lies Kalk Bay, a quaint little village wedged between the ocean and the mountains. Kalk Bay Harbour is today the only free line-fishing harbour in South Africa, which means fish is caught mostly by line, not nets, and is sold directly to the public on the wharf.

The village, (I call it that, but it seems like a small town) has a wonderful atmosphere, part old world and part new. There are quite a number of antique shops in Kalk Bay, and one gains the impression that the treasures found here were all garnered from the stately old mansions that climb up the slopes, and were perhaps sold off by old titled families forced to part with their heirlooms to avoid financial ruin. Why else would people sell such treasures, I wonder? Of course, it is a silly notion - but it is that kind of a place. The atmosphere is rarefied. On a good day, one might even imagine mermaids emerging from the foamy waters.

South Africa is a country of spectacular beauty and it is only natural that it should be a popular tourist destination. But there is another , less obvious reason, at least to those of us living here. I discovered this when I was having a glass of chilled white wine at the Ahoy Tavern in Paternoster. Paternoster is a tiny fishing village on the west coast. Nothing much happens here. The boats go out; they come back. And that's about it.

We tend to forget that in other parts of the world the water is less clean, the air less pure. And nowhere does the water seem cleaner, and the air purer, than along the west coast. And all along the coast you will find modest harbours, some of them no more than a narrow jetty, jutting out to the sea.

If you're staying over at one of the guesthouses along the way, ask the owner to prepare a picnic basket, and enjoy it anywhere on the beautiful, sandy coastline. Anywhere? Just about, yes.

But try the Langebaan lagoon. There's nothing like it, especially on a tranquil day because the lake is like a mirror and looks as though someone polished it. I took a stroll around the lake at dusk and did not see another soul. I remember stopping and turning around and being amazed that behind me lay only one set of footprints.

And the best bottle of white wine I ever had was years ago when hiking from Cape Town to Saldanha Bay. This was roughly five days' slogging away in thick sand, but just a mile or so away from Yzerfontein, where we halted for the day, someone produced a bottle of white wine which we chilled in the icy waters of the Atlantic. We enjoyed it in the dying light, just as the stars were beginning to brighten. Nothing has ever tasted better.

The next morningwaking to the sound of someone stoking a smoky fire and of fat frying, I saw, mirage-like in the early morning light, my hiking companion bending over the little fire and frying an ostrich egg. Of course, there's nothing like it. The smell of fresh ocean air mingling with that of woodsmoke.

Perhaps the breakfast was made more memorable because on that morning, in the tranquility of the bay, a whale gave birth to her calf. We saw first a torpid monster rising halfway out of the water. It seemed to stay like that for a long moment, before slipping away once more into the depths of the ocean. It was only later that one of the girls cried out, "She's given birth!" and we saw the tinier version, still huge if seen on its own but reduced to a speck, really, next to the bulk of its mother. I had never seen a whale before, or imagined that a birth could be so monumental.

The ideal way of enjoying a crawfish is to cook it yourself, on the beach. A little Cadac gas cooker will do fine. Crayfish are sold at the roadside for R25 a piece. And if you don't have a cool bag with ice, chill your white wine in the ice cold waters of the Atlantic. Somehow you will be experiencing the beauty of the west coast in a more tactile way.

If this is not your bag, there are a number of fine restaurants along the coast, but I would like to single out two, Die Strandloper at Langebaan and, further along at Lamberts Bay, Muisbosskerm. These are not restaurants in the accepted sense, but are rather more down-to-earth affairs, and right on the beach. Here you can enjoy seafood, including mussels, crayfish, and the freshest fish you've ever tasted - even the bread is baked in the oven before you, in the traditional way. You can feast on delicacies such as mussels, or linefish hauled from the ocean a few hours before, as your senses are lulled by the sound of the lazy waves lapping on the shore.

The days may be hot on the West Coast, but at night the icy Atlantic waters cool the shore very rapidly and often a blanket of mist settles on the coast. Take a jersey along. Or a blanket.

When the boats return around noon with their catch, you might hear the cry of a seal for the first time. It is a sound unlike anything you have ever heard, harsh and piercing and somehow despairing. Perhaps it is the thought of the sheer abundance of fish on board, of which he will be tossed only a few scraps that causes this imagined despair. Or you might hear a wild music emerging from the cold Atlantic mists, drifting in on the breeze as the cold air sweeps inland at dusk. It might be cormorants, or waders ... strung out across the sky and heading for Jakkals-river lake to roost.

Living in the city, we witness man's creations on a daily basis. We begin to entertain the notion of his greatness. But out here, under the huge fat skies, and next to the vast, empty ocean, the roads are thin and the villages tiny. It seems that, here, the proportion of man in relation to nature is more correct. This in itself is exhilarating.

Johan Liebenberg has had work published in many magazines, including Cosmopolitan and House & Leisure. He regularlytravels around the Cape coast from his home in Cape Town.

Published in Travel Africa Edition Four: Summer 1998. Text is subject to Worldwide Copyright (c)